Help identify an unusual Quadram board and a CHIPS "SPEGASYNC"?

[Anonymous Freak]

I got a box of ISA cards recently. Most of them are pretty easy to identify, but two have me stumped.

One I can find vague reference to - a Chips & Technologies "SPEGASYNC" - everywhere online calls it just "Expansion card 8-bit ISA VIDEO CARD MDA, CGA, EGA." But this is odd. It has both a DE9-F and a DE9-M port. I'm sure it's a video card of some kind, just not sure what.

The other is an oddball Quadram card that has DB-25F and DE-9M ports, and a WD9250-PL chip. So I'm guessing it's a serial+parallel card at least. (Although DE-9 wasn't common for serial at that time...). The odd thing is that the components are on the "wrong" side of the card! Every ISA card I've seen is made so that the components are on the same side that the rear panel shell protrudes on to. (Which makes sense, it ensures that it doesn't encroach not the neighboring card.). This one has them on the 'back' side of the card! There are two jumper/header blocks on the 'front' side of the card - maybe it was supposed to have a 'daughtercard' of some kind on that side?








Sorry, I tried to scan them, but my scanner is being a pain and refusing to focus on the chips that are right against the glass...

 

[gslick]

I got a box of ISA cards recently. Most of them are pretty easy to identify, but two have me stumped.

One I can find vague reference to - a Chips & Technologies "SPEGASYNC" - everywhere online calls it just "Expansion card 8-bit ISA VIDEO CARD MDA, CGA, EGA." But this is odd. It has both a DE9-F and a DE9-M port. I'm sure it's a video card of some kind, just not sure what.

The "SPEGASYNC" has a 16450 UART on it so I would assume that the board is an EGA + serial port board. That would explain the two 9-pin ports. If the chip next to the 16450 is an MC1488 that is the RS232 quad line driver.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Oh, jeez. All the chips on there, and I missed the UART! That certainly explains that one, thanks!

 

[Retrom]

I have that exact same EGA card. It is indeed an EGA card with a 9 pin serial port. The jumpers are a bit of a pain to figure out, but once you have it set up correctly it works pretty well, and means you can add a serial port without taking up an extra slot in the computer (I used this card in my IBM5150, where all the slots were used up).