Seems that you guys might have missed some of the important discussions leading up to this point. No offense intended; I'll just fill in some of the gaps till trag returns (and no doubt clarifies my more glaring errors [
] ]'> )
Firstly, FFC is Flat Flex Cable - which is the kind of cable you're referring to, Unknown_K, and for which trag shows his working.
Second, the problem isn't that the upgrade takes up the PDS socket. It's that the Daystar upgrades are not SE/30 PDS compatible - they are IIci PDS cards - and the necessary adapter is rare, complex and expensive. Artmix's clone of the adapter sells for $200, and original ones are often that price or higher.
Some time ago, trag (not sure if it was independant or not, but "and I") realised that the IIcx adapter - which plugs into the CPU socket, not the PDS - was a lot simpler in construction (and cheaper, although roughly as rare). As the CPU in the SE/30 and IIcx run at the same speed, discussion began on the possibility of cloning this adapter in a shape that would fit into an SE/30.
As far as building a cheaper (PDS) adapter a la Artmix, trag's already done the sums on that, and concluded that it couldn't be reasonably done. Another reason for focusing on the IIcx CPU socket adapter.
If the PDS "just" broke out the CPU pins, then all the various Daystar PDS adapters would be as simple as the IIcx one. At most you'd just be remapping pins. The existence of logic on the Daystar SE/30 PDS adapter suggests otherwise.
] ]'> )Firstly, FFC is Flat Flex Cable - which is the kind of cable you're referring to, Unknown_K, and for which trag shows his working.
Second, the problem isn't that the upgrade takes up the PDS socket. It's that the Daystar upgrades are not SE/30 PDS compatible - they are IIci PDS cards - and the necessary adapter is rare, complex and expensive. Artmix's clone of the adapter sells for $200, and original ones are often that price or higher.
Some time ago, trag (not sure if it was independant or not, but "and I") realised that the IIcx adapter - which plugs into the CPU socket, not the PDS - was a lot simpler in construction (and cheaper, although roughly as rare). As the CPU in the SE/30 and IIcx run at the same speed, discussion began on the possibility of cloning this adapter in a shape that would fit into an SE/30.
As far as building a cheaper (PDS) adapter a la Artmix, trag's already done the sums on that, and concluded that it couldn't be reasonably done. Another reason for focusing on the IIcx CPU socket adapter.
If the PDS "just" broke out the CPU pins, then all the various Daystar PDS adapters would be as simple as the IIcx one. At most you'd just be remapping pins. The existence of logic on the Daystar SE/30 PDS adapter suggests otherwise.