16 Jul
1998
16 Jul
'98
8:07 a.m.
At 16:01 15-07-98 -0400, Chris Fandt wrote yesterday:
There are actually three boards I need to ID, the third
is possibly a tape
controller. Here's the rundown:
#1 A Q-bus dual width board made by DTC. Has a 50-pin header next to a
single ejector handle. All TTL chips, no LSI or CMOS devices. Two 8-section
DIP switches on board. Only markings are a FAB, ASSY, REV and S/N numbers.
The ASSY number is 007-00002.
Could this be a Q-bus SCSI board (I hope, I hope, I hope)? But there's no
CPU or ASIC, etc. onboard to handle DMA, SCSI device protocoll, etc. :( An
appropriate driver in conjunction with the OS would have to do this.
Two things I discovered that *may* help ID the DTC board:
1. An 8" floppy disk amongst about 120-130 of them found in the great
haul which has a hand-written label: "RT-11 DTC-11-1 To IOMEGA ALPHA
10.5 SCSI"
2. Based on findings in #1 and after seeing a post answering Megan's query
as to places to check out in Silicon Valley, I looking at the URL for the
suggested Wierdstuff and found a listing for of all things, an IOMEGA ALPHA
10H. (see: http://www.weirdstuff.com/html/drives.htm if you want to see
what older and/or "classic" drives they've got)
So, could this then be for sure a model DTC-11-1 SCSI (or even SASI)
module? (DTC has nothing on their website for Q-bus-anything.)
I'll call the contact person re this IOMEGA drive and see how much
Wierdstuff wants for it. There are about 15-20 10MB IOMEGA disks that I got
in the heap.
#2 A Q-bus quad width board of unknown manufacture. Two 50-pin headers at
handle-edge of board. A marking on the component side says it's a "Q
BUS/LEXID INT." with a number 77D609871P1 under it. A number stamped on the
backside is "GE77D609871G1" with "SER NO- 44" under it. Those part
numbers
look like old GE part numbers. Did General Electric make any equipment for
the DEC world?
Still have nothing on this board. Could it be an OEM module of some sort?
Someday, later this winter, I'll do one of my complete reverse-engineerings
of this thing (like good old Tony D. does also) and try to see what it's
about.
Hey! If it's Unibus and if it is useable as simply a digital I/O interface
module, then I'll use my 11/34A as the host in the Home Security and
Environmental Control System that I'm brainstorming! (Well, gotta have
some fun anyway. Better than the 8052 microcontroller chip-based thing I
was planning to use.) <g> [Okay, joke-mode is off now... ]
#3 This is what I feel is an Archive tape controller. It has "ARCHIVE
CORP. Copyright 1983" silk screened onto the component side. No other
numbers on the silk screen, dang it. It is 5.5" x 7.75" with a 50-pin edge
connector (marked "J1") on one 5.5" end and a 50-pin header (marked
"J3")
at the other end. "J2" is a 4-pin recepticle which is the same as the power
connector on a 5.25" floppy or hard drive and is on the edge connector-end
of the board. The EPROM label has 80182-010 on it. Has an 8031
microcontroller chip, an 8155 and an Archive LCC ASIC plus a bunch of TTL
and one small CMOS RAM chip (Mitsubishi M5M2167P-70). Other numbers found
on the board seem to be component part numbers however there is a
hand-written number on the solder side which is 80158-013/A. Could this be
an important identifying number?
Archive is basically dead in that they have been absorbed by the
Conner/Seagate mess and probably no legacy info had been carried onward :(
So, I'm still looking to confirm this thing.
I want to try to identify these boards to see if theyt are useable in the
systems I'm keeping, especially item #1.
Thanks for the help.
--Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/