DG Nova 4

G'day Erik - Congratulations on your Nova 4 "save"! Having worked with DG equipment for about 31+ years here are some "Quick answers": The Nova 4 and and Nova 3 CPU cards are not compatible, but most of the I/O cards are. There are two main I/O daisey chain signals on a standard Nova/Eclipse backplane - interrupt priority in/out and data channel request in/out - and they usually should be jumpered across unused slots if other I/O cards exist higher in the chassis. Those don't sound like standard DG I/O card numbers: I believe that the DG board part numbers usually start with 005-xxxx-xx. I would have to research that. DG put its 15" x 15" card numbers along the "front" reinforcement bar, that part of the card just opposite the finger contacts and directly between the two extraction handles. There were usually a series of three numbers on the bar. The Nova 4 came in two standard physical configurations and sold/marketed as three subprocessor "types" (Nova 4/C, 4/S and 4/X) - each different than the others only in four (4) PROM chips. There was quite an aftermarket for PROM burner as these four chips cost a minimum of $1,500 from DG (when $1,500 was 'real' money). There is a picture of the front of the Nova 4 at http://www.SimuLogics.com/nostalgia.htm. BTW, the DG Eclipse S/140 and subsequent S/280 were virtually identical pieces of hardware since they used the same microprogramming core, only PROM was different. They also sold ERCC memory with the Eclipse as a market positioning strategy (i.e. maximum client $ extraction mechanism). BTW, Medtronics still uses Nova derivitives called "Strobe Hawk" boards which are Nova-like co-processors that fit into a PC's ISA slot. The Nova on the board does all the processing and then requestion all I/O through a TSR on the PC (egad!). We are currently working with Medtronic to replace their hardware with our commercial software product (ReNOVAte) as described at www.SimuLogics.com. A free version of our Nova emulator that is written in Java is also available at that site. We are also trying to preserve all DG 16-bit software, hardware and documentation and are actively working with EMC, DG, TLC and other companies in this respect. And yes, Carl Friend is an exellent [re]source of additional information Bruce ----- Original Message ----- From: "ip500" <ip500(a)home.com> To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2000 6:31 AM Subject: Re: DG Nova 4