VOGONS


First post, by Scraphoarder

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Just a while ago i got a renewed interest in PICMG1.0 industrial systems. Many years ago i got a new 7U rackcase with a segmented 18 slot backplane that had two slot1 SBCs. Both SBCs had a P3 850 cpu, 512GB ram and ran Windows XP. This was my home computer issued from my employer and it were awesome at the beginning. I later got a dual slot1 SBC with 1GHz P3s that replaced one single slot SBC.
Lack of AGP wasnt an issue in the beginning, but it became annoying after a while and the last PCI graphic cards i had in the system were two ATI Radeon 9000. Then PCI-E came along i stuck a deal to get to new separate P4 rack systems and took the 7U case with all internals to my works serverrom. It there acted as service PCs until it finally was decomissioned and i took it home and went to storage.

In the meantime this came along and i didnt know it...

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Fast forward to present day i find eBay flooded with old PICMG backplanes and SBCs. After checking specs on some socket 479 and 478 SBC i to my suprise see that they have an Mini-AGP slot. What the heck is that!?? I never heard about that form factor and i cant find much info about that.
I was lucky to get a Commell FS-97A s479 SBC yesterday, so now the hunt begin for a Mini-AGP card. Commell had an ATI Radeon M10 (9600) card, but i wonder if any other was made. Anyone heard about Mini-AGP before? Maybe an adaptor could be made if the MINI-AGP pinout could be figured out?

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Reply 1 of 7, by j^aws

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Never heard of mini AGP, but you can get backplanes and SBCs with AGP slots that take normal AGP graphics cards. I have a backplane with 8 ISA, 4 PCI and an AGP slot, which came with a Socket 478 SBC.

Reply 2 of 7, by Scraphoarder

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j^aws wrote:

Never heard of mini AGP, but you can get backplanes and SBCs with AGP slots that take normal AGP graphics cards. I have a backplane with 8 ISA, 4 PCI and an AGP slot, which came with a Socket 478 SBC.

Really? It had an extra slot/pinout on the SBC to route signal to the backplane AGP slot? Would love to see pics and info on who made that.
Edit: I found out. PCIAGP or PXAGP. Damn it, so cool and i have to get one 😵

Last edited by Scraphoarder on 2017-11-18, 17:33. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 3 of 7, by j^aws

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Scraphoarder wrote:
j^aws wrote:

Never heard of mini AGP, but you can get backplanes and SBCs with AGP slots that take normal AGP graphics cards. I have a backplane with 8 ISA, 4 PCI and an AGP slot, which came with a Socket 478 SBC.

Really? It had an extra slot/pinout on the SBC to route signal to the backplane AGP slot? Would love to see pics and info on who made that.

Here you go:

pciagp13s3lg.jpg
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IEI made these, and a PCIAGP standard for backplanes and SBCs for AGP compatibility. It went as far as AGP V2.

Reply 4 of 7, by Scraphoarder

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Just found it while you replied 😊 My 18 slot segnmented 18 slot PICMG1.0 backplane is from IEI. Never knew they had this also. You know what PCI to AGP bridge chip your SBC has? ITE8888 is the one that seems to be ok for DOS DMA compatibility.
That board seems to take regular PICMG1.0 SBCs aswell so its really usefull to use as a test bench.

Reply 5 of 7, by j^aws

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Scraphoarder wrote:

Just found it while you replied 😊 My 18 slot segnmented 18 slot PICMG1.0 backplane is from IEI. Never knew they had this also. You know what PCI to AGP bridge chip your SBC has? ITE8888 is the one that seems to be ok for DOS DMA compatibility.
That board seems to take regular PICMG1.0 SBCs aswell so its really usefull to use as a test bench.

Mine has the ITE8888 bridge card for ISA DMA. I still need to test this setup fully. It's scheduled for one of my permanent builds. I even have the industrial rack case ready, but way too many things to do and so little time at hand.

And yeah, the board also takes regular PICMG 1.0 SBCs. I'm wondering if I would be able to switch between both types - PCIAGP and PICMG? That would be quite flexible if one can.

Reply 6 of 7, by Scraphoarder

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j^aws wrote:

Mine has the ITE8888 bridge card for ISA DMA. I still need to test this setup fully. It's scheduled for one of my permanent builds. I even have the industrial rack case ready, but way too many things to do and so little time at hand.

And yeah, the board also takes regular PICMG 1.0 SBCs. I'm wondering if I would be able to switch between both types - PCIAGP and PICMG? That would be quite flexible if one can.

Nice. I already bought an IEI SAGP-865EV-PT and an offer made on a backplane. Crap, this is becoming a bad habit. No money to get out and get drunk today 🤣

Reply 7 of 7, by Scraphoarder

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After searching for any Mini AGP cards they seems to be extremly rare, but stumbled on iBase and they also made some SBCs with the Mini AGP slot they called MicroAGP. iBase made two Radeon M10 based cards and i finally found their IBA110-64A model thats a Radeon Mobility 9600. One seller had this and after some offer rounds i painfully paid to get one. This is the price for collecting weird and obscure parts..

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