21 Mar
1998
21 Mar
'98
12:02 a.m.
I picked up a board at a Hamfest last summer, and I still don't know what
the heck it is. It may not even be computer related - might come from a
photocopier or something. :)
The board measures about 7.75" in length, and a little over 3" high. Its
slot connector has 72 pins, measuring a bit more than 3.5" in length.
It LOOKS like it could be RAM, but it's not like anything I've seen
elsewhere.
There are 16 long "plates" of what seems to be some kind of ceramic
material, each with four chips embedded in them, two to each side. The
"plates" measure over 2" in length, are notched at one end, and are marked
"125B", "886-2".
The chips that are embedded in the plates are marked "-607-2", with
varying numbers beneath (e.g. "01386 34", "04836 77"). They appear
to
have 30 pins each, with 10 pins on each 'long' side and 5 pins at each
end. All pins come out the bottom of the chips rather than the sides as
on DIPs.
There are some other chips on the board, three of which (20-pin) are
labeled:
AM2966PC
WP90101L1 8546DMP
There are seven 16-pin chips labeled:
WE
63S 1
11085 74
And another 16-pin chip labeled:
WE
63S 1
12685 77
There is a yellow bar-code sticker on one end of the board which reads
"860C03900901".
There's a stamp in the middle reading "ATP221".
On the back side of the board is "844292540 AM 2 CM192B".
I've probably gone overboard with the discription, but I don't know what
info is relevant to identifying this thing. The guy I bought it from
clearly didn't know what he was selling (but I asked anyway). I bought it
with a bunch of old PC cards filled with old RAM chips I may need someday.
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
21 Mar
21 Mar
3:11 a.m.
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11:25 p.m.
On Sat, 21 Mar 1998, Tim Shoppa wrote:
> I picked up a board at a Hamfest last summer, and
I still don't know what
> the heck it is. It may not even be computer related - might come from a
> photocopier or something. :)
<snip>
It sounds like a board from a telephone switch.
(Especially the "125B"
label and the Western Electric chips.). I'd guess from 1985, based on
what I assume are the date codes.
Interesting. I wonder how it ended up in a box of ISA cards (and one
S-100 bussboard)? :)
Please forgive my ignorance (and the potential off-topic repurcussions),
but could this board's function be what it appears to be? (i.e. RAM) And
if so, what use is that in a telephone switch? And could the switch be
used to do any computing? ;)
Tim. (shoppa(a)triumf.ca)
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
11:46 p.m.
On Sun, 22 Mar 1998, Doug Spence wrote:
Phone systems are, in effect, special purpose computers. They have a
processor, programming, and RAM to store the database during run-time. The
database will have the details of the phone system, such as the extension
number of each phone, the class-of-service for each phone, etc. The phone
systems I'm most familiar with (Siemens Saturn) have anywhere from half a
meg to 1meg of memory to store the database. A lot of times, the database
is loaded off of floppies (Saturns use 8" and 5.25" floppies, others use
3.5" drives and even hard disks).
I have an AT&T Horizon phone system (circa late 70s) which is significant
in the history of telephone systems as it was the first "key" system. It
uses an Intel 8008 processor. The switch I've been working with for a
while now (Cortelco Millenium) is based on an Intel 80286 and uses static
RAM to store its programming. Some interface cards, such as the T1/E1
interface, have their own 8088 processors to off-load the protocol
processing from the main system processor. So its in effect sort of a
parallel processing computer.
You can ask me more specific questions in e-mail if you'd like more
information.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
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It sounds like
a board from a telephone switch. (Especially the "125B"
label and the Western Electric chips.). I'd guess from 1985, based on
what I assume are the date codes.
Interesting. I wonder how it ended up in a box of ISA cards (and one
S-100 bussboard)? :)
Please forgive my ignorance (and the potential off-topic repurcussions),
but could this board's function be what it appears to be? (i.e. RAM) And
if so, what use is that in a telephone switch? And could the switch be
used to do any computing? ;) 
22 Mar
22 Mar
5:22 a.m.
At 05:25 AM 3/22/98 -0500, you wrote:
On Sat, 21 Mar 1998, Tim Shoppa wrote:
<snip>
Well... when you consider that for a number of years now that AT&T phone
switches have been UNIX based systems... The connections are not that far
fetched.
Even most of the small office switches are microprocessor controlled (an
AT&T 'Merlin' switch system that I am currently installing is 68000 based
if I recall correctly).
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
It sounds like a board from a telephone switch.
(Especially the "125B"
label and the Western Electric chips.). I'd guess from 1985, based on
what I assume are the date codes.
Interesting. I wonder how it ended up in a box of ISA cards (and one
S-100 bussboard)? :)
Please forgive my ignorance (and the potential off-topic repurcussions),
but could this board's function be what it appears to be? (i.e. RAM) And
if so, what use is that in a telephone switch? And could the switch be
used to do any computing? ;)
9620
days inactive
9621
days old
4 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
dastar＠wco.com -
ds_spenc＠alcor.concordia.ca -
jimw＠agora.rdrop.com -
shoppa＠alph02.triumf.ca