20 Mar
2002
20 Mar
'02
1:49 a.m.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
As for the TI 980B, with the exception of the very
scary, undocumented,
rack-mounted 2-square-feet of prototyping board that was cabled into
the DMA slot, it looks very clean. I have no idea what this peripheal
was supposed to do, and since it was stored at a high-school electronics
shop (which is being cleaned out this year which is how I got the TI
in the first place), it's covered in bent pins and broken wires. I also
know there are several missing chips (they came in the bottom of the
box - some jumper blocks with jumper resistors and a few 74181s, at least).
I doubt I'll ever be able to discern what this homemade peripheral ever
did, so I expect to photograph it and recycle the chips into other
classic machines (there's some Motorola RTL chips on there! Perfect
for my attempts to replicate a DEC W706/W707 if I ever get that far).
If I can get my camera happy making closeups, I'll see about adding some
pictures of the CPU and memory boards to the pic of the front panel.
You've got me curious now. A comprehensive set of shots are definitely
in order. I'm also getting a heavy vibe that you shouldn't go plundering
the board without determining what it does, who built it, and why,
first. Just a feeling that whoever built it may be wondering what became
of it and might be willing to underwrite a lot of component purchases in
order to reacquire it.
It's always a possibility with a one-off or prototype like this. Dunno
why I'm getting such a strong feeling in this case, but I am. Maybe I'm
wrong, but I wouldn't go stripping that board just yet, if it were me.
Thanks for the update and the pic.
jbdigriz