Anyone know what this is?

#1 Wed, 24 Jun 2015 - 19:41 68kMLA

I acquired this in a lot of boards a few months ago. Any idea what it is? I've tried googling the part number but couldn't find anything.

#2 Wed, 24 Jun 2015 - 19:53 68kMLA

It's totally unpopulated, and scratched so I guess is an Apple reject from somewhere down the line.

Looks like it has a PATA connector at the top (Picture 2), and the connectors at the bottom right of the same look like old-style analogue audio connectors. I thought it might be an Apple TV originally, but it doesn't match the boards I've seen online.

#3 Wed, 24 Jun 2015 - 20:06 68kMLA

A very unusual set of connectors. Can you give the overall dimensions of the board? That might help

#4 Wed, 24 Jun 2015 - 20:52 68kMLA

Kinda looks like a circuit board for a CD/DVD drive.

#5 Wed, 24 Jun 2015 - 20:53 68kMLA

BGA Package Spec would be helpful. Looks lots of DIP IDC connectors and SIP Jumper Settings.

edit: yep, a bit, but the thru-holes for the connector look a bit far inboard and no MOLEXy power provision apparent.

#6 Wed, 24 Jun 2015 - 22:22 68kMLA

Hey,

The board is 152 mm x 127 mm. I'll upload some better photos. Sorry, my knowledge of electronics doesn't reach to BGA specs

, but the square around the BGA is 12 x 12 mm if that helps

#7 Wed, 24 Jun 2015 - 22:44 68kMLA

OK, More pics added to album!

#8 Thu, 25 Jun 2015 - 00:02 68kMLA

it looks like a proto board that is used to maybe do testing with a new chip.

doesn't look like it goes in anything and i have pretty seen it all.

#9 Thu, 2 Jul 2015 - 00:38 68kMLA

Where did you find that? It's odd there are no connecters on it, is it some sort of testing board? Is there a copyright on it somewhere?

#10 Sun, 5 Jul 2015 - 23:13 68kMLA

It looks like it may be a prototype board related to the developer transition system in 2006. See: http://vintagemacmuseum.com/the-apple-developer-transition-system-a-trojan-horse-powermac/

#11 Sun, 5 Jul 2015 - 23:53 68kMLA

It could have been in relation to that, but I don't specifically remember anything about that system that would have needed a part like this, (in fact, if you look at the first photo in the linked article, you can see just about the only PCB in the whole system is the motherboard.) since it's basically a totally standard ATX or BTX motherboard in a modified Power Mac G5 case.

But, Apple's entire product line was under development, so it could have been anything -- a RAID card for the Xserve, a drive backplane for the Mac Pro, a Mac mini motherboard, or the beginnings of some kind of internal testing rig akin to the TechStep.

#12 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 - 23:09 68kMLA

Back after a few months, sorry, been rather busy. I think it's most likely an unpopulated internal testing board for iPods as I got it with a bunch of random iPod parts. Thanks for the guesses and interesting info!