Author Topic: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards  (Read 33689 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11630
  • Country: us
Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« on: February 06, 2018, 06:02:08 pm »
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
 
The following users thanked this post: CJay

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11630
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2018, 06:04:55 pm »
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

 
The following users thanked this post: CJay

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11630
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #2 on: February 06, 2018, 06:11:36 pm »
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/Ju96T2SPcMA

https://youtu.be/N85dGIrcT5E



Offline Calambres

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 349
  • Country: es
    • Piso-Tones
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2018, 06:49:30 pm »
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.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2018, 06:52:01 pm by Calambres »
 

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11630
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2018, 01:12:00 am »
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.   


 
The following users thanked this post: Sehsuan

Offline helius

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3632
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2018, 01:46:01 am »
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 called Pellucid, 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.
 

Offline BravoV

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 7547
  • Country: 00
  • +++ ATH1
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2018, 01:48:50 am »
Thanks for creating this thread, nice photos.  :-+

Have a Targa and 5250 cards tucked somewhere, need to dig it out.

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11630
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2018, 02:45:17 am »
Oops, here was the recognition software I wrote running on the AT with my custom hardware.
https://youtu.be/pnkUPFOw_Yo?t=178

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11630
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2018, 02:48:32 am »
My old BYAD CPM card running in my IBM PC. 

https://youtu.be/SbYcjrezJHs

Offline Ampera

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2578
  • Country: us
    • Ampera's Forums
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2018, 01:50:43 pm »
My old BYAD CPM card running in my IBM PC. 


Whaaa? You didn't want to go with the CP/M-86 option? I can't figure out why...
I forget who I am sometimes, but then I remember that it's probably not worth remembering.
EEVBlog IRC Admin - Join us on irc.austnet.org #eevblog
 

Offline dexters_lab

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 1890
  • Country: gb
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2018, 02:44:31 pm »
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.


i say, that's a rather gratuitous three dac shot there! :o

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!

Offline Halcyon

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5629
  • Country: au
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #11 on: February 10, 2018, 02:21:45 am »
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.

I 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:
« Last Edit: February 10, 2018, 02:23:28 am by Halcyon »
 

Offline Ampera

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2578
  • Country: us
    • Ampera's Forums
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #12 on: February 10, 2018, 06:29:47 am »
mmmm VLB

This 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.
I forget who I am sometimes, but then I remember that it's probably not worth remembering.
EEVBlog IRC Admin - Join us on irc.austnet.org #eevblog
 

Offline Halcyon

  • Global Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 5629
  • Country: au
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #13 on: February 10, 2018, 08:03:55 am »
mmmm VLB

I'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.
 

Offline Ampera

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 2578
  • Country: us
    • Ampera's Forums
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #14 on: February 10, 2018, 03:42:42 pm »
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.
I forget who I am sometimes, but then I remember that it's probably not worth remembering.
EEVBlog IRC Admin - Join us on irc.austnet.org #eevblog
 

Offline rsjsouza

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 5980
  • Country: us
  • Eternally curious
    • Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #15 on: February 11, 2018, 03:10:57 am »
Feel free to post pictures of your oddball vintage IBM PC/XT/AT compatible cards.
Too 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...

mmmm VLB

I'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.
You are too kind...  ;D 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.

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.
Certainly, 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.
Vbe - vídeo blog eletrônico http://videos.vbeletronico.com

Oh, the "whys" of the datasheets... The information is there not to be an axiomatic truth, but instead each speck of data must be slowly inhaled while carefully performing a deep search inside oneself to find the true metaphysical sense...
 

Offline james_s

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 21611
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #16 on: February 11, 2018, 04:55:20 am »
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.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2018, 09:51:48 pm by james_s »
 

Offline dexters_lab

  • Supporter
  • ****
  • Posts: 1890
  • Country: gb
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #17 on: February 11, 2018, 10:30:06 am »


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.
Certainly, 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.

indeed... 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


Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11630
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #18 on: February 11, 2018, 06:34:29 pm »
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.pdf

Back 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.   

Offline SeanB

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 16272
  • Country: za
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #19 on: February 11, 2018, 06:51:43 pm »
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.
 

Offline orin

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 445
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #20 on: February 11, 2018, 08:51:58 pm »
Here is an old EPROM programmer...  I wonder if I can still find the software.
 

Online G0HZU

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3012
  • Country: gb
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #21 on: February 11, 2018, 09:15:53 pm »
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.
« Last Edit: February 11, 2018, 09:25:39 pm by G0HZU »
 

Offline helius

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 3632
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #22 on: February 11, 2018, 09:16:57 pm »
Here is an old EPROM programmer...  I wonder if I can still find the software.
http://matthieu.benoit.free.fr/Circuit_Cellar_serial_programmer.htm
 

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11630
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #23 on: February 11, 2018, 09:59:14 pm »
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.   

Offline joeqsmithTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • Posts: 11630
  • Country: us
Re: Old IBM compatible PC/XT/AT cards
« Reply #24 on: February 11, 2018, 10:03:17 pm »
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.   


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf