DIAB DS-90

I went to the junk yard today again. They obviously don't like my intrusion (well, they wouldn't notice mine, since I clean up after going through their stuff, but some others are not as discrete...), because they had welded a mesh of iron bars in the opening in the fence. Not that it would stop us, we still managed to bring a 20", a 17" and a 14" monitor out, along with all sorts of junk. I didn't catch much this time, though. The most interesting items were a 9->15 pin VGA cable, and a pretty folder describing the advanced comfort of the Philips VCR system. =) Well, you can't be lucky each day, can you? Guess again! After coming home, I was hungry and thought I'd take a walk to the 7-Eleven, when I noticed that a skip some blocks from home contained a light table. I proceeded to investigate, when I found below the table a big box with an amazing number of TTY ports. After dragging it out, I was in for a surprise - it was a DIAB DS90-20! According to my investigations, this should be a VME-based 68020 multiuser system, running DNIX, a System III or System V version. Its predecessor DS90- 00 was also known as the Luxor ABC-9000, running ABCnix. =) The forty TTY ports on the back are sealed, so I couldn't find any I/O at all, until I found the the panel with the TTY ports would swing back to reveal blanking plates for a number of cards. I think the system has got four TTY ports, but they're not standard DB25 ports, but D15 ones. Our Tandberg terminal has got a D15 port in addition to its DB25, could these be compatible. I think the Tandberg's D15 was listed as being a V.something port. In addition to the TTY ports, there's a DIN-4 (?) port and an AC inlet. The system is turned on, off and reset with a key, which fortunately was still in the machine's lock. There's also a CEN-50, which leads me to believe that it's either got SCSI or some queer MFM controller. I'll have to pay a visit to the company which threw the machine out in order to see whether they kept any accessories or documentation. The entire system reminds me of a Stride - big bulking tower, streamer and 5? FDD, lots of TTYs, VME, m68k, AT&T licence. More info tomorrow when I'll try to power it on. UPDATE: I opened it up today, and could examine it in daylight. It is a SCSI based system, with a 140 MB full-height Maxtor drive from 1987. Opening it up is a pleasure. The side panels are removed with some firm force, then you loosen two screws and swing out panels, one of which contains the motherboard. The mobo contains a 68450 (some m68k peripheral circuit IIRC), a 68020 CPU, a 68581 MMU and a 68881 FPU. And a whole lot of other things, including some Zilog chips which I presume contain the SCSI controller. SCSI is good, that means that it may be easily backed up before I start toying with the OS. The machine is running right now. The HD is a bit on the noisy side, but I suppose it could be replaced. The mobo is also fitted with several VME slots, one of which extends into a cardcage containing three VME slots and four "DB" slots. The DB slots use a connector similar to the VME, but with only two rows of pins/sockets, and the cards are only half the height of a Europa card. Reminds me somewhat of the ABC-bus. There are also two plates for mounting additional TTYs to the four ones of the motherboard. Don't ask me where they connect. Might I add that this looks like an ideal target architecture for NetBSD? Now, if it only had Ethernet, like later models did... -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6a. G? med i SUGA, Swedish Usergroup of Amiga! WWW: http://swedish.usergroup.amiga.tm/ BBS: 08-6582572, telnet://sua.ath.cx:42512