begging drivers/docs for obscure old PC/Mac hardware

[Sean Caron]

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
>
>