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What's this card?

L

Luke

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Joined
Apr 3, 2006
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Poland
I digged out that multi card to try to found out settings (if I don't find settings on net, I connect random choosen MFM hard drive, run SpeedStor that show me what parameters of drive are set and I check all combinations).
I putted it in computer and started to connecting cables to drive... but data cable didn't mached...
I realized, that on the board there are 6 pins more.



At first time it looked like MFM controller. 'DISK' is written under command's connector and there are two connectors similar to data connectors.
If it's not for MFM drive, for what it could be?
Maybe it's only FDD controller?

The card was propably pulled out of old 8088 clone.
I have other parts from it, all are mached 'PCC xxxxx'.

Anyone have any idea what it is?
 
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I see a disk interface, a battery for retaining settings, crystal clock chips, (Is that a Zilog Z80??) maybe a processor, and two external ports. I can't say for sure, but that looks like a complete computer! Maybe a kind of compatability card? So an IBM can run non-IBM software and emulate another machine?
 
That's not processor, it says:

Z765APS
FDC
8609

In these two free sockets processor can be insered.

But notice, that these J22 and J23 aren't standart MFM data cables...

It looks like these two ext. ports are game port & parallel.
 
Been loooong time since I counted the pins on a FDC but 34 sounds about right for a floppy. I'm betting just a plain multifunction card with disk controller, parallel, etc.
 
Serial ports

Serial ports

The two empty sockets are sized at 40 pins - just right for an 8250 UART, and between them and J22/J23 I can see line driver chips.
Therefore the probability is extremely high that the card caters for two serial ports by inserting 8250's into the sockets and connecting J22/J23 to 9 or 25 pin 'D' connectors.
 
Its probably a super serial I/O floppy card with the battery backing up the floppy and port configuration data (or maybe the floppy ports are some old HD port). 8 Bit ISA cards are a bit before my experience (I used mostly 286's and after which used 16 bit cards).
 
Luke said:
I digged out that multi card to try to found out settings (if I don't find settings on net, I connect random choosen MFM hard drive, run SpeedStor that show me what parameters of drive are set and I check all combinations).
I putted it in computer and started to connecting cables to drive... but data cable didn't mached...
I realized, that on the board there are 6 pins more.



At first time it looked like MFM controller. 'DISK' is written under command's connector and there are two connectors similar to data connectors.
If it's not for MFM drive, for what it could be?
Maybe it's only FDD controller?

The card was propably pulled out of old 8088 clone.
I have other parts from it, all are mached 'PCC xxxxx'.

Anyone have any idea what it is?
Click to expand...
Hi Luke,
I just dealt with the information about this exact adapter (I've been told it is from Magitronic) on the comp.sys.ibm.pc.classic newsgroup. As issued it was a FDC/RTC/1S/1P/GAME XT-class adapter. Yours is even missing the UART for the first serial port (empty 40-pin sockets).
I have the program to work with the RTC (or you might have it on the harddrive as "TIMER.COM"). To get back at least to one serial port (and the second was optional, added in the same way) you will need to put a UART back. The serial port connections (26-pin headers above the sockets) are irritating to me since they use an older connector that the AT-class I/O boards, but that is fine.
You may want to replace the battery with a coin cell holder so that the corrosive stuff (I would be surprised if the battery even works) won't damage the card. I did just that for my post to the newsgroup. You can read the information there (it needs the people to avoid a slow death) or I can repost everything here.
 
Magitronic... they made PC clones, right?

Thanks for the info, very helpful.
But I'am not going to put this in any computer.
My IBM XT don't need RTC and rest of my comps have RTCs.
I have motherboard that was working with this card, but it don't work with any kind of keyboard :(.
Batery is a bit corroded, I'll change it before giving this card away or selling.
 
it's an MFM hard disk controller. the port labelled "DISK" is for the MFM control cable, which can be shared by up to 2 MFM drives.

J22 would be the port for the first drive's data cable, and J23 is for the second optional drive's data cable. unlike the control cable, data cables cannot be shared.

interestingly enough, the control cable is 100% interchangable with a standard dual-drive floppy cable.
 
You are wrong.

Data cable have 20 pins and these connectors have 26 pins.
As IBMMuseum wrote, these are just serial ports connectors.
 
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