Re: Very mysterious card

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article shack@onyx.southwind.net (Randy Shackelford) writes...

>Louis Schulman (louiss@gate.net) wrote:
>: This card was found in slot 5 of an Apple //e, and was specifically marked
>: for slot 5.  The main chip is an AM25L04PC, which is not even listed in the
>: Chip Directory.  There is a 34 pin block, which was hooked up to a long
>: ribbon cable attached to a large Centronics connector (looked like SCSI 
>: type).
> 
>: The card says REV4 C1980, and it appears that the name and other information
>: was intentionally ground off!  The card has two adjustable Pots, and 18 total
>: chips.  The //e that it was in had a Grappler printer card and a Super Serial
>: Card in other slots, along with a standard disk controller in slot 6.
> 
>: Well, experts, what is it?  A very early SCSI card?  One more thing, there is
>: a label that says SN 6025.
> 
>It's almost certainly a parallel printer card. The long ribbon cable with a
>Centronics connector makes that all but a sure thing. I bet it has 36 pins
>instead of 50 as SCSI has. 

    That is my best guess as well, although the adjustable pots and the
excess of chips make me question that (also the fact that there was a
Grappler+ parallel card in the same machine, that would make it kind of
redundant, would it?).

>SCSI didn't exist in '80 I imagine.

    Not as far as I know, although there might have been SASI cards
floating around (not sure when SASI or SCSI first appeared, anyone
know? If I'm not mistaken, the first SCSI card for the Apple II was
the Apple Rev A SCSI card in September 1986, which later became the
Rev B and then C with firmware upgrades).

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca