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Old ISA cards IBM

gonekrazy

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2009
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10
Found another basement full of old computer stuff, whole box of cards and much more I will have to dig for the rest
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Bus mouse card. Will not work with a serial or PS/2 mouse - it is an old interface.
 
The second card looks to be an EGA card rather than a CGA.

The last is an XT multi-I/O card. Floppy, 2 serial, parallel, joystick and clock. Only one of the serial ports is populated--the serial cables hook to the headers at the top of the card.
 
Bus mouse card. Will not work with a serial or PS/2 mouse - it is an old interface.

You need to have the right mouse for it as well, since bus mice had no standard interface. The jumper is for using it in the XT's slot 8, as that was wired differently than the others. You'll occasionally find cards with this feature.

The second card looks to be an EGA card rather than a CGA.

I believe that is a genuine IBM EGA card.
 
I'm interested in the InPort card as I have the mouse (and complete set of original adapters for use on PS/2 or either serial port too, the card and software** are all I'm missing). PM me with a price and shipping cost (Ontario Canada) if you're willing to part with it cheap please.

**If anyone has a copy of the disk(s) that came with the setup I'd appreciate a copy please.
 
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**If anyone has a copy of the disk(s) that came with the setup I'd appreciate a copy please.

The standard MOUSE.COM that comes with later versions of DOS does detect InPort (bus) mouses, and it is the only driver required to use them.

I'm a little interested in the EGA card though... Maybe the other cards in the box may be of interest too.
 
A few more controller cards.
DTC Data Tech EIDE Ultima Pro
WDC WDXT 300F

Video card
MACHSPEED 9239 has WDC chip on it ?.

I will put some more on here today and pics of these.

I have boxes of software also.

Some computers and boards I cant get to yet bit I will post them as I can.
 
Am I too understand that one can use this card to connect a PS/2 mouse into an older machine?

Nope. I have the adapter block to convert the mouse for use on a system with a PS/2 port.

This raises an interesting question though...if the mouse can be converted, surely the card can too (it isn't a 'dumb' adapter, there is logic inside).

It is a largely proprietary protocol though. You need an InPort mouse (or one of the OEM'd versions like shipped with some ATI video cards that had a mouse port on them) to use an InPort card, generally speaking.

The standard MOUSE.COM that comes with later versions of DOS does detect InPort (bus) mouses, and it is the only driver required to use them.

That's good to know, thanks per :)
I'm wondering though if there were any diagnostic utilities that came with the InPort setup? It would be nice to have them if only to be able to say I have them (same goes for the original IBM PS/2 mouse, someone agreed to copy the disk for me then asked where to send the files and then never emailed them)
 
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Mice information here. Note that the Microsoft bus mouse is essentially a passive device, much like an old joystick. All the smarts reside on the InPort microcontroller card. The PS/2 mouse, on the other hand, has the smarts in the mouse.

I never understood the Microsoft InPort mouse. Takes up a whole ISA slot, while a serial mouse only uses part of a multi-I/O serial card. No cheaper than a serial mouse either.
 
Mice information here. Note that the Microsoft bus mouse is essentially a passive device, much like an old joystick. All the smarts reside on the InPort microcontroller card. The PS/2 mouse, on the other hand, has the smarts in the mouse.

I never understood the Microsoft InPort mouse. Takes up a whole ISA slot, while a serial mouse only uses part of a multi-I/O serial card. No cheaper than a serial mouse either.

True, it was a design destined for failure. However I think some video cards integrated the InPort design - I have one such card, an ATI Graphics Ultra something or other. It's the same jack, I haven't tried to see if it works, I'm terrified of damaging my relatively rare mouse in case it is a different "bus mouse" design. The card originally came with an ATI mouse that I can't seem to find any info about.

See attachments.

And this is the graphics card (1280x800)
 

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The bus mouse did use less CPU time than a serial mouse, a good thing with low end systems. It also left the serial port open for other uses like connecting to a mini-computer.

I am fairly sure that the Logitech bus mouse card released around 1990 connected to PS/2 mice but the internal card handled data transfers to the system bus in the same manner as earlier bus mice.
 
Microsoft and Logitech both made bus mice; ATI used the Logitech controller--your ATI card originally came with a bus mouse included.

Microsoft, ATI and Logitech bus mice are all connector-compatible, so you should have no fear.

There are drivers wandering around for all models.
 
The bus mouse did use less CPU time than a serial mouse, a good thing with low end systems. It also left the serial port open for other uses like connecting to a mini-computer.

Measurably so? Compared to the cycles used to display the mouse pointer, the interrupt servicing time for a serial mouse driver would seem to be negligible.

Many systems by that time had capabilities for at least 2 serial ports; witness the multi-I/O card above--add a 1488, 1489 and an 8250 and you're in business. I don't think I have a vintage PC with only a single serial port.
 
Measurably so? Compared to the cycles used to display the mouse pointer, the interrupt servicing time for a serial mouse driver would seem to be negligible.

Many systems by that time had capabilities for at least 2 serial ports; witness the multi-I/O card above--add a 1488, 1489 and an 8250 and you're in business. I don't think I have a vintage PC with only a single serial port.

My experience was based on a CompuAdd 286. Unfortunately, that system gave up the ghost about 5 years ago so I can't confirm these values. What I remember was that Turbo Pascal compiles took about 10% longer with the serial mouse installed compared with the Logitech bus mouse. Additionally, using Windows 3 with a modem would often stall when the serial mouse was attached; problems that did not show up when using a bus mouse. I did connect that system via serial cable to other systems; I preferred the bus mouse to disconnecting either modem or serial cable to attach serial mouse or hoping that IRQ sharing would work this time.

The 486 systems I have had worked handled the serial mouse much better. I never bothered moving a bus mouse to them.
 
True, it was a design destined for failure. However I think some video cards integrated the InPort design - I have one such card, an ATI Graphics Ultra something or other. It's the same jack, I haven't tried to see if it works, I'm terrified of damaging my relatively rare mouse in case it is a different "bus mouse" design. The card originally came with an ATI mouse that I can't seem to find any info about.

My ATI VGA Wonder also has a mouse connector, and came with a mouse,
which I also can't find :-( . I'm fairly sure I have also used a Microsoft InPort
mouse with this card at one time. The Microsoft mouse like the one in your
picture is my favorite mouse of all time. I think these were around $100 when
they first came out.
 
My experience was based on a CompuAdd 286. Unfortunately, that system gave up the ghost about 5 years ago so I can't confirm these values. What I remember was that Turbo Pascal compiles took about 10% longer with the serial mouse installed compared with the Logitech bus mouse. Additionally, using Windows 3 with a modem would often stall when the serial mouse was attached; problems that did not show up when using a bus mouse. I did connect that system via serial cable to other systems; I preferred the bus mouse to disconnecting either modem or serial cable to attach serial mouse or hoping that IRQ sharing would work this time.

That makes no sense--the serial mouse driver responds to COM interrupts. If you're not moving the mouse, there's nothing happening. I've even got a serial mouse on my slow 386 running Win95 OSR2. No difference with or without it installed as far as speed. Could you have had a problem with your mouse?
 
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