Tulip 286 ISA card?

[Tetrium2]

Hi all.

I've come here to ask a question about an ISA card that I've had for a long time now (10+ years I think).
At first glance it seems to basically be a 286 on an ISA board, it was made by Tulip (former Dutch computer builder). Only thing I remember about how I aquired it is that I must've taken it out of a computer while dumpster diving.

The card seems to have a 286 CPU made by AMD, an empty 287 socket, a daughterboard with lots of little RAM chips, a chipset and it has a DIN connector.
This makes me think this was some kind of upgrade card for upgrading a 8086 or similar to a 286.

I never tested it, for several reasons. One of them was to prevent it from getting damaged by inappropriate usage (if I don't know what I'm doing, I'd rather wait till I do know what I'm supposed to do).

I did take some pics of the board, but be warned, I took them with my mobile (my old camera died) and I can't really crop them as this would only make the pics harder to read and the quality of the pics is rather poor.

So I will describe the silkscreened print as one can't really tell by the pics.

Top left (daughterboard:
TULIP COMPUTERS
MEX 2688KB

The daughterboard seems to only have half of it's RAM sockets filled.

One of the chips (seems as if it has 2x2 rows of chips, 1x2 rows are filled and the other 1x2 rows are empty sockets) on the daughterboard reads as:
TMS 4256-12NL
EHI 802 OLAS (some the chips have OLBS instead of OLAS)

The chips (4 in total) in between the 2 different double rows of memory chips read as:
TMS 4464-12NL
EHP 8801

The CPU reads:
N80286-10/C2H (I presume AMD 286 at 10MHz in a certain package)

It has a chipset (I presume it's a chipset) made by "CHIPS" consisting of 4 socketed chips, the largest reads:
CHIPS
P82C201-10

It seems to have 2 BIOS chips, but they have an Intel logo on them. Sticker reads:
TC7B0 1.03 (I suppose TC stands for Tulip Computers)
6 NOV 87

The 'mainboard' has the following silkscreaned:
TULIP COMPUTERS - THE NETHERLANDS - P/N 38-12280-01

When I found the board, it had already sustained minor corrosion (1 or 2 of the screws was harder to remove because of this) and a few of the RAM chips seem to have minor scratches on their surface, but other than that the board seems to be undamaged. It's exactly 34cm (was the maximum length, as you probably already know) and is very heavy!

Can anyone tell me what exactly this is and what it's potential uses could be today?

And it's possible I already asked about this particular board before, I can't remember though (google couldn't find the part number so I presume I didn't post it's part number previously).

 

[Tetrium2]

Maximum number of attachments was 5, so the remaining 4 I added to a new reply.

 

[SpidersWeb]

It's seems to be 286 at 10Mhz motherboard on a card with 640KB of RAM installed, and the judging by the name of the memory expansion module it has the potential to be expanded to also have 2MB of extended memory (not fitted).

What I'm not sure of, is if it was a computer-on-a-card or an upgrade card. Both were quite common.

I'm going with computer-on-a-card - designed to be installed in a blank backplane. This meant the user could upgrade to a faster computer in the future by simply changing the card (rather than dismantling the machine to get the motherboard out). The reason I say this, is because if it was an upgrade card it would've been used to upgrade XTs - which normally don't have a 16 bit ISA bus.

Can't confirm it, but I'd be surprised if it was anything else.

 

[Tetrium2]

It's seems to be 286 at 10Mhz motherboard on a card with 640KB of RAM installed, and the judging by the name of the memory expansion module it has the potential to be expanded to also have 2MB of extended memory (not fitted).

What I'm not sure of, is if it was a computer-on-a-card or an upgrade card. Both were quite common.

I'm going with computer-on-a-card - designed to be installed in a blank backplane. This meant the user could upgrade to a faster computer in the future by simply changing the card (rather than dismantling the machine to get the motherboard out). The reason I say this, is because if it was an upgrade card it would've been used to upgrade XTs - which normally don't have a 16 bit ISA bus.

Can't confirm it, but I'd be surprised if it was anything else.

I thought 8088s were 16 bit? (edit: I was wrong, 8088 apparently had an 8 bit bus and ISA only seems to have come with 286) But if these also never had 16 bit slots, then your suggestion about it being a computer-on-a-card almost has to be correct.

Though would you know why it didn't come with a battery? Could a non-present battery on the PCB indicate anything? Or did I perhaps overlook it? I don't know, I didn't see any spot for a battery (I usually snip those).
Another thing why I always thought it was actually an upgrade card, is because I found very very few servers to pillage to begin with, it most likely came from a desktop as those were the types of computers I knew how to break open and empty. Obviously I can't be sure, partially because it has been so long. And frankly, perhaps the previous owner wrongly put it into a desktop system in the first place.

But then again, even as an upgrade card it wouldn't be very practical for me to use as the slowest mainboard I have laying around (which should work as-is) is a 386, so a 286 wouldn't be much of an upgrade :D

Cheers for sharing your thoughts

edit: Now that I think of it, if 286 came out in 81 and this card was made around 87, then wouldn't it simply not make any sense to sell a 10MHz 286 upgrade card in 87?
If this is the case, the computer-on-a-card-theory seems even more plausible.

Anyone else have any thoughts? This card is quite interesting I think

 

[1ST1]

It's not an extension of an XT to AT. It's an AT in a different formfactor. That what you expect as a mainboard to plugin the 286 card is just a more or less thumb ISA backplane. These PCs on an ISA card were available as 286, 386SX, 486 and even Pentium up to at least Pentium 4. (Some peoples use such PC-cards in the ISA slot of the Amiga 2000/3000/4000) Later generations did not provide only ISA over the backplane, but with extra connectors (or EISA-like connector) also VLB or PCI. There were also well known manufacturers which did complete PCs on this kind of design, for example Olivetti M290 and some M300 models

 

[Chuck(G)]

Reminds me a bit of one of the Olivetti 286 (M290?) systems--CPU on a card; pretty much passive backplane. Memory is on a separate card. The CPU card that I have has a 6MHz CLCC 286 on it, so it must be pretty early.

 

[SpidersWeb]

Often in a 286 the battery was external, so I'd look for a 4 pin connector with possibly pin 3 removed. Some others (like my IBM PS/2's) use a Dallas chip with a battery built in.

The 80286 CPU may have been designed in 1981, but IBM didn't release the AT until 1984 at a meezly 6Mhz, most of the 286 systems I have here are actually around 1987/1988. Some of my Turbo XT clones are actually 1988! So a 286 upgrade card in that period would actually make sense - but it'd generally have an 8 bit slot and most of the cards I've seen also had a ribbon cable to go over to the 8088 CPU socket.

I've tried google and TULARC, but just can't find this card :/ Hopefully somebody who's used on recognizes it.

I wouldn't know which one is required, but you can get the passive backplanes off ebay, which even if not perfectly matched - would let you power it up:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...SA+backplane.TRS0&_nkw=ISA+backplane&_sacat=0

This layout was also commonly used in industrial boxes, hence why some of them have 20 slots

 

[Tetrium2]

Often in a 286 the battery was external, so I'd look for a 4 pin connector with possibly pin 3 removed. Some others (like my IBM PS/2's) use a Dallas chip with a battery built in.

The 80286 CPU may have been designed in 1981, but IBM didn't release the AT until 1984 at a meezly 6Mhz, most of the 286 systems I have here are actually around 1987/1988. Some of my Turbo XT clones are actually 1988! So a 286 upgrade card in that period would actually make sense - but it'd generally have an 8 bit slot and most of the cards I've seen also had a ribbon cable to go over to the 8088 CPU socket.

I've tried google and TULARC, but just can't find this card :/ Hopefully somebody who's used on recognizes it.

I wouldn't know which one is required, but you can get the passive backplanes off ebay, which even if not perfectly matched - would let you power it up:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...SA+backplane.TRS0&_nkw=ISA+backplane&_sacat=0

This layout was also commonly used in industrial boxes, hence why some of them have 20 slots lol

You are right!

After a bit of searching (noticed some minute things like bend jumper pins, nothing special) I found the battery pins you mentioned, indeed 4 with one of the 2 middle ones missing. And right away I saw the other standard PC connectors. They are located at the top left most spot (running from the top left corner downwards towards the bottom left corner) and are:
BAT (Battery of course)
SPK (speaker connector, another 4 pins with 1 missing)
PWR ON (2 pins)
KEY (keylock, dunno as I never actually used this connector on any PC I ever build)
RST (reset)

The bad news is that I also discovered the original battery had already leaked on the card, but the damage seems to have been contained to the mentioned pins of the PC connectors and the top left screw which is one of 5 screws holding the memory board and the main PCB together. I took the pics I posted earlier a couple days ago and I had already noticed this particular screw was harder to remove. I did put the screw back in it's original position, mostly because I want to keep it as original as possible (yes, I know it's just a screw but somehow I still find this sort of details important).

To me it's obvious the battery leak damage has been contained, I left it in a box for 10 years or so and it hasn't corroded any further. The PCB seems undamaged, the battery 'particles' seem to be concentrated mostly on the black plastic where the PC connectors are located (this I think should be cleaned up first as the corrosion might corrode the pins) and also the top black plastic that's part of the system that connects the memory board to the main PCB (the other one is at the left, slightly below the middle).

Would you also think that this card is most likely indeed a complete PC card?

And about your suggestion of getting this ISA backplane from Ebay, I don't even have my old ebay account anymore, nor the funds. But I do remember having some very strange computer-like old ...thing. This thing had more than the standard 8 slots a normal board would have, but I would have to get it from my spare bedroom and I really don't have time to dig it out as I need to get up very early tomorrow.

But personally I think I would keep this board, even if it turns out to be defective

Thanks for your advices so far, really appreciating the efford here, thanks! :D

 

[JvV]

It's most likely for a Tulip AT Compact:

Tulip at compact

De Tulip AT Compact is een uit 1987 stammende computer en de eerste computer met de 16-bit 286 processor aan boord van Tulip.

www.homecomputermuseum.nl