Re: New Mystery Boards

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Jeff Lemke <lemke@terra.cira.colostate.edu> wrote:

> I have come across some Apple II boards in an archeaological dig this
> weekend, (with no documentation of course), that I'd like to find out
> the specifics of, or just what they're for in some cases.
> 
> Board 1:  Dated 1982
> "GSP" is silkscreened in large letters in the upper left.  "Artwork
> PC19845, Rev. B, Model GTP-245" is written on the other side.  There is
> a Z8530PC chip on the board, and two 25-pin cables coming from "Port A"
> and "Port B".

Doesn't ring any bells, but the Z8530 is the SCC, which is the serial
chip used on the IIgs motherboard (and in the Mac).  It is obviously a
serial interface card of some kind.

It doesn't sound like an Apple II Workstation Card, because that clearly
says Apple on it, has lots of other major chips including a 65C02
processor and an ASIC, and it uses 10 pin connectors.

I'm not aware of any other SCC-based serial cards.  It won't be
hardware-compatible with the Super Serial Card, but it might support the
firmware interface (rather limited).

Since the Z8530 supports data formats other than asynchronous, it might
be a network interface card, but the cables (and presumably DB-25
connectors?) point more towards a standard interface card.

> Board 2:
> There is a 34-pin connector, 8 LED lights in two pairs of 4, numbered
> 1-4 and 5-8, and 4 DIP switches.  Board is labled only with "FAB 830125
> Rev. B".  A modem card?

34 pins implies it might be an interface for an IBM PC floppy disk
drive, though the LEDs are puzzling.  Any identifiable chips on it?  An
EPROM programmer perhaps (with external box missing)?

> Board 3:  Very unusual looking.
> Labled as "MMI DAC Board, Temporal Acuity Products Inc."  There are RCA
> "Spkr. Out" and "Aux. Out" jacks, and a long sliding lever on one end of
> the board which I presume is supposed to stick out of the back of the
> Apple through a slot.  Obviously this is some type of sound board, but
> if anyone has any more specific information, please fill me in.

DAC = Digital to Analog Converter, i.e. sound output.  I guess the lever
is a volume setting.  Haven't heard of this one either.

> Board 4:
> Labled as "Voice Input Module" by "Voice Machine Communications".  There
> is another daughterboard (but not piggybacked) connected to this board
> by two 16-pin cables.

Pass.  Possibly a phrase recognition system for some kind of control
system, or a simple analog input card which is optimized for digitizing
the speech range of the spectrum (telephone quality)?

> Board 5:
> This is the only board that's fairly straightforward in purpose - it's a
> Titan Technologies "Accelerator IIe".  Does anybody know how it compares
> to the Applied Engineering accelerator for the IIe?

An older product, I believe.  I've only ever used ZIP chips in a IIe, so
I don't know enough about the card-based accelerators to comment.

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand