15 Oct
2020
15 Oct
'20
6:29 a.m.
Hey all,
I got this (currently exploded) mystery RAM, RTC, and I/O board out of
a dead Sanyo luggable the other night, and once I replace the burned
up tantalums I'd like to put it in my 5150 so I can get a full 640k of
RAM.
Question is, does anyone know what this board is? It's a completely
anonymous board with not even an FCC ID to go off of. I'm assuming the
RAM is at least strapped right; all the banks are full which should be
384k, and the Sanyo was a 256k machine = 640k.
Here's a couple pictures; one's an actual picture of the card and the
other is a simplified TULARC/TH99-esque vector of what's on the board.
https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png
15 Oct
15 Oct
4:55 p.m.
Well, it looks like one of those memory/multi-IO/clock boards like the AST RAMPACK+. I
would take a look at this site (which you might already know):
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/memory-cards/index.html
When I was looking for jumpers, etc., for both the AboveBoard AT and BOCARAM I have, I
started here. Maybe if you browse the links, something will pop-up. I know that these
boards often have special drivers for expanded memory; extended memory should just
"show up". I would hope that the other ports/devices (clock, parallel, serial
and game) are at standard PC addresses.
Rich
?On 10/15/20, 6:59 PM, "cctalk on behalf of Sean Ellis via cctalk"
<cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org on behalf of cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hey all,
I got this (currently exploded) mystery RAM, RTC, and I/O board out of
a dead Sanyo luggable the other night, and once I replace the burned
up tantalums I'd like to put it in my 5150 so I can get a full 640k of
RAM.
Question is, does anyone know what this board is? It's a completely
anonymous board with not even an FCC ID to go off of. I'm assuming the
RAM is at least strapped right; all the banks are full which should be
384k, and the Sanyo was a 256k machine = 640k.
Here's a couple pictures; one's an actual picture of the card and the
other is a simplified TULARC/TH99-esque vector of what's on the board.
https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png
5:28 p.m.
On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Richard Cini via cctalk wrote:
Well, it looks like one of those memory/multi-IO/clock
boards like the AST RAMPACK+. I would take a look at this site (which you might already
know):
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/memory-cards/index.html
When I was looking for jumpers, etc., for both the AboveBoard AT and BOCARAM I have, I
started here. Maybe if you browse the links, something will pop-up. I know that these
boards often have special drivers for expanded memory; extended memory should just
"show up". I would hope that the other ports/devices (clock, parallel, serial
and game) are at standard PC addresses.
For an 8 bit multi-function card of that era, there would be hard switches
for memory starting address (NO "Extended" nor "Expanded" RAM), and,
since
the 5150 supported multiple parallel and serial ports, switches for
identifying which ones of those they would be.
If you plug it into a 256K PC, with no serial and parallel, . . . \
The RAM is PROBABLY set to start at 256K.
If there are no other serial and parallel ports, then various diagnostic
programs will tell you whether the parallel is LPT1, LPT2, ...
and the serial as COM1, COM2, ...
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
5:35 p.m.
Good point, Fred. My frame of reference was the AT, which is the machine for which I had
to hunt down the software.
?On 10/15/20, 8:28 PM, "cctalk on behalf of Fred Cisin via cctalk"
<cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org on behalf of cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Richard Cini via cctalk wrote:
Well, it looks like one of those memory/multi-IO/clock
boards like the AST RAMPACK+. I would take a look at this site (which you might already
know):
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/memory-cards/index.html
When I was looking for jumpers, etc., for both the AboveBoard AT and BOCARAM I have, I
started here. Maybe if you browse the links, something will pop-up. I know that these
boards often have special drivers for expanded memory; extended memory should just
"show up". I would hope that the other ports/devices (clock, parallel, serial
and game) are at standard PC addresses.
For an 8 bit multi-function card of that era, there would be hard switches
for memory starting address (NO "Extended" nor "Expanded" RAM),
and, since
the 5150 supported multiple parallel and serial ports, switches for
identifying which ones of those they would be.
If you plug it into a 256K PC, with no serial and parallel, . . . \
The RAM is PROBABLY set to start at 256K.
If there are no other serial and parallel ports, then various diagnostic
programs will tell you whether the parallel is LPT1, LPT2, ...
and the serial as COM1, COM2, ...
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
16 Oct
16 Oct
4:46 a.m.
On 10/15/2020 6:55 PM Richard Cini via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Well, it looks like one of those memory/multi-IO/clock boards like the AST RAMPACK+. I
would take a look at this site (which you might already know):
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/memory-cards/index.html
When I was looking for jumpers, etc., for both the AboveBoard AT and BOCARAM I have, I
started here. Maybe if you browse the links, something will pop-up. I know that these
boards often have special drivers for expanded memory; extended memory should just
"show up". I would hope that the other ports/devices (clock, parallel, serial
and game) are at standard PC addresses.
Rich
On 10/15/20, 6:59 PM, "cctalk on behalf of Sean Ellis via cctalk"
<cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org on behalf of cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
Hey all,
I got this (currently exploded) mystery RAM, RTC, and I/O board out of
a dead Sanyo luggable the other night, and once I replace the burned
up tantalums I'd like to put it in my 5150 so I can get a full 640k of
RAM.
In the mid 80s I was the service department of a pretty busy mom and pop computer store. I
installed a LOT of boards like that as well as many others. They were mostly generic and
would come with all sorts of brand names. What I found was that if two boards from
different suppliers and different brand names looked identical, they most likely were. I
would often see the exact same board sold in various ways, from generic no-name to well
known brand names with maybe 3 to 1 price variation, but the boards were exactly the same.
So, having said that, if you find one that looks identical, it probably is. But as someone
(Fred?) mentioned, they are pretty generic as far as memory and printer/com ports go.
Typically the only difference was the clock since that was not "standard" on the
PC and PC/XT. There were quite a few device drivers for the clocks. Sometimes, but not
always, a driver for one board that used the same chip would work on another if they were
located at the same I/O address.
I would look for any board that looks identical, even "brand names", in search
of clock info and drivers.
HTH,
Will
15 Oct
15 Oct
5:06 p.m.
On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Sean Ellis via cctalk wrote:
I got this (currently exploded) mystery RAM, RTC, and
I/O board out of
a dead Sanyo luggable the other night, and once I replace the burned
up tantalums I'd like to put it in my 5150 so I can get a full 640k of
RAM.
Question is, does anyone know what this board is? It's a completely
anonymous board with not even an FCC ID to go off of. I'm assuming the
RAM is at least strapped right; all the banks are full which should be
384k, and the Sanyo was a 256k machine = 640k.
Here's a couple pictures; one's an actual picture of the card and the
other is a simplified TULARC/TH99-esque vector of what's on the board.
https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png
It resembles, although doesn't match, the AST Six-Pack.
But the AST Six-pack had a clock circuit.
5:34 p.m.
On Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 5:24 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Sean Ellis via cctalk wrote:
Isn't the 24-pin DIP part MM58167? shown in the images referenced above a
RTC chip?
I got this (currently exploded) mystery RAM, RTC,
and I/O board out of
a dead Sanyo luggable the other night, and once I replace the burned
up tantalums I'd like to put it in my 5150 so I can get a full 640k of
RAM.
Question is, does anyone know what this board is? It's a completely
anonymous board with not even an FCC ID to go off of. I'm assuming the
RAM is at least strapped right; all the banks are full which should be
384k, and the Sanyo was a 256k machine = 640k.
Here's a couple pictures; one's an actual picture of the card and the
other is a simplified TULARC/TH99-esque vector of what's on the board.
https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png
It resembles, although doesn't match, the AST Six-Pack.
But the AST Six-pack had a clock circuit.
6:02 p.m.
>> https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg
>> https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png
> It resembles, although doesn't match, the AST Six-Pack.
> But the AST Six-pack had a clock circuit.
On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Glen Slick via
cctalk wrote:
Isn't the 24-pin DIP part MM58167? shown in the
images referenced above a
RTC chip?
Which would make it VERY similar, but not direct copy of the ST Six-pack
(the AST uses a coin cell battery, and many parts are slightly moved
around.
Q: What are the SIX functions of the AST Six-Pack?
A: RAM
serial
parallel
joystick
Q: That's FOUR, not SIX
A: RAMDISK, Print Spooler.
6:13 p.m.
looks simlar to a card used in a ge workmaster for ge faunic plc stuff
On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 8:09 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
wrote:
>>
https://i.imgur.com/WhO4cco.jpg
>> https://i.imgur.com/uBCkv5G.png
> It resembles, although doesn't match, the AST Six-Pack.
> But the AST Six-pack had a clock circuit.
On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, Glen Slick via
cctalk wrote:
Isn't the 24-pin DIP part MM58167? shown in
the images referenced above a
RTC chip?
Which would make it VERY similar, but not direct copy of the ST Six-pack
(the AST uses a coin cell battery, and many parts are slightly moved
around.
Q: What are the SIX functions of the AST Six-Pack?
A: RAM
serial
parallel
joystick
Q: That's FOUR, not SIX
A: RAMDISK, Print Spooler.
1311
days inactive
1312
days old
8 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
glen.slick＠gmail.com -
rich.cini＠verizon.net -
seanellis9＠gmail.com -
tdk.knight＠gmail.com -
wrcooke＠wrcooke.net