Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2018, 06:02:08 pm
content: Feel free to post pictures of your oddball vintage IBM PC/XT/AT compatible cards.To get started, this is an old IRMA board used to interface the PCXT with an IBM 3270.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irma_board

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2018, 06:04:55 pm
content: For you early network people, here is a Proteon ProNET-4 board for the AT.http://www.historyofcomputercommunications.info/Book/12/12.22_Proteon.html

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2018, 06:11:36 pm
content: A couple of videos showing my old PC/AT powering up with some of my own hardware and doing some speech recognition for the fun of it. Life was simple in those days.https://youtu.be/Ju96T2SPcMAhttps://youtu.be/N85dGIrcT5E

author: Calambres
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2018, 06:49:30 pm
content: I dearly remember those IRMA ISA cards. I once fiddled with them back in early eighties to connect IBM PCs with mainframes using 3270 protocol. Later, IBM developed its own 3270 emulation card in their PC-3270 (5271) computers.I think I still have one of those 3270 cards somewhere at home.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 01:12:00 am
content: At one time I bought a Sony 21" Trinitron. It has a serial port on the monitor so you could control it with the PC. It took up the desk. I bought the Media Vision ProGraphics 1280 card to drive it.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 01:46:01 am
content: Very nice pictures, thanks! The Proteon and MV cards are both rare and historically significant (Proteon was a very influential network company, although 3Com has been more recognized because it still exists; the Media Vision card was designed by ex-Silicon Graphics engineers working at a startup calledPellucid, that later splintered into both NVidia and 3Dfx). Interesting about the MV card is that it has separate 1280x1024 and VGA pipelines: the Cirrus GD-5401 and Brooktree DAC are for VGA only (and can be completely disabled with the jumper!), and the TI-fabbed MV451 gate-array and three DAC chips are for high-resolution mode. The MV451 was originally designed by Pellucid for a MIPS NT workstation.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 01:48:50 am
content: Thanks for creating this thread, nice photos.Have a Targa and 5250 cards tucked somewhere, need to dig it out.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 02:45:17 am
content: Oops, here was the recognition software I wrote running on the AT with my custom hardware.https://youtu.be/pnkUPFOw_Yo?t=178

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 02:48:32 am
content: My old BYAD CPM card running in my IBM PC.https://youtu.be/SbYcjrezJHs

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 01:50:43 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 09, 2018, 02:48:32 amWhaaa? You didn't want to go with the CP/M-86 option? I can't figure out why...

author: dexters_lab
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 09, 2018, 02:44:31 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 09, 2018, 01:12:00 ami say, that's a rather gratuitous three dac shot there!i think the first decent video card i bought was a Genoa Phantom based on the venerable Tseng Labs ET-4000 (what a classic that chipset was!), i am sure it was a VLB card.As for 8 and 16 bit ISA cards, i checked i don't have a single one now!

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 02:21:45 am
content: Quote from: dexters_lab on February 09, 2018, 02:44:31 pmI remember them well, along with Trident. I think the most memorable aspect of old computers (and my childhood) is the good old fade-out of the "Energy Star" logo on boot.Here are a few select specimens from my collection:

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 06:29:47 am
content: mmmm VLBThis is the card in my 486 (not my picture)Beautiful card, works very well for the price. Mine is upgraded to 2MB, and in some respects outperforms my Mach64GX (in image quality mostly). It's a later VLB graphics card, almost everything on one chip.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 08:03:55 am
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on February 10, 2018, 06:29:47 amI'm in two minds about VLB (VESA Local Bus).Personally, I never bothered, for two reasons. Firstly, it put quite a bit of mechanical stress on motherboards if you were inserting them inside a case, even with all the stand-offs fitted. These days, I'd be *very* wary about shoving one of these cards into a slot on old boards, you'll be sure to fracture a solder joint or two.Secondly, you wouldn't think of using VLB on anything other than a 486 machine (as long as it had a front-side bus of more than 33MHz). VLB ran at whatever speed the FSB of the CPU was, while PCI initially came in at 33 MHz. Also, conflicts between VLB cards and other I/O cards weren't uncommon.That being said if all you had was VLB (no PCI) and your 486 processor was decent, yes it had its advantages but bigger was not always better.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 10, 2018, 03:42:42 pm
content: Actually, I have found the force needed to insert them on my board isn't all too much. Connection issues have also never really been an issue for me.In terms of weight, they are still WAY lighter than modern cards, and I have no doubts about VLB's ability to hold them in right.As for FSB, my 486 has a 40mhz FSB, so it runs faster than PCI.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 03:10:57 am
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 06, 2018, 06:02:08 pmToo many memories... I might have one oddball or another, but most went to the trash over the years. The most unique I used to use was a four channel Caller ID ISA card we designed in early 90's; a beast with four 8051's and four hybrids for POTS interface and all discrete logic ('LS373s). I wish I had a picture...Quote from: Halcyon on February 10, 2018, 08:03:55 amYou are too kind...With the mechanical tolerances of the generic desktop cases of the time, VLB put a lot of stress in most of the PCs I assembled at the time. I recall when folks reported the mouse leaving marks on the screen due to flaky contacts on the bus.Quote from: Halcyon on February 10, 2018, 08:03:55 amCertainly, but IIRC VLB came before PCI was mainstream on the home PC. It was the only alternative to differentiate yourself from the ISA video boards and the ultra-performing ATI All-In-Wonder ISA cards - most 486DX2/66MHz greatly benefited from it.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 04:55:20 am
content: I have a couple of high end professional PCI video cards somewhere, late 90s to very early 2000's I think. Much newer than most of the stuff posted here but still old and somewhat exotic. I should dig them out and take some pictures.

author: dexters_lab
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 10:30:06 am
content: Quote from: rsjsouza on February 11, 2018, 03:10:57 amindeed... VLB was a cheap, quick, short term stop-gap, so much was getting crippled by the 16 bit isa bus it was well needed but flawed

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 06:34:29 pm
content: I had a Diamond VLB card in an old 486 motherboard. The internet, everything is there in a quick search:http://www.motherboards.org/files/manuals/47/486vs8a.pdfBack in those days I kept notes for each PC and how they were setup. Guessing most of you did the same thing. I have attached my notes for those interested. I wrote some assembler code back then to adjust the Cyrix's registers to try and improve it's performance.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 06:51:43 pm
content: I got an old Boca research Bocaram card, which was an early memory expansion board, though it was in a 16 bit ISA card. Also somewhere is a hard drive cache card, which promised a faster read and write performance on IDE drives.

author: orin
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 08:51:58 pm
content: Here is an old EPROM programmer... I wonder if I can still find the software.

author: G0HZU
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 09:15:53 pm
content: I've still got an old half slot ISA GPIB card (National Instruments) that has been in most of my older PCs. I think it is 1980s vintage. I haven't used it for many years but it probably still works.The only other 'interesting' card I've got is from about 1997 and that's an old Voodoo2 12Mb graphics card. Still in the box as new (with all the paperwork) as I only used it for a few months before upgrading. I played GLQuake with it a few times and then upgraded. I've got a few old ISA 56k modem cards and also an ancient ISA serial port card in the loft somewhere but that's about it.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 09:16:57 pm
content: Quote from: orin on February 11, 2018, 08:51:58 pmhttp://matthieu.benoit.free.fr/Circuit_Cellar_serial_programmer.htm

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 09:59:14 pm
content: This is an Intel brand expansion board for the IBM XT. You would gain an extra printer, serial port, real time clock and more memory than you could ever use. Back then mostly I remember those Six Packs and Six Pack Plus cards with the PCs. Note the Mitsubishi DRAM.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 10:03:17 pm
content: This is one of my first home Ethernet boards used in the AT. This is a 3Com Etherlink 16. There was some software that 3Com had with the card to do error reporting. I actually had two of these cards stuffed into a PC with a lot of copper foil that went into a chamber to test some device.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 10:43:01 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 11, 2018, 09:59:14 pmUgh, those damn RTC cards... I always had trouble making the system read the time at startup and many had to be tested before a magical combination was able to make them work. Obviously that my experience was with "clone" XT systems, which could be anything but standard.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 11, 2018, 11:39:34 pm
content: Quote from: rsjsouza on February 11, 2018, 10:43:01 pmIt's been so long ago, I am not sure. Things I remember are Wordstar having an error that there was not enough memory when you went above 480K or something and using Debug to hack their software to find they had used a wrong compare. The more painful problems like this stuck with me for some reason. Or how painfully slow the PC booted with 640K. It was worse than watching the released version of the 121GW autorange!At least with the PC you could change the DIP switches to tell it there was only 64K to get it to boot then overwrite the memory size. An you needed the PC to boot fast because your Visi Schedule software would crash after each new task was added.That said, I had used the IBM PCs to run some test equipment and had them in service for over a decade.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 12:28:47 am
content: Quote from: rsjsouza on February 11, 2018, 10:43:01 pmI saw a lot of those AST Six Pak Plus cards, I liked those, they always seemed to work well. I'm pretty sure there's one in the XT I still have.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 01:20:51 am
content: I don't member having any problems with the Six Pack hardware as well in those old cards. $240 back then for one with 64K installed.https://books.google.com/books?id=hoPbDSDNLTQC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=six+pak+expansion+card+ast&source=bl&ots=Kfhgnb2wzM&sig=1jbj3ye8V6yhwSyWrRaKADaf8sk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj83_DZmp_ZAhUkmeAKHcV8DgsQ6AEIOzAD#v=onepage&q=six%20pak%20expansion%20card%20ast&f=falseI had an MF384 for the 8-bit slot as well. What was nice about this card is they provided the schematics for it. I may still have the documentation for that one around.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 01:53:11 am
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 11, 2018, 11:39:34 pmYou had to go there, hadn't you?In my XT days the best ones used NEC V20s at 10MHz with 1024kB of memory but with the existing DOS 3.2 or 3.3 we could rarely use the extended memory for anything other than a RAM disk - people that insisted to run Sidekick as a TSR and wanted to do anything else was an exercise in frustration. On our 286s we could do a bit better only when the newfangled HIMEM.SYS of DOS 5 became available (but we all had to be burned by 4.0 first). Managing all these TSRs to get a couple of more kB was really an art, but totally worth it when Wordstar, Chiwriter, Autocad, Orcad or Corel Ventura could run without screaming at you. There was another utility that promised to put all *.OVL files to the extended area but it never worked for us.Quote from: joeqsmith on February 11, 2018, 11:39:34 pmI've never had to do such shennanigans, thankfully. However, it was really interesting when you got the DIP switches wrong and your card ended up at the same I/O address of the video or the keyboard controller, for example.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 03:18:29 am
content: In my AT, there is a card that is made by Everex (SP?) that could do both extended or expanded modes. I had some software from Pharlap (SP?) that allowed fairly easy access to the memory using bank switching from what I remember. When I tried to make the video, I ran into a problem where some of my software was using that memory. The RAM disks were nice for compiling and setting up general temporary areas. I think the first C compiler we used was from C-Systems in CA. It would run on a PC with DOS 2 and two floppies. I was also using Quarterdeck memory manager with its multi-DOS window. So my code would look something like,.286CSEG SEGMENT PARA PUBLIC 'CODE'ASSUME CS:CSEGORG 100HSTART: JMP MAINQEMM200 DB 'EMMXXXX0',0F0H ;QUARTERDECK MEMORY MANAGER 2.0QEMM702 DB 'EMMXXXX0',03FH ;QUARTERDECK MEMORY MANAGER 7.02QEMM704 DB 'EMMXXXX0',043H ;QUARTERDECK MEMORY MANAGER 7.04;EMM386N DB '$MMXXXX0',0CCH ;STANDARD DOS MEMORY MANAGER NOEMSEMM386N DB 'EMMXXXX0',0ECH ;STANDARD DOS MEMORY MANAGER NOEMS;EMM386R DB 'EMMXXXX0',0CCH ; " " " " RAMEMM386R DB 'EMMXXXX0',0ECH ; " " " " RAM;and I would figure out what hardware/software I was running. Nightmare but if you needed the memory, it got you over that 640K limit.I never had any of the NEC parts. I did have an accelerator card that took the AT'c clock from 6MHz to I think maybe 8.I still have my old DOS Orcad. The last time I used that, I had hacked out a driver to allow it to use that Diamond graphics card. I uploaded the driver onto their BBS and they deleted it. They had that Gendrive thing that allowed 800X600 res. The mouse took up your whole screen and it was impressive!

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 03:40:14 am
content: For you VLB fans, this was the disk controller I was using in that PC, made by Promise Technologies. You can see from the previous sheet its a DC4030VL-2. At the time had 8Meg of DRAM installed for the cache.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 03:43:36 am
content: And one last one that I had dug out. Let's see if anyone here knows what this card is. It may be fun to make a video showing it in operation. At the time, this card almost seemed like magic.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 04:25:10 am
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 12, 2018, 03:43:36 amhttp://www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals/Perstor/Perstor%20PS180-16F%20-%20Advertisement.pdf

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 04:38:38 am
content: After seeing the connectors and not looking at helius' response, I knew it was a MFM controller. I had a similar one in our first XT, a 30MB Seagate ST238.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 04:41:17 am
content: It's a ST412 controller that uses "ERLL" to double the label capacity of MFM drives. Kind of neat, I didn't know that existed until now.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 04:05:14 pm
content: My first MSDOS machine, I originally bought as a dual floppy model. After using it about a year liek that, I knew I needed a hard disk. But looking at my stack of floppies, I figured that common 20MB was too small - so I got the 32MB one which was an RLL drive. A bunch of years later, I was still using this machine (it was 8MHz to begin with, with a switch to flip back to 4.77MHz for compatibility), upgraded with a NEC V20 and also a 8087. I found another of the exact same Seagate RLL drive in the back room at work, condition unknown. I took it home and it initially worked but soon failed. I used Gibson SpinRite to do it's thing, which was a low level format but also more - after two passes, the drive again worked and was reliable for at least 3 more years that I had the machine.I know I had a RTC in it, I forget how that was added - no need for a 6-Pack type of card since the system had memory slots on board for a full 640K and also had 2 serial and 1 parallel port built in. I'm trying to remember how I hacked the second hard drive in as well, since I kept the dual floppies and there was only one more bay for a 5 1/4" drive under the two floppies. That was probably the most solid and reliable computer I've had since the dawn of the DOS age. It even survived being kicked into a wall - while the system was on, with the hard drive.

author: drussell
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 12, 2018, 04:18:09 pm
content: Joe!! DUDE!!I may need your help! I have been waiting to find someone else with a Perstor!I have one that quit working properly after I lent it to a friend many, many years ago. I need to dig it up and get you to probe a few things for me on your good one so I can figure out what the heck is wrong with mine.PS-180-16FN, if I recall correctly... I can't recall what BIOS is on it right now, but it was sent back to Perstor for an upgrade very early in it's life.Quote from: helius on February 12, 2018, 04:41:17 amThe Perstors don't quitedoublethe capacity. It was 31 sectors per track instead of 17 for MFM or 26 for RLL. I used mine for years on a pair of Miniscribe 3650 drives in the BBS machine until the media and the positioner finally started to give out. The 3650/3675 were still stepper-motor drives. I couldn't afford voice-coil-actuated drives back in those days.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2018, 01:07:10 am
content: Quote from: drussell on February 12, 2018, 04:18:09 pmShouldn't be a problem if you know what you want to have looked at. From what I remember, when I bought the board it had a problem that they had corrected and I had to return it for an upgrade, similar to what people are seeing with the 121GW. So back it goes and I get a whole new card. Plug it in and it does not work at all. Back on the phone with their tech support. As I started to look at the board, I realized they had left one of the ICs out. Sure enough, another problem and the second one was returned. Third time was a charm.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2018, 01:12:14 am
content: Now I am wondering what is in the old AT as I thought it had this with the MEMO-4000 boards. Anyway, here is the Everx memory card that supports both memory modes in hardware.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2018, 12:27:53 pm
content: Quite the quality control, Joe... Gives that warm feeling of reassurance...(Wait! You almost forgot the 8088 on this PC. Quick! Go to the warehouse and grab one from the bin. No, you can pick one with your bare hands - I don't believe in this ESD folly)

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2018, 11:24:43 pm
content: It was one of the 40-pin parts they had left off. That's going way back.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 14, 2018, 02:50:07 pm
content: Eh, that chip's not important. Besides, we just reduced the power consumption and cut BOM costs.--Randy

author: Sehsuan
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 10, 2018, 01:48:34 am
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 09, 2018, 01:12:00 amnice! I was very curious what the Media Vision cards looked like back in the day...if I could do so, I'd bring back my scanner to my parents' place to scan images of the cards I have... not as high end - but I do have a Diamond Edge 3D (2000? 3000?) that uses the nVidia nv1. I remember it being billed as the first chip that can really draw curves with little processing power, akin to vectors I think...

author: precaud
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 26, 2018, 12:06:09 pm
content: Quote from: orin on February 11, 2018, 08:51:58 pmI think I have that same programmer, and probably have the software for it, too. I'll look around if you'd like.

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: June 26, 2018, 12:42:22 pm
content: Ahhh memories. Used to make heaps of multi-channel serial / 232-485-fiber-etc cards. EPLDs / FPGAs were new and awesome.Even blew ~$20,000 on a Texas Instruments TMS34010 video SDK / full hardware development kit and made a VGA card with a whopping 256Kvideo memory !!Sadly, a few weeks after I finished it, and was tweaking specs, damn Taiwanese brought them out. Bastids :-)Up till then, we mostly only had CGA, EGA, Mono hires. Gave it all away a few years ago, at a swap meet.Sure were wild days

author: texaspyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2018, 04:15:56 am
content: I was one of the founders of STB Systems. We made a butt-load of Apple and IBM PC add-in cards. They were sold under our own name and OEMed to numerous PC manufacturers (IBM, ATT, Dell, Gateway, NCR, Unisys, etc).Our president bough one of the first IBM PCs ever sold. He bought it at a Sears computer store. One week later we were shipping memory expansion cards (it helps when your president was also a sales rep for a PCB house and Mitsubishi ICs). At the time 64 KB of DRAM was over $200 and our first card went to 192 KB. Imagine... you could have a computer with a whopping 256 KB of memory!I still have an IBM PC/AT with a two digit serial number (or is it three digit). Picked it up from Computerland 1 second after they were allowed to sell them...I left Computer Automation to start STB. AST Research was also started by ex-Computer Automation engineers.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2018, 07:47:04 am
content: Pretty cool story, texaspyro! I surely remember STB Systems.Also, quite impressive to have a genuine AT 80286 - did you fit a math coprocessor? That was an object of desire when AutoCAD 9 required one but we could not afford the ~$500 and had to get by with a slow software emulator.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2018, 04:24:39 pm
content: At the time, math coprocessors were available from even more manufacturers than CPUs. Cyrix got its start making x87 coprocessors, and they were also available from Intel, AMD, IIT, Texas Instruments, Weitek, ULSI, Harris, and Xtend.

author: texaspyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2018, 05:21:44 pm
content: Quote from: helius on August 13, 2018, 04:24:39 pmAlso NEC (?) had a CMOS math chip for the 8088. I put one in my Toshiba T1000 laptop (4.77 MHz 80C88). The T1000 has the 768 KB memory expansion board which increases the RAM to 640K. The rest of the memory is used as a RAM disk. The T1000 is still ticking. I just rebuilt the battery pack a couple of month ago. I mainly use it as a terminal to Data I/O Unisite and 3980 device programmersAnd yes, the PC/AT had a math chip and a 16 MHz crystal upgrade. It has a 20 MB Rodime hard drive which now sounds rather iffy.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2018, 07:13:40 pm
content: I've always liked the IBM ATs. A few years ago somebody found a stash of NOS ATs still sealed in the box, I was really tempted to buy one but couldn't justify paying a few hundred bucks for something I don't need.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2018, 08:45:19 pm
content: Quote from: texaspyro on August 13, 2018, 05:21:44 pmIn my country (Brasil) the coprocessors were not readily available; Cyrix started to flood the market there only when their i387 was mainstream.The PC-XTs in Brasil were mostly NEC V20s; much faster at 10.368MHz (IIRC) when compared to the regular 4.77MHz. Our 286, however, was a full blown 16MHz and the motherboard had SIPP memory interfaces.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 15, 2018, 03:00:59 pm
content: I swapped my 8088 with a v20 in my system - it was already an 8MHz 8088 so it was faster even without the NEC CPU, but the NEC one was even faster. I don;t recall (or at least it wasn't as readily available) NEC math coprocessor, I had an ordinary Intel 8087.Digging in a box of old chips (in anti-stat foam), I somehow still have the v20. I don;t think I would have bought 2 of them, and I last used the machine in the mid-90's when I donated it to the model railroad club I belonged to, complete with a couple of programs I wrote to keep track of membership and also manage the small store we ran. Can't imagine I would have swapped the CPU back, but obviously I did. Unless I came across a second v20 later on - I put the v20 and the 8087 in it when I was still in college, probably in '87.I do remember STB, and particularly AST - one of the companies I worked for, we commonly sold AST servers.

author: TheEPROM9
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 26, 2018, 08:26:34 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 06, 2018, 06:02:08 pmYep that be my mystry card =-)

author: rich.holmteam
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 06, 2018, 05:19:41 pm
content: Odd ball board. Emulex DCP-286. We used them for high speed async and sync market data feeds in the 80s and 90s. In the late 1990s, everything switched to udp and tcp.Cheers,RichSent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

author: NoPizzaTonite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 16, 2021, 04:29:29 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 09, 2018, 02:48:32 amHi JoeI have an identical setup to what you have in your video:https://youtu.be/SbYcjrezJHssame 5150, same BYAD card, etcOur systems could be twinsI am missing the BYAD software/manual you use in your video. Can you help me with this?-Alex

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2021, 04:54:52 pm
content: Quote from: NoPizzaTonite on December 16, 2021, 04:29:29 pmQuoteHow are you planning to get the data onto the disks? What equipment do you have (working) that we can use?

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2021, 05:46:01 pm
content: A fairly easy way to get old software onto old disks is to put a XT-IDE card in the PC and use a more modern IDE drive or CF card to transfer the disk images and then write them using a disk imager program that runs on the old PC.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2021, 07:11:32 pm
content: I assume you are thinking they have a modern PC with CF support, write the image to CF, plug the CF into the XT-IDE card, plug that card into the PC and transfer the data to floppy?One problem is the early PCs didn't support calling external PROMs. I am not sure if there is a modern version of RAWWRITE that supports a USB floppy.I'll wait and see what the OP has in mind.

author: NoPizzaTonite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 16, 2021, 08:55:05 pm
content: I was going to use the Gotek I configured for my 51xx PCs -See my video here:https://youtu.be/G4xUo2LKrKoI create boot disks with itThere is a Win version of Rawwrite as well:http://www.chrysocome.net/rawwriteI'm certain I can adapt to whatever is convenient since I have a lot of different ways I can support (Gotek, XT-IDE, Rawwrite, FTP, etc.).Might be a newbie to the forum here, but not a newbie to the retro computers I grew up with - I have a lot of retro systems (IBM, TRS80, Commodores etc)It's just the BYAD software has been elusive for me since this card is so low productionDon Maslin had a set of (2) BYAD diskettes in his collection (per the Comp History Museum), but no one seems to have them in the archives - so I jumped when I saw Joe's video-Alex

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2021, 10:23:35 pm
content: I haven't used XP for some time but sounds like you can handle the RAWWRITE image. That's what we will go with.Have you checked into if we are violating any laws by replicating the OS? If we have permission to provide them to the public domain, that is what I would like to do.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2021, 11:07:16 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on February 09, 2018, 02:48:32 amI bought a used IBM PC in about 1987 that had a Baby Blue CPM card in it. IIRC the card had an 8085 CPU and 64k of RAM on it. It came with the CPM disk and some accounting application for it but I wasn't into CPM so I took the card out and gave it way :-( The original owner was a very large retirement home in downtown Orlando and they never used it for DOS, they only used that one application under CPM.I still have piles of old IBM PC cards including quite few that are still NIB. One of those is a NIB National Instruments GPIB card but in a box from IBM and with an IBM marked manual. The card that came with it is a standard 8 bit NI GPIB card. I also have the same complete package but from National instruments.About a month ago in the scrap pile in a local surplus store I found a still NIB expansion card for the IBM PC that had been laying around for about the last 35 years so some of that stuff is still out. But I'll be d*** if I can remember what kind of card it was or who made. About two weeks ago I found two slightly used S-100 prototyping boards and a no-name 8 bit ISA memory expansion board full of socketed 4164 ICs in the same surplus store.I have several 8 bit ISA prototyping boards with wire wrap sockets on them and made by MUPAC and and also a new 8 bit prototyping board still in the sealed package and originally sold by Jamco.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2021, 11:54:17 pm
content: Quote from: texaspyro on August 13, 2018, 04:15:56 amBack in about 1991 I was helping to replace to the mixed bag of old odds and ends PCs and install new 386 computers at Martin Marietta Electronic and Missiles Systems in Orlando. We went into the office of one of the VPs there and he had the first style 64k IBM PC (with the cassette port) with nothing but an IBM 3270 IRMA card in it. The only thing that he'd ever used the computer for was to send and receive E-mails and the serial number on the computer was 000241. He was still using two floppy drives (full height) and a monochrome monitor and was running DOS 2.1.I couldn't afford an IBM when the PCs first came out so I bought a Sanyo MBC-550 "MS-DOS compatible" (wink-wink!) computer. What mistake that turned out to be! I beat on that for about 3 years but when I finished school and started working and had some money, the first thing that I bought was an IBM PC. I then upgraded it by replacing the Intel CPU with an NEC V-20. Sadly I sold it some years later. But about 15 years ago I found another original IBM PC system in a surplus store. I hadn't seen one in a long time and I thought I might never see another one in-the-wild and that I should grab it. So I did and sure enough it was the last one that I've seen outside of a collection or E-Greed. It's still sitting in the corner of my living room and was still running the last time that I tried it. I've added an AST 6 pack card, a 20 Mb HardCard and some kind of monochrome graphics card but it's still has the original IBM monochrome monitor, full height floppy drives and the IBM keyboard (84 key?) without the cursor keys. And I've added an old ALPS dot matrix printer, that's an upgrade from the Tokyo Electric Company daisy wheel printer that I used to have with it. That thing sounded like a machine gun when you printed with it! I later found an original IBM Graphics Printer and one of these days I'll get around to adding it to the system.

author: NoPizzaTonite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 01:23:29 am
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 16, 2021, 10:23:35 pmHi Joe - so I would surmise it would not be an issue for me having the files that came with the BYAD since BYAD Inc has been out of business for some time and the software supports the BYAD board (which I legally own) - I don't know if you can even use the BYAD software with any other board - I couldn't speak as to the legalities of putting it in the public domain.The reason I no longer have the files is the floppy was in the documentation binder and I have no clue whatever happened to it over the years. I'm just now dusting this card off.(note today's date underneath card)-Alex

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 02:11:10 am
content: I would image it was licensed by DR or Intel. Doing a quick search:http://www.faqs.org/faqs/CPM-faq/I have released data like this in the past. Granted, it's not always been the easiest to obtain authorization.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 02:20:02 am
content: Also, if you know of a program like Rawrite that will run under Windows 10 and supports the USB floppy drives, that would be perfect. Otherwise, I have to drag out one of my old PCs to try and get an image file made.****Scratch that. It doesn't look I can use a 5 inch drive on the USB.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 02:57:24 am
content: Quote from: Stray Electron on December 16, 2021, 11:07:16 pmI designed and built a few cards for PCs using WW. Here are the last two 8-bit boards.This was the last board I ever designed for the PC, starting at about 8:15.Part II shows the board in operation running a home made CPU.

author: NoPizzaTonite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 03:49:56 am
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 17, 2021, 02:20:02 amYeah - I was going to write that I don't know of a 64bit software for USB floppies - WinImage would have been my first thought but it only supports 1.44Mb USB floppies - and even if it did support 5.25, I don't know if it would be able to read a CP/M diskette anyway (no real thing as a standard CP/M format)Well hey.... next time you break out one of your legacy PC's to play with - remember this post- I don't want to cause too much disruption - it's not like a pressing thing - I just found the card, looked at my PC's and decided to rekindle the past a little

author: NoPizzaTonite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 04:03:10 am
content: Since I seem to have hijacked this thread a bit (sorry folks) - here's my contributionTiny Turbo Accelerator for PC/XT

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 04:28:29 am
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 17, 2021, 02:57:24 amI was a field engineer for a large computer company for a couple of years and I did a LOT of WW back in the day and I still have all of the tools including a couple of electric WW guns and several rolls of WW wire. But I HATED the stuff! First it was too easy to make a mistake and connect to the wrong posts. Second, when you tried to wrap them, the wires would often break right at the point that the insulation began and you'd have to replace the entire wire. And I found that even when the end of the wire was bare and that I had metal to metal contact with the post, it still wouldn't make good electrical contact. I resorted to soldering all of the posts after I added the wire to them but that made repairs and circuit modifications almost impossible; and frequently the insulation on the wire would melt or shrink back and expose the conductor and that lead to shorts to the other pins.WW was a slow, tedious, torturous process. I salute you for actually building something and making it work with that process.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 04:39:59 am
content: Quote from: NoPizzaTonite on December 17, 2021, 03:49:56 amNo problem as you did say you would cover my time and I am sure you know while I can be bought, my rates are not cheap.Of course, dragging out the old Pentium, the boot drive is dead with the typical hunt noise. Nothing I can't handle but the price just went up.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 05:05:54 am
content: A moment of silence for my 1997, 4.3GB drive. May you rest in peace.https://manualzz.com/doc/1378630/maxtor-86480d8-specifications

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 05:11:46 am
content: Quote from: Stray Electron on December 17, 2021, 04:28:29 amThese boards were done by hand. Hand strip and cut each wire and hand wrap. I used to use a gun that was fully automatic using Slit-Wrap. A friend of mine had worked on some WW boards that were put into space. The last board I ever WW was a transient generator I designed to test multi-meters. I used all old tech, including the 6801. Was it really as bad as I remembered.... Yes, it was! lol.

author: NoPizzaTonite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 06:13:36 am
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 17, 2021, 04:39:59 amI would find personal pleasure in covering the cost of your time, especially since you obviously now will have a boot drive replacement on your hands!I would also be happy to mail you a pretty identical replacement to the poor drive you just lost (same vintage model year I believe) if you like (not kidding)-Alex

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 07:47:59 am
content: Do you have a do not exceed amount you want to stick with?

author: NoPizzaTonite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 08:31:16 am
content: PM me an estimate - I would like to weigh the ROI on the cost considering this is just for my personal gratification-Alex

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 01:30:04 pm
content: Quote from: NoPizzaTonite on December 17, 2021, 08:31:16 amThe deliverables would be a PDF of the documentation and two Rawrite image files placed into public domain. You will handle the legal side of making sure we can place it into public domain without violating any laws. You could take a similar sized manual to the local print shop and have a quote on converting it to PDF.Average hourly rates for a designer and lab time can be found on-line. While you could hire a seasoned designer to wash your dishes, it wouldn't be cost effective. Sadly, this is what you have. Your asking about items that I have not used in several years. There's a possibility that the media itself is no longer good which could be true for the diskettes as well. The PC could also have other problems from sitting so long. It will take time to check it out. Worse case, I would say 15 hours assuming I am able to locate the media and it's still good.You may find that your PC / card no longer function. It seems like every time I drag one of these old relics out, I have to do some work on them. Personally, I suggest you mount the board in a picture frame and be happy with your memories of days gone by... If you want to play with CPM, install one of the PC versions.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 04:04:13 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 17, 2021, 05:11:46 amI tried the Slit-Wrap but it never worked for me. IIRC the wrap tool was supposed to slit the insulation of the wire but wasn't intended to remove the insulation completely. When you wrapped the wife on the post, the wire was supposed to make contact with the post through the slit in the insulation. More often than not, it never did. I was using the hand tools and not an automatic system so YMMV.I also tried another WW system were you wrapped the wire onto the post, insulation and all, and then you soldered the wire and it was supposed to melt the insulation and metal conductor would then contact the post. But all it did was make a burnt gummy mess! I think it was called Solder-Wrap or something like that."A friend of mine had worked on some WW boards that were put into space. "I didn't know that they ever put any WW stuff into space. I've seen a lot boards that were built to go into space but never any WW ones. One friend of mine landed a job at KSC re -soldering boards intended to go into space with lead based solder instead of the RHOS crap that they were originally built with.Several friends of mine were part of the group that designed and built the AMSATs. I was an engineer on one missile system that went into space, but only as part of it's ballistic trajectory. I was also an engineer on another that would have been space based but I can't really talk about either of those. I was offered a job at NASA KSC as an engineer dealing with the payload electrical interfaces on the space shuttle but I was having too much fun elsewhere and I turned it down. Another friend of mine, and someone I later worked with, designed and built the deep IR sensors for the Hubble Space Telescope and he still has the prototypes.For a short time, I worked with some of the engineers from a company in Canada that built big automated machines used to make the very large wire wrap backplanes for main frame computers and other uses. I don't remember how the name was spelled but it was Dimetco or something like that. At the time we needed very large, extremely fast video processors so we were building the entire system with the then new, experimental GaAs chips and everything was done in hardware and they were building WW boards for us that would hold several thousand ICs per board. The amount of WW on those boards was absolutely insane! Occasionally the machine that was WW'ing the boards would lose track of where it was and it would shift one row or column of the WW connections, and every row/column after it, over one position. That was a real AW-S***! moment when we found that, especially when we had already started populating the board.I don't know if it's still around here but I used to have one of those boards that was fully build and worked but was always "glitchy" and couldn't be trusted so they finally scrapped it. It had over 2500 socketed ICs on it and I was pulling the ICs and using them for other projects and I eventually found one IC where one of the legs had folded under the IC instead of going into the socket. From the outside it appeared to be perfectly fine but when I removed the IC I found the pin folded under. I'm sure the the pin pressed against the socket and would work occasionally but with temperature cycling it would gradually creep away from the socket and not make contact.

author: NoPizzaTonite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 04:26:12 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 17, 2021, 01:30:04 pmFair enough Joe - we can close this loop. I'm sure I'll come across the software in time - CP/M wasn't the issue. I have quite a collection of vintage computers and several with original versions of CP/M on them. This was more a personal venture in trying to get this card working beyond just the 64k RAM it's providing me natively.As you stated, not really worthy of spending a lot of time/money on it.I appreciated you looking into it. Thank you-Alex

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 06:56:21 pm
content: Quote from: Stray Electron on December 17, 2021, 04:04:13 pmWe used solder wrap for smaller projects in the early 80s. The Slit-Wrap worked great but you had to have the tip sharp and set the wire tension. My gun came with spare cutters and the tension meter (fish scale sort of thing). Yes, the insulation was slit up the side and with my gun, you could program the number of turns.I had visited a company that built some very large (several sq feet) WW boards made of ECL. The biggest systems I ever saw were at Western Electric. Those were made with automated machines as well. Crazy what we were doing back.New HD installed in the old PC and have started to install DOS (remember MKS). Note the two CDs on the keyboard. That yellowed disc was left in this PC and the drive. Not good.

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 07:18:05 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 17, 2021, 05:05:54 amCondolences from Bigfoot.Brother is in bad shape but group elder from Oklahoma is participating, chilling on '06 tax form filling aid.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 07:37:34 pm
content: I already posted about this here:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/vintage-computing/real-world-interfacing-pc-1987/but it is the oldest PC card that I have.

author: x86guru
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2021, 08:20:10 pm
content: These give you the ability to create anything you want for the PC/AT/XT.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2021, 04:11:49 am
content: Quote from: x86guru on December 17, 2021, 08:20:10 pmWhile I had some fun entering a member's high speed oscillator on a bread board contest, I don't think we want to do any sort of high speed (LOL) digital designs on a breadboard. Any pictures of what you were able to use it for?

author: Phil_G
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2021, 12:27:15 pm
content: Years ago in the UK there was a great hobby electronics store called Maplin, very much like Tandy/Radioshack. In their heyday Maplin also printed a high quality magazine, filled with projects and technology updates. One project was an Input/Output ISA card based on the Intel 8255. It gave you three general-purpose, programmable 8-bit ports. This one was assembled from the Maplin kit and spent most of its working life inside an Opus XT where it switched radio channels on a system I'd rigged to interface my AX25 packet-radio BBS to to my Fido Node. It worked great for about a year, and then one morning I had a letter from Ofcom (the UK government communications regulatory dept) telling me to shut it down :-)CheersPhil G4PHL / GB7PHL

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2021, 04:19:51 pm
content: Dumb question of the day.I have restored the the images to the new drive and now realized, I have no idea what my password was 20 years ago.The PC uses DOS, 95 and various flavors of NT. These are on various partitions using various formats. I am guessing all with the same PW. Any idea on tools that would decode or remove them?

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2021, 04:25:32 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 18, 2021, 04:19:51 pm*groan* from times, long ago ( the memory of which has long been suppressed) I had to do this.Think reset not decode. Thishttp://www.chntpw.com/guide/looks promising.

author: x86guru
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2021, 07:00:00 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 18, 2021, 04:11:49 amI never did anything with those boards. In fact, the breadboard is still in the shrinkwrap. I bought those from Jameco or JDR Microdevices decades ago. The green one was Archer so I probably bought that from Radio Shack in the 90's. IIRC, the XT/AT's ISA bus operated from 4.77MHz to maybe up to 8MHz so breadboarding shouldn't be a limiting factor for digital logic. Maybe if you're doing mixed signal with high frequency analog then you might have to be careful, but I've personally wire wrapped and breadboarded many designs up to 8MHz.Here is a 486 single board computer I made back in the 90's. It's only running at ~7MHz

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2021, 07:37:38 pm
content: I have not burned a CD in over 10 years and was looking forward to some much needed improvements in this area. The new PC that is now almost 6 years old, running Windows 10, I have managed to put three CDs to the dumpster so far. Some cryptic message because there is still not enough space on a hard drive to actually add some useful error messages. I was going to try a small R/W disc but the idiots who designed the PC mounted the drives vertical rather than horz. The disc fell into the drive as expected. lol. So it's sitting on top of a glass of water. lol. Of course, that failed as well.I have a new burner sitting in a box. Too bad it's not SATA and the new PC only supports SATA.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2021, 07:44:21 pm
content: Quote from: x86guru on December 18, 2021, 07:00:00 pmNow that's some slick hardware there! So I was going through my notes trying to find where I may have written down the password and I came across the original documentation from JDR with their demo design to get you started with designing hardware for the PC.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 18, 2021, 10:09:09 pm
content: Quote from: DrG on December 18, 2021, 04:25:32 pmAfter tossing a few CDs, finally a Windows NT 3.51 prompt! Big thanks for finding that needle in the internet haystack! One step closer.Back on topic, while the PC is apart....Starting at the bottom is my custom made board that I used to develop my own CPUs.Above that, the DIO-500. To most people, this is a typical 2 serial port and a printer port card. For the EE, this is a hacked super digital IO board. It has a couple of small PALs that I had hacked an then burned my own.Above that is my Keithley DAS-20. It has A/D, D/A, timers and some DIO. Like Fluke, my early experiences with Keithley don't bring fond memories.Of course, who can't remember the Spigot. MS used this card as an example for their driver development tools as long as I remember. For all I know, they still include source for it today.And finally, the Adaptech AHA2940 SCSI card.The dust gives it character.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2021, 01:49:40 am
content: With the PC now running, I made an attempt to use rawrite to image the CPM disks. The windows version will not support the old 360K floppy and the original versions I have will not touch it under DOS. I suspect when I copied these two disks, I used COPYIIPC. Attempting to run it on the new PC presents the divide overflow. Back then, I may have had my powerful IBM AT....So I tried ImageDisk which seems like it may support the old format. Really, I would need to drag out that old PC and just try it but I already have about 10 hours on thishttp://dunfield.classiccmp.org/img/index.htmAnother option:http://gaby.de/ftp/pub/cpm/znode51/specials/faqs/cpmfaq.htm#18

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2021, 08:21:33 am
content: Learn to use Linux, it doesn't have those limitations.You don't need much eighter so it wont be a burden.Just try few distros and pick your style.I think knoppix and lubuntu could be suitable.There is a command called dd.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2021, 12:15:59 pm
content: Quote from: x86guru on December 17, 2021, 08:20:10 pmWe had the breadboard - pretty well built.There was a model from JDR that was for wire-wrap/solder that was already furnished with the addressing and decode logic - a much more useful IMHO, but it was shift-left the price of the breadboard one.

author: DrG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2021, 02:41:46 pm
content: (from BYTE, 1985, #10)https://www.artisantg.com/TestMeasurement/68330-1/JDR-Microdevices-JDR-PR10-16-Bit-Prototype-ISA-Board

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2021, 03:29:37 pm
content: That was the one, although my recollection of the price is wrong - the Jameco breadboard was not much cheaper than this.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 19, 2021, 08:59:17 pm
content: Another vector board made by Scientific Solutions from 1981. Shown is a board I designed to automate some tests I was running. I liked how they routed the power and ground layers. At the time, all I used was the DIP packages. Note the TO92s stuffed into the WW sockets for ease of replacement.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2021, 01:55:48 am
content: Pretty cool board, joeqsmith. The supply routing indeed helped a lot to reduce the then common wobbly supply lines for these heavily populated and (somewhat) power hungry logic ICs.I love the drunk IC just above the end of the edge connector - it is trying to escape!

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 20, 2021, 03:08:31 am
content: Maybe when I am gone, these old WW boards will be recognized for their art and be worth millions... Each unique. Straightening the pins would be akin to stripping the patina.

author: electronicsguy123
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 21, 2023, 08:20:02 am
content: Yes, Maplin was an amazing electronics DIY company. I loved the magazine and I too made the 8255 based project. It worked great for my college car control project.While soldering and making the project, I remember having soldered one of the tantalum caps with reversed polarity. It exploded after I inserted the card in my PC and I freaked out thinking I've blown the PC motherboardLuckily, there was no serious damage.This was one of the most fun electronics projects I've worked on!

author: electronicsguy123
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 21, 2023, 08:26:37 am
content: Scan of the magazine article

author: Phil_G
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2023, 01:50:30 pm
content: I have the Maplin 8255 card here on my desk & was thinking how useful it was back in the day. We used to do all sorts of tricks with the IBM printer port (parallel, lpt, centronics) but this was a dedicated I/O board which was really nice.Heres the full article:

author: Veteran68
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2023, 02:22:30 pm
content: Just seeing this old thread since it was bumped recently.I've collected and discarded countless old ISA, MicroChannel, AGP, and other legacy cards since the 80's.Joe showed an IRMA card in his first post, which is what prompted me to respond. Back in the mid-80's I interned (later hired, but didn't stay long) for ICOT Network Systems which was probably IRMA's biggest competitor in 3270 cards. I wrote the character generator software (in x86 assembler) for those cards. I still have a greenbar printout of that asm code somewhere. Preserved for posterity, as it was my first "commercial" software product that I wrote entirely by myself.

author: Canis Dirus Leidy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2023, 09:25:02 pm
content: Some old graphics card. Thesellerclaims that it's a HGC clone.

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2023, 08:16:30 pm
content: thoses capacitors are huge lollyou have an pcie to isa interface ...https://www.ebay.com/itm/324941937180?

author: Canis Dirus Leidy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 23, 2023, 07:43:54 am
content: Quote from: coromonadalix on November 16, 2023, 08:16:30 pm(In)Famous К10-7В (AKA "little flags" or "clay capacitors").In continuation of the "horrors of our town" theme:PDP-11 for IBM PC/AT(It's not mine, so I can't tell if it's an original or a modern replica).SM5300 tape drive interface board.QBUSМПИadapter board

author: DavidKo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2024, 12:17:17 pm
content: Quote from: joeqsmith on December 18, 2021, 07:37:38 pmI use SATA to PATA adapter for myLiteOn. Something likethis

author: coromonadalix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2024, 05:36:55 pm
content: Quote from: DavidKo on January 08, 2024, 12:17:17 pmyou have some bidirectional ones too, pata to sata or sata to pata ... cheap prices, i have some of them saved me a few times

author: jrmymllr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2024, 07:31:35 pm
content: Now for my obscure card. It's just a FDC/HDD/IO card, but I think it's cool because it appears to be the reference design from SMC for the chip in the middle. And I can't find it anywhere else online.Someone on a retro computer forum was even able to find the schematics on the SMC website using the Wayback machine. The card works if you're wondering, despite the empty sockets. From the schematics, they appear to be for an EPROM and PAL devices....for what purpose exactly I don't know.

author: helius
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2024, 01:24:59 am
content: Quote from: jrmymllr on October 04, 2024, 07:31:35 pmThe EPROM may be for an extension BIOS, which is useful for adding netboot or large disk support. PALs could be anything.

author: jrmymllr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2024, 06:31:15 pm
content: Quote from: helius on October 05, 2024, 01:24:59 amThat was my assumption, but what kind I don't know. SMC probably didn't specify and it was up to the user. The PALs I think were for address decoding for the EPROM.

author: K5_489
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2024, 07:22:32 pm
content: All my ancient stuff is long gone ancient history by now (multiple cross country moves tends to do that), but the early networking cards did bring up some good memories of my teen years in the 90s when I had gotten my hands on some surplus ARCnet twisted pair cards, and proceeded to wire up the house for networking...not because I needed to, just because I could...or so I thoughtTurned out that using regular ol' telephone wire didn't work out all that well...I got pretty dang good at hiding cabling though, so that Dad wouldn't figure out that I was drilling holes all over the house to run this stuff through the basement. It wasn't until they sold the house years later, long after I moved out on my own, and they sold the house that I got a call from Dad - "You know anything about all this telephone wire in the house all over the basement, but not connected to the other phone lines???""Maaaaaaybeeee"

author: LittleFrog
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2025, 07:22:29 pm
content: Hi,My contribution is a pair of ISA cards from a product called a "386Gold" from a company called "Logicraft" which you can read about here;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LogicraftNot shown in the photos is a 286-NEAT chipset based motherboard with a number of 8 and 16 bit ISA slots. The first card I've photo'd enables the motherboard to talk to an Ethernet port, floppy disk and a proprietary Status Display. I have a floppy disk containing an operating system and (what looks like) all the software to enable the system to boot.The second photo shows one of four 386 based PC's on a card which (I think) all run MS-DOS.If you have a DEC PDP-11 (or maybe other later DEC machines) with appropriate software, the 386Gold system will allow terminal users to run MS-DOS applications (like text mode spreadsheets) on the 386 cards as if they were connected directly to the terminal.Dave

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2025, 09:16:36 pm
content: Quote from: Halcyon on February 10, 2018, 02:21:45 amhow did you record this mini-video? From a VGA-grabber?

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 13, 2025, 11:47:36 pm
content: Quote from: DiTBho on January 13, 2025, 09:16:36 pmI don't remember now. It might have just been off the internet. But I do have VGA capture devices that I use from time to time.

author: Canis Dirus Leidy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 23, 2025, 04:40:07 pm
content: VAX-compatible expansion boards for IBM PC:(image taken fromwww.155la3.ru)It turned a PC into a two-machine complex: the hard drive on the host machine was split into two halves, one containing the “native” operating system and the other containing VAX VMS, and they worked in parallel.

author: joeqsmith
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 21, 2025, 09:07:33 pm
content: Breadboard for the original IBM PC/XT 8-bit ISA bus.

author: jrmymllr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 24, 2025, 09:38:59 pm
content: Quote from: DiTBho on January 13, 2025, 09:16:36 pmOr captured from an emulator. I've loaded BIOS from a board I have into an emulator and it worked fine.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2025, 02:02:06 am
content: A 'LITERAL' PC compatible card.Anyone guess what this card does?

author: pqass
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 27, 2025, 04:58:45 am
content: Quote from: BrianHG on September 27, 2025, 02:02:06 amFrom themanual here...."The Amiga Bridgeboard is an expansion board that gives your Amiga IBM PC/AT compatibility, while retaining all the Amiga’s advanced features....The name Bridgeboard highlights the fact that the card forms a bridge between the Amiga side and the PC side, so that the Bridgeboard is integrated into the Amiga environment. This means that while you are running PC-compatible software on the Bridgeboard, you can, at the same time, run one (or several] programs on the Amiga side, while using the same monitor for both the PC and Amiga programs. You can easily transfer files between the Amiga and the PC. And the Bridgeboard allows you to install and operate standard PC expansion boards in the Amiga’s PC slots."The Amiga was ahead of its time.