Re: More Card Questions

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

"Marlin Bates, IV" <mbates4@gte.net> wrote:

>On one of the ROM 3 machines the sockets for the ROMS are BIGGER (i.e. more
>pins) than the other ROM 03 machine.  Also, only one of the chip model numbers
>match. The other has a number of 341-0278 and is on a sticker (not silk
screened).

Some ROM 3 units are like this.  Some ROM 3 units used EPROMs
because in the early days, the ROMs were not perfected.  I've read
that there are actually two or more minor ROM 3 versions.

>I got a couple of new cards and need some IDs if you would.
>
>I got a FastRAM SCSI card Rev. D.  I know what this one is, question is:  is
>it better that an Apple Fast SCSI card (Sandwich II)?

That's open to debate.  Many people think the RamFAST card is
the best SCSI card.  It is the fastest and it may be able to DMA
to memory cards that don't normally support DMA.  However, in
my view the Apple High Speed SCSI card (Sandwich II) is the better
card.  Some SCSI-2 drives require the computer (controller) to have
an SCSI ID number.  The RamFAST does not.  The Apple High
Speed SCSI does.  Thus, for many hard drives, the Apple card works
while the RamFAST fails miserably.  It also works better with a
Zip drive sometimes, specifically that there is a driver from the
former Tulin coporation for it that makes the card wait longer when
accessing a Zip drive that's spun down.

>I also got an unidentifiable 4 MB Memory card.  It works as a 4M card so I
>figure what the heck.

Post the text on the card and we'll try to ID it.  ;-)

>Here is what I am NOT sure what it is:
>
>The following was in an ROM 01 machine:  small card, Says, "Software
>Dimensions, Inc., Firmware ID Card, SerNO 1684"
>
>What is this?

Dunno.  Any kind of connectors?

>Next card in an ROM 3 machine:  Labeled "ECHO+"  Street Electronics Corp.  Had
>a speaker attached to it inside the IIgs.  Has potentiometers labelled Vol 1
>and Vol2.  The speaker was connecvted to a minispeaker connector labeled
>"Mono", next to that is the same type of port labelled "speaker"  I can make
>my guesses but would prefer accuracy.  Is in Solt 4

This is a speech synthesizer.  Apple II units before the IIGS lacked a
sound chip so needed a separate sound card to do speech synthesis
or music.  The Echo+ is a speech synthesis card (no music).

The sound built into the IIGS (32 channel Ensoniq wavetable synthesis)
is so superior to the Echo+ it is not funny.  You can duplicate what the
Echo+ can do with a software package called Talking Tools from Byte
Works.  The presense of the card in a IIGS is as strange as the
presense of a Super Serial Card in one, but there are MANY cases of
people who never knew what a IIGS is capable of, so who knows.

>Next card in smae machine was "Quickie Controller P/N 121489"  by "Vitesse,
>Inc." has a mini-DIN 8 connector port out the back of the IIgs. Is in slot 2

This is a controller card for a hand scanner.  The scanner was the
grayscale Omcron head.  The same scanner was sold for Macintosh
and PC, so if you find one with the right connector, try it out.

Various software worked with the scanner, from OCR (Inwords, now
sold by Joe Kohn) to 3200 color input (Color Quickie, a 3 pass system
with colored filters to capture a color scan with a grayscale head).

>Next card is a complete enigma:  it has no identifying marks, is not in a slot
>BUT does have what looks to be some sort of mini stereo plug hole out the back
>of the IIgs it has a power connected to the fan power plug on the iigs
>motherboard AND some sort of ribbon cable attached to "J25" on the mother
>board (the plug connector near the memory expansion slot)

It could be either a stereo demultiplexer card or a sound input card.
Try plugging stereo headphones in here.  If you hear nothing, plug
a microphone in here.

The IIGS Ensoniq chip provides stereo capability, but Apple failed
to provide the output demultiplexed.  That's what some cards do.
However, some are only sound input cards.