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Alloy PC-Slave/286

S

smbaker

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2016
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435
Location
Oregon, USA
I bought a couple of these from eBay, as usual, without software. From wikipedia,

In 1984 Alloy developed the PC-Slave card which consisted of an x86 (8086 or V20) processor, either 256 KB or 1 MB of memory and two serial ports. Later, an Intel 80286-based version was released, called the PC-Slave/286. These cards used RTNX (later renamed NTNX) to allow the host computer to provide disk storage and printing support. Dumb PC-Term terminals were attached to the PC-Slave to allow the running of DOS programs. At the time, using this solution was more cost-effective than using separate networked computers, but as computers and networking hardware became cheaper and cheaper, Alloy's advantage was overshadowed by the disadvantages of not being able to support graphics, etc. Alloy also developed a PC-Bus expansion bus system to allow the install of up to 32 PC-Slave cards attached to a single host PC. This allowed 32 user networks to be created, but each network was completely standalone.
Click to expand...

To get it working would make an interesting project, an IBM 5150 with a couple of 286-class computers running inside it. However, the path to finding the software may be long and arduous. Alloy Computer Products does still exist, but their tech support says "no way" they have anything like the drivers for this still around.

I don't suppose anyone here has one of these cards and/or the software for it?

Scott
 
I saw someone in Canada list a pile of 8-bit cards. Is that who you bought from? I was tempted to pick up one or two to compliment my 286 cards.

Scott
 
I noticed the file I provided is only 1 disc and is not complete. You see here there are several discs (same site)

tumblr_pw57xtsHMG1y5v8mio1_1280.jpg

Think I will ask him if he still has a copy, dont find any other download location.

I will get one of these cards...
all.jpg
...from a scrap lot in germany. Will post a picture when it arrives. Can you provide a picture of your 286 card?
 
I didn't see this thread but predator99 messaged me, I actually just uploaded what I have to Archive.org for everyone's perusal. I got the zip from another member here a couple years ago, but I also ended up getting the original disk set from the friend I got the cards from, who was the one that originally developed the software that used them. He doesn't know where the software he made went, and I don't know what kind of shape the disks are in. I also don't know if the archive is complete. I'm really not good at software archiving and all my floppy drives seem to be broken in some way so I haven't gotten to archive them yet.

archive.org

Alloy PC Slave Software and Manual : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Some software and the Installation Guide for the Alloy PC Slave cards.
archive.org
 
Hi Mike, thank you so much for your quick reply and the upload to archive.org! Seems this Software and Documentation was not available anywhere else and it will help other card owners in the future, too.

Some cards are for sale here currently:
www.ebay.de

OLD Alloy PC Slave / 16 IBM PC Multi User 8088 CPU Board 8 Bit ISA, Full Length | eBay

ALL CARD PULLED FROM WORKING PC.
www.ebay.de

I will check your drivers later, my card has not arrived so far. Seems to be complete, file format is .imd (ImageDisk) see here
 
Wow! They have a whole lot of them. These things are crazy rare, I've never seen more than 2 in one place, and I've only ever seen them 1 other time.

They look to be the same as mine too.
 
I converted the disks to IMG and tested in PCem: There is no install program but when you put all disks in one dir on the harddisk it seems to run.

Now I need to test with a card installed...

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My card arrived. Not in the best condition. Did some tests but no sign of life so far. Will check the scratches on the backside next...

IMG_1094r.jpg

IMG_1101r.jpg
 
All things considered, doesn't look too bad in the photos. Or... I should say... I've seen worse.

Scott
 
Traces are all OK, so this is not the cause.

I contacted the owner of the bbelmix.is-best.net site I posted above. I didnt expect this, but he had copies of the drivers available and shared them with me. Very nice and friendly.
Seems to be another revision, will test them later...
 

Attachments

  • ALLOY.zip
    800.8 KB · Views: 5
I was looking through ISA cards trying to find info when I came across this post. I have one of these cards also. Thanks for the link to the software.
I have owned this card for a while now and have not found more information until today. I'm excited to try this thing out!
I will try it out and report back with pictures and what I needed to do to set it up.
 
Great, please report!

I gave up with my card. Think there is an hardware defect. I tried in a Pentium-II and then also in an IBM 286. The driver detects something. At least the error message on the correct port is different from the message on another port. Thats it.
 
predator99 said:
Think there is an hardware defect. I tried in a Pentium-II and then also in an IBM 286.
Click to expand...

I think you might have problems using this card in a Pentium II. From looking at the manual on archive.org, I see that there is a requirement of no more than 21K clusters in any DOS extended partition. If your Pentium II is setup anything like the norm for this system, you're going to have FAR LARGER partitions.

The IBM 286 has better chances. But there are other requirements you have to look into. (Assuming you overlooked them when you were troubleshooting before.) NTNX will not run if a hard disk is using DMA channel 1. Also, the card uses 15 watts of power, so make sure your PSU is strong enough. (It probably is unless you have a lot of other add-ons or a few power hungry ones.)

What graphics adapter you have will play a role also. The card needs to use address segment A000 and/or D000 depending on how it's configured. The software that came with the basic system can only use a single segment: D000. So you can't have anything else using that segment. (If you have EMS, for example, that could be a problem.) The picture of your board shows a jumper on E21-E22, which means it's configured to use both segments. It's possible the software will only work with this jumper removed.

All this makes me think of one other possibility. The manual only talks about DOS 3.x which is very "simplistic" memory wise. If you're using a later DOS version, you might have trouble with its memory management features.

Hope these points help you figure out what the problem is with your card.
 
Yes, I read the manual, too. It tested with DOS 3.3. For the segments there are 2 different drivers versions available. I tested with the D000 segment only and set the jumpers accordingly. I also noticed there is no RAM at D000:0. But there is a high chance it should be there also without driver on a working card.
So I do not give up very fast but I am quite sure there is something wrong with the card...
 
I found the manual a little confusing and its layout not the best. I just wanted to be sure you hadn't missed something. Oh well...
 
I wonder if anyone ever tried to build a super computer out of these things? The ability to load 32 of them in a single system would have provided significant processing power at the time if used in parallel. Obviously its no Cray XM-P but still.
 
I had my first battle with the slave-16 card. I could not get the IMD images to work. I tried 360K and 720Disk, but my IBM PC would not read them. I ended up using the the files in ALLOY.zip.
running INSTALL did not go very far. The card asked me if I changed any jumpers on the board. answer yes or no bring me to a screen telling me to re-read the manual and set the jumpers correctly.
My card is a little different then what the manual shows, So I am not sure how to set SB1 and switches 1-5 on SB2. Jumper E4 is sheered off so no jumper can be set. Attached are pictures of the card. If anyone knows the proper switch settings I will try to give this another go.
2024-03-12_130054.jpg2024-03-12_130114.jpg
 
Looks like SB1 was for DOS/disk cache. I still don't know what 2-5 on SB2 do. Also, since E4 is sheered, and from what I have found it should be jumped. I might have to solder a new jumper and try again
 
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