VOGONS


First post, by Murugan

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Recently I converted a non-working XT to a 286.
I found this card in it, connected to the hard drive (1 of the 2 cables needed). The other cable from the HD went to the floppy controller card.
The Yamaha chip tells me it's a combo IO with CGA/MDA-Hercules graphics?
Tried it with my IBM mono and CGA monitor but no luck. It might be dead too.
I wonder what all the jumpers and dip switches are for.
I removed the Varta (there was some small spillage).
Anyone seen this card or has it?

Edit: hmmm I see some suspect traces near the leakage. Will need to probe them.

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My retro collection: too much...

Reply 1 of 3, by mkarcher

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Indeed, the Yamaha V6363 is a graphics chip that can be used for Hercules-compatible or CGA-compatible cards, or a combo card that can be jumpered to either mode. Your card has the requisite 16.257MHz crystal (substituted by 16.000MHZ by some OEMs like Hercules), so it definitely has an Hercules mode. It also has the required 64KB of video memory for Hercules compatible operation. The V6363 is configured to either CGA or Hercules mode by the voltage at pin 70 (RA4) on power-up. If you have a meter, you can use that knowledge to identify the jumper used to set the mode. Most likely, low=MDA/Hercules, high=CGA. As that pin is a TTL pin, "no connection" is treated as high.

Reply 2 of 3, by Horun

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Found this info in a 1989 pdf of Tawain computer companies-
BITCOM International Co., Ltd.
9th Floor, Number 56
Nanking East Road, Section 4
Taipei, Taiwan
Products: AT, XT add-on cards

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 3 of 3, by Murugan

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Hmmm interesting.
The mainboard is from the same company.
Maybe info on this card is lost in the void 😀
I suppose the dip switches are to configure the ports but there are still a few jumpers around too.

My retro collection: too much...