Al Kossow
Documentation Wizard
weird. fwiw, based on the markings that is a Fujitsu board
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What is this? Post Photos of Mystery Items Here (vintage computers only)
- Thread starter billdeg
- Start date
Chuck(G)
25k Member
I'll see if the Fuji tape drive maintenance manual sheds any light on it. The 9 track arrangement puts the most significant bits and parity on the inside tracks and then alternates odd-even tbits on the outside tracks. Could be something internal to the drive for testing.
hunterjwizzard
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2020
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Was it normal to have something like an 8088 on a drive control board back in the day? I'm not super up to speed on older machines but I know that's the entire processor in some computers.
Eudimorphodon
Veteran Member
It’s not that unusual to have a dedicated CPU on a disk controller card to offload housekeeping to, but… lacking any documentation for this thing it’s hard to say if that’s what I found, or if it’s just a low-rent primary CPU with a disk controller on the same card. (Seems like most x86 MultiBus cpu cards used 8086s? The bus does support 8 bit CPUs, though, it goes back to the 8080 era.) That it has a UART on it is probably a point in favor of it being a CPU.
It’s a shame the ROMs are gone. Guessing they were reusable EPROMs.
Plasma
Veteran Member
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Most Commodore disk drives have an internal controller with a 6502. If you had a VIC-20 with a 1540, your floppy drive had the same CPU as your computer.
Eudimorphodon
Veteran Member
I vaguely recall that the 80188 showed up in quite a few places in the later 80’s, including things like early FAX cards. If you plugged that into an XT technically your modem might be faster than your motherboard.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
My Tally (actually then, Mannesman Tally) printer used an 8088, which was interesting because it was being driven by a Morrow Z80 computer. USRobotics used the 80188 extensively in their Courier modems. I have a Cipher tape drive board with not only an 80188, but two Zilog Z8002 MPUs.
But even the x86 chips of the time weren't up to the demands of laser printing. There, I've seen 68K and NSC32 chips running the show. There, a big linear address space is important. For a time, it wasn't unusual to find that the CPU in your laser printer was more powerful than the one in the PC driving it.
Eudimorphodon
Veteran Member
The AMD 29K series mostly flopped as a computer CPU, but it was a *sweet* laser printer brain when it came out. Could run rings around a 68000…
hunterjwizzard
Veteran Member
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So were 8088s just that cheap or was there nothing else up to the task?
jlang
Experienced Member
My guess is since this board was designed to offload the file management part of MS-dos
X86 code compatibility was a big deal.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
In "minimum mode" the 8088 was about the same as an 8085 setup.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Ah, that makes sense. In fact, this is the "Field Tester" described in Appendix A of the 244x CE manual
Note to the OP: If you're thinking to cannibalize this device, please reconsider. It would find a good home with me and my frequently-used X2444AX drive.
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Eudimorphodon
Veteran Member
Did you find this before I did (just now)?
According to the “MultiBus Buyer’s Guide Summer 1984” it is indeed a smart disk controller! The little blurb says its onboard ROM software understands both CP/M and IBM PC filesystems.
I guess it’s essentially a boat anchor without the software, manuals, and a MultiBus system to put it in, so I don’t have to feel too guilty borrowing parts off it, but… cool.
jlang
Experienced Member
Did you find this before I did (just now)?
According to the “MultiBus Buyer’s Guide Summer 1984” it is indeed a smart disk controller! The little blurb says its onboard ROM software understands both CP/M and IBM PC filesystems.
I guess it’s essentially a boat anchor without the software, manuals, and a MultiBus system to put it in, so I don’t have to feel too guilty borrowing parts off it, but… cool.
Borrow what you want but don't damage the board. I'd like to restore it when your'e done pulling parts.Did you find this before I did (just now)?
According to the “MultiBus Buyer’s Guide Summer 1984” it is indeed a smart disk controller! The little blurb says its onboard ROM software understands both CP/M and IBM PC filesystems.
I guess it’s essentially a boat anchor without the software, manuals, and a MultiBus system to put it in, so I don’t have to feel too guilty borrowing parts off it, but… cool.
mark0x01
Experienced Member
I'd happily donate it, but the the cost of getting it from NZ to USA would be huge, especially as the case is heavy steel.
Eudimorphodon
Veteran Member
I think the only non-socketed parts I really had my eye on were the 8251, 8253, and 8284, and my desire for them was going to be pro-rated against how big of a pain desoldering them would be vs. how much it’d be to just get them somewhere else.
Chuck(G)
25k Member
Okay, I can appreciate that. Perhaps you can find a Fuji 244x owner in NZ/OZ. Shame to see a tool like this go to waste.
ClassicHasClass
Veteran Member
I loved the 29000 in the Apple 8*24*GC. Not as fast as Apple advertised, but still pretty darn fast.
Al Kossow
Documentation Wizard
There was a 29000 Mac prototyped by Brian Case (previously worked at AMD on the chip)
at the same time the 88000 work was going on.
I dont think it was ever completely debugged.
Sad I remember exactly where his cube was decades later now.
at the same time the 88000 work was going on.
I dont think it was ever completely debugged.
Sad I remember exactly where his cube was decades later now.
firebirdta84
Experienced Member
These are screenshots from two episodes of Knight Rider, the earliest of which has a filming date of August 1982, so we know that this can't be any newer than that. Chances are, they are from the 70s though. I've asked some other places, but THIS audience is the most knowledgeable for sure! Can anyone identify either the keyboard, OR the terminal (preferably both)?
There are pics on the internet of this same keyboard being mis-matched with an IBM 3277 terminal, (also in Knight Rider) and that terminal has been well identified already. It's the mystery keyboard, and the more "trapezoidal" mystery terminal that we are most interested in identifying...just to avoid that confusion/tangent thanks!
https://entrex480.blogspot.com/p/ibm-3270-terminal-1972.html
I'm researching this as part of our "Computers of Knight Rider" video series being produced by The Knight Rider Historians (yep, that's us...)
This is pretty much the ONLY real terminal/computer (not a fake prop, but a real-life machine) in the entire series that we are unable to identify as of yet...
It could end up being the biggest unsolved mystery of the entire show!
Thanks, everyone!
-AJ
There are pics on the internet of this same keyboard being mis-matched with an IBM 3277 terminal, (also in Knight Rider) and that terminal has been well identified already. It's the mystery keyboard, and the more "trapezoidal" mystery terminal that we are most interested in identifying...just to avoid that confusion/tangent thanks!
https://entrex480.blogspot.com/p/ibm-3270-terminal-1972.html
I'm researching this as part of our "Computers of Knight Rider" video series being produced by The Knight Rider Historians (yep, that's us...)
This is pretty much the ONLY real terminal/computer (not a fake prop, but a real-life machine) in the entire series that we are unable to identify as of yet...
It could end up being the biggest unsolved mystery of the entire show!
Thanks, everyone!
-AJ
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