14 Jul
1997
14 Jul
'97
9:24 p.m.
In message <Pine.SUN.3.91.970714101129.4470B-100000(a)crl5.crl.com>
classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu writes:
I saw an interesting relic in the thrift store the other day...and IBM PC
"Expansion Chassis" (I believe that's what it was called). It was
basically an IBM PC case with two full height hard drives instead of
floppy drives. It's model number was 5161 (if I recall correctly).
Didn't bother with it, even though it is kinda unique.
Ah yes, the 5161...
It is/was a device for adding 6 more slots to a PC, PC/XT or Portable-PC
(basically any of the 8-bit bus system). The 5161 itself was a PC/XT cabinet
with an 8-slot passive backplane (OK, there was a 14.? MHz oscillator in
there) and a standard PSU. There were a pair of cards (the 'extender' and the
'receiver') and a 62 pin cable that linked them. You put the extender into one
slot of the 'host' system, the 'receiver' into the passive backplane, and
linked
them together. You could put I/O or memory cards (although not graphics cards
AFAIK) into the remaining slots of the 5161.
One problem with buying one of these second-hand is that the extender card (and
often the cable) is almost always missing - it's been left in the host. And that
card is difficult to find.
Schematics, etc are in Volume one of the Options and Adapters TechRef.
Sam
-tony