What computer bus is this?

[luckybob]

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Ok, i've been around long enough, to know all the major ones. And this card has been keeping me up at night. I know its not VLB (Very Long Bus), but it looks like whoever made the card and subsequent motherboard, didnt have any of the typical pci card connectors to use, so they spun a whole new card, just to use a 2nd ISA connector? I look at the silkscreen on the card, and the stickers on the chips, and I just "feel" like this is an ACER product.

Regardless, this feels like a slam dunk if you have the motherboard this card goes into.

 

[Timo W.]

Before VLB, some 386 mainboards had proprietary 32-bit slots. That's what this is for.

 

[luckybob]

An mach32 on a 386? That just doesn't feel right.

 

[Wildfire]

When you search after the fccid from the sticker on the backside of the pcb:
FCC ID GQ8LA800

One can find out that this is an vga card from acer.
So maybe here are some acer specialists who can say more.
Eventually it makes sense for the OP to start a new thread with acer in it ?

The bus looks like 2 times 16-bit isa in a row

 

[Chuck(G)]

There were several proprietary local bus schemes prior to VESA VLB to resolve the issue of ISA being 16-bit and the 386+ CPUs having 32-bit data buses. Of course, this card doesn't do you any good if you don't have an appropriate working motherboard.

 

[krebizfan]

The funny part is that up to a few weeks ago, that card would have been with the matching motherboard because where else could it be found. The parting process has turned one nice computer into two piles of junk.

 

[luckybob]

well, it looks like someone bought it. Hopefully they chime in and let us know where the card is going.

 

[njroadfan]

Could be for the Gigabyte GA-486US motherboard. Although the two cards known for those slots were clearly made by Gigabyte.

GA-486SA: RARE EISA + VLB, or proprietary local bus slots? \ VOGONS

www.vogons.org

EDIT: Nope, the 2nd ISA slot is clearly offset more on that mach32 card.

 

[njroadfan]

According to the FCC ID on the card, it was made by Acer.... so Acer likely had their own proprietary 32-bit local bus.

 

[njroadfan]

Digging around, this may slot into a Acer J1 motherboard: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/acer-j1

PC World January 1993 Page 113 Mentions it: https://vintageapple.org/pcworld/pdf/PC_World_9301_January_1993.pdf

Need less to say, the Model 5657 took first place in every test. Aside from its high-speed CPU, it boasts all the right performance features, including 8MB of RAM , a 256K external memory cache, an EISA bus, and a video accelerator described by Acer's strategic planning manager L. Pablo Grodnitzky as "a proprietary local-bus graphics adapter using ATI's high-performance video chip and our own proprietary ASICs."