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What...are THESE??

One Man Band

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
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Location
NC
http://www.onemanband.com/ebay/mysterycards.jpg

I just opened up one of my Platinums and found these inside. Does anyone know what they are? I think they're together somehow. They were in neighboring slots: the normal card was in 2 and the 'monolith' was in 3 (or it might have been 3 and 4...I forget now and I didn't take a picture first, doh!).

Anyway, the normal card has the following markings on it:

GSP (looks like company logo silked on the board), has a big Zilog 8530 chip, and 2x 25 pin connectors labeled Port A and Port B.

There is info done in traces:
ARTWORK PC19845
REV B
DETAIL PC19846
MODEL GTP-245
ASSY PC19847
EPD 3 94V O

The other 'thing' is really weird and I've never seen the likes of this before:

A normal card edge is all I can see as far as components go, the rest is ENTIRELY encased is a solid, black resin kind of stuff. About half an inch thick. You can tell by the picture there are some 'things' in there because the surface of that side is irregular (you can see rectangular shapes in it). From left to right, it looks like a big chip on the far left, then a smaller chip next to it, and 3 columns of chips. It's as if someone REALLY doesn't want others to know how this 'thing' was implemented.

Anyway, I can tell they are connected somehow (though there are no cables connecting them) because there is a sticker on the top edge of the monolith with the following printed with a dot-matrix printer:
P20553C REV:B/A
S/N 104,091

And on top of that is a 6 (or 9) stamped on it in red ink. It's the same 6 (or 9) that is stamped on a white sticker on the back of the normal card, and also uses the same font font that is on the card-side of the 25pin ribbons (14 for the Port A ribbon, and 7 for the Port B ribbon). Next to the dot matrix sticker on the top of the monolith is a black foam pad. I guess it's to protect the ribbons from rubbing on it because when I opened up the case, the bottom ribbon was stuck into this pad.

I can take pictures of anything else to help identify these.

Thanks!

]3ob
 
It looks like hte top card may be a CP/M or Z80 card of some sort for Apple ][. The black card is a mystery and unless you can get the black stuff off, it's gonna stay that way.
 
If it were a Z80 card, it should have a Z80 CPU on it. It does not.
The large chip is clearly marked "Z8530 SCC" which is in fact a large clue to what the board might be.
 
lol wow, did you ask this question 12 years ago? ;-) Kinda funny, I wonder if this is who you got the system from. (per google groups result)


"1. James Crouch
More options Aug 1 1996, 2:00 am
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
From: James Crouch <jcro...@netride.com>
Date: 1996/08/01
Subject: card/cards identity?

I recently purchased a nice platinum //e (extended keypad built in)
I have discoverd two cards inside:

A card in slot #1 has two connectors labled Port A & Port B. two
connectors labled port 1&2 are connected and terminate in two DB-25
female connectors. On the card itself is this screened info:
GSP
Artwork PC19845
Detail PC19846
Model GTP-245
Assy PC19847

There is a ZILOG Processor? Z8530 also 4 two position jumpers.
Oh yes and a little sticker with a red '6' on it.

There is another card encased in black epoxy that is labled 'P20553C
REV B/A' with an identical little sticker with the '6' on it.

I purchased this unit at a consingment which is checking with the
most recent owner...

Any Ideas?? I think the 'black' card is for software copy
protection. The two stickers have me wondering...

2. Tom Zuchowski
More options Aug 2 1996, 2:00 am
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
From: Tom Zuchowski <cd003...@interramp.com>
Date: 1996/08/02
Subject: Re: card/cards identity?

- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
James Crouch <jcro...@netride.com> wrote:
>I recently purchased a nice platinum //e (extended keypad built in)
>I have discoverd two cards inside:
The Zilog Z8530 is a dual channel serial communications controller. I
think that answers your question as to what the card is, it's a
dual-channel serial card.

I have no ideas on the other card.

TomZ"
 
lol wow, did you ask this question 12 years ago? ;-) Kinda funny, I wonder if this is who you got the system from. (per google groups result)

No, that wasn't me, but funny that we asked the exact same thing in virtually the exact same way. :)

Putting the monolith in slot 7 didn't yield any boot/content info.

]3ob
 
The Z8530 is a dual port serial chip, also used on original 128K mac for connectivity (localtalk). The 1488 and 1489 driver chips on this board would limit applications to RS232.
 
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