Thread

I like pasta, but I don't know this one... (NUBUS)

68kMLA Software 12 posts Jun 29, 2010 to Jul 19, 2010

#1 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 - 06:46 68kMLA

can any nubus experts identify this?

the board styling and tagging looks somewhat apple, the fact we've got prototype names on some of the chips is interesting.. sadly it seems the label on the eprom is removed, so no idea what that said...

it's a strange board...

#2 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 - 09:10 68kMLA

I assume it's called a "pasta board" because of all the spaghetti cabling coming off those headers

#3 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 - 10:25 68kMLA

Probably half of a video capture board of some kind.

#4 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 - 13:49 68kMLA

I'm not too sure.. I'll see if those are roms i can dump once my programmer comes in this week so i can see if there's any clues as to what it is...

The chips onboard don't look very "video" to me...

#5 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 - 18:19 68kMLA

Should be another board that connects to it, and the output terminals looked like a VGA + capture

#6 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 - 01:24 68kMLA

oh well that was all there was with it in a pile of other junker (mostly ii video card) boards...

#7 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 - 03:23 68kMLA

What the alphanumerics on the big TI chips near the NuBus connector. I assume that two of them are the NuBus transceiver chipset, but I think that only required two chips and there are three there.

#8 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 - 04:07 68kMLA

< . . . peeks into thread he's been too busy to take a look at :I . . . >

If you have a NuBus Mac, pop it in, download and install the Gauge Series (link should be in the "Links Project" in Peripherals), and run SlotInfo! Then capture a screen shot and post the image here! That EPROM should have the drivers (maybe) and board info (almost certainly) stored away.

I agree that higher res shots of the ICs are crucial, if you want any real chance of figuring this one out.

< . . . scurries back to match.com :approve: . . . >

#9 Fri, 9 Jul 2010 - 20:04 68kMLA

I'll give that last option a shot and see what turns up...

the TI chips are SN74BCT2420FN "Nubus Address/Data Transceivers And Registers"

http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/130241/TI/SN74BCT2420FN/+031_5_VRh/1yOvNGH/1vwCvP/1+/datasheet.pdf

I'll try to get better pics of the board- also, I've got some better adapters for my chip programmer so I might be able to dump the eprom (assuming UV hasn't wiped it)

#10 Sat, 10 Jul 2010 - 05:02 68kMLA

Doesn't it take rather intense UV to wipe those kinds of chips?

#11 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 - 16:12 68kMLA

the eprom read fine, sadly there's next to nothing on it.

I'll post up the dump if anyone cares, but it basically identifies it as "cytyc corp" pasta board.

the rest of the labeled chips are pla's which may or may not be readable by my programmer- i'll have to see, but i'm not holding my breath.

the actual code on the eprom is about 2 lines, nothing worth even talking about- my guess is that this only exists to identify the board, not actually hold any real code.

#12 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 - 20:23 68kMLA

http://www.answers.com/topic/cytyc-corporation

Incorporated: 1987

NAIC: 325413 In-Vitro Diagnostic Substance Manufacturing; 334516 Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing; 339112 Surgical & Medical Instrument Manufacturing

I bet the eprom is there to tell the software you have the correct board, and tie the software to a specific code for that board.