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STD Bus Computers?

I've got a few STD Z-80 processor/RAM/ROM single boards in the factory packing from my boss. We used them in one of our digital disc mastering (as in vinyl record) systems that ended up getting canned due to copyright litigation with the programmer. There's a STD bus backplane for them somewhere...most of the boards designed for the system are servo control boards. I'm told that the SBCs I have could either have a STD bus floppy controller added, or possibly have one populated on-board, and boot CP/M.
 
I have been interested in STD based computers for a while due to how easy it appears to be to make additional cards as needed. Vector Electronics still makes the boards for prototyping, and there are a few manufacturers of STD card items still available.

I've been thinking about making my own custom board using a 65816 (as it seems impossible to find a STD based on that 16-bit CPU) as I have a book on STD Card interfacing already and I've got a backplane. So I have the need inside to using it eventually.

But I've been wondering if anyone else still uses it due to its relative age. I am told that they are still common in industrial machines as the control computers.

Dimitri
 
Yep, it does seem that they're used in industrial control quite a bit -- a lot of legacy hardware is, and the STD bus was designed for industrial settings in the first place. If it's not broken, why replace it?

IIRC, Pro-Log had a hand in creating the STD bus standard. You still see a lot of their boards on eBay, even entire card cages sometimes.
 
Hi! There is a similar concept called STE bus which uses a similar size board but a 96 pin DIN 41612 connector instead of the card edge. It is pretty slick for embedded and I think it even got an IEEE standard. Long obsolete though much like STD unfortunately. The idea is certainly good but I think PC104 more or less completely replaced them all in embedded applications.

We use ECB bus Eurocards (160x100mm) with DIN 41612 connectors on the N8VEM project. They work great and are rock solid. You are welcome to join us and make your CPU board there. I am sure there would be some other builders who would be interested in a 65816 board as well. We already have a 6x0x processor system but not a 65816 CPU.

Good luck with your project regardless. Thanks and have a nice day!

Andrew Lynch
 
lynchaj said:
We use ECB bus Eurocards (160x100mm) with DIN 41612 connectors on the N8VEM project. They work great and are rock solid. You are welcome to join us and make your CPU board there. I am sure there would be some other builders who would be interested in a 65816 board as well. We already have a 6x0x processor system but not a 65816 CPU.
Click to expand...

And the N8VEM project boards are very high quality too! I've built the XT-IDE, SBC188 and have a S-100 Serial IO setting on my bench, waiting for parts. All three are great little projects, and the ECB bus is well-suited to 16-bit CPUs, so that may be something to consider too. Since ECB uses a through-hole DIN 41612 connector, you can prototype a processor board with regular perfboard.
 
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