10 Feb
2015
10 Feb
'15
4:28 a.m.
Folks;
Over time, I have accreted some assorted unusual hardware for PC and Macintosh, for which
I lack the software to drive it. I know we have some terrific packrats on the list, so
I'm shaking the tree, to see what might fall out.
* DuPont Imaging Systems MacBlitz NuBus RISC processor. Apparently this is a Clipper CPU
which runs UNIX independently of the host Macintosh, with IPC of some description. Has its
own ethernet and SCSI interfaces. The Googles know almost nothing about this.
* Vermont Microsystems Image Manager 1024 (IM-1024) 1024x800 PGC-compatible display
adapter.
Supposedly there were AutoCAD, GEM, Windows 1.x and 2.x drivers at one time. I'd love
to see any of them.
* Matrox "Space Machine" SM-1280 solid modeling graphics adapter. I'm not
sure what kind of drivers were available; possibly it was just a set of development
libraries for programming the board yourself.
* Matrox PG-1280 (and/or the Microchannel equivalent MC-1281) graphics accelerator.
I'd love to see any DOS-era PC drivers, or the PRPQ that let this board work under AIX
on an RT. Somebody on the VC Forum thought he had these installed on a running system, but
I never heard any further news.
* Hercules Chrome TIGA (40 MHz TMS-34020) graphics accelerator. I have a Windows 3.1
driver for this, but I'm not sure the card is set up correctly. Mainly looking for
documentation here.
* IBM 5364 S/36 PC SSP, MCODE, and/or DOS host software. Somebody on the list kindly sent
me a disk image of just enough of the DOS host software to prove my 5364 runs, but
it's not a complete install and is missing some features I wanted to enable (keyboard
maps mainly, IIRC). In addition, without the MCODE floppies the system can't be
reconfigured for the various communications options (bisync, SDLC, etc.) my host PC has
installed.
Shoot, I thought there was something else, too. I guess I'll think of it eventually.
Anyone?
ok
bear.
--
until further notice
10 Feb
10 Feb
4:33 p.m.
On 10 February 2015 at 09:28, r.stricklin <bear at typewritten.org> wrote:
Folks;
Over time, I have accreted some assorted unusual hardware for PC and
Macintosh, for which I lack the software to drive it. I know we have some
terrific packrats on the list, so I'm shaking the tree, to see what might
fall out.
<snip>
* Vermont Microsystems Image Manager 1024 (IM-1024) 1024x800
PGC-compatible display adapter.
Supposedly there were AutoCAD, GEM, Windows 1.x and 2.x drivers at one
time. I'd love to see any of them.
I have an IM-1024 board. It came with two disks that may be what you are
looking for. The disks are hand-labelled as:
"ROOT DIRECTORY FOR RUNNING AUTOCAD V10 WITH VERMONT GRAPHICS ADAPTER"
and
"IM1024 COBRA (8BIT) UTILITIES DRIVER DISKETTE *DIAGS *IMDOS *VMDOS
*AUTOCAD9.x *AUTOCAD10.x *CADVANCE *CGI *CV *PCAP *VERSACAD *VDI *WIN286
VERSION 2.06 A0100x1"
I don't have access to a working 3.5" disk drive at the moment, but give me
a few days and I will make images available.
-- Philip
4:51 p.m.
I actually have an old MacUser or Macworld magazine that briefly mentions
the MacBlitz just in the context of some silly article where they tried to
build the most expensive Mac system possible by fitting all these obscure
and expensive options... it might quote a list price (if you were curious?)
but beyond that, your description here was more revealing than anything
they wrote in Macworld or MacUser.
It's very interesting to hear that the board was based on the Clipper CPU,
of all things. I wonder if it ran as a stand-alone computer with a separate
operating system image (like a MacIvory, or an Orange Micro card) or if it
was just used as an applications accelerator like those NuBus DSP cards
they used to sell. Even in lieu of any software, I think the board will
make a neat little piece of RISC ephemera. I used to have a few Intergraph
2400 systems myself... wish I had saved a CPU module before they got
binned. You don't see many examples of the Clipper around anymore.
Best,
Sean
On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 4:28 AM, r.stricklin <bear at typewritten.org> wrote:
Folks;
Over time, I have accreted some assorted unusual hardware for PC and
Macintosh, for which I lack the software to drive it. I know we have some
terrific packrats on the list, so I'm shaking the tree, to see what might
fall out.
* DuPont Imaging Systems MacBlitz NuBus RISC processor. Apparently this is
a Clipper CPU which runs UNIX independently of the host Macintosh, with IPC
of some description. Has its own ethernet and SCSI interfaces. The Googles
know almost nothing about this.
* Vermont Microsystems Image Manager 1024 (IM-1024) 1024x800
PGC-compatible display adapter.
Supposedly there were AutoCAD, GEM, Windows 1.x and 2.x drivers at one
time. I'd love to see any of them.
* Matrox "Space Machine" SM-1280 solid modeling graphics adapter. I'm not
sure what kind of drivers were available; possibly it was just a set of
development libraries for programming the board yourself.
* Matrox PG-1280 (and/or the Microchannel equivalent MC-1281) graphics
accelerator. I'd love to see any DOS-era PC drivers, or the PRPQ that let
this board work under AIX on an RT. Somebody on the VC Forum thought he had
these installed on a running system, but I never heard any further news.
* Hercules Chrome TIGA (40 MHz TMS-34020) graphics accelerator. I have a
Windows 3.1 driver for this, but I'm not sure the card is set up correctly.
Mainly looking for documentation here.
* IBM 5364 S/36 PC SSP, MCODE, and/or DOS host software. Somebody on the
list kindly sent me a disk image of just enough of the DOS host software to
prove my 5364 runs, but it's not a complete install and is missing some
features I wanted to enable (keyboard maps mainly, IIRC). In addition,
without the MCODE floppies the system can't be reconfigured for the various
communications options (bisync, SDLC, etc.) my host PC has installed.
Shoot, I thought there was something else, too. I guess I'll think of it
eventually.
Anyone?
ok
bear.
--
until further notice
3445
days inactive
3445
days old
2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
bear＠typewritten.org -
philip＠philip-searle.me.uk -
scaron＠umich.edu