Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-04-02, 04:34:

I have had a couple of these boards for a while and I have never been able to figure out what connection they had to FM Towns sy […]
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I have had a couple of these boards for a while and I have never been able to figure out what connection they had to FM Towns systems.

20230329_195419 (Custom).jpg

(Ignore the location of the arrow on my blue tape note... I moved it for the picture)

If you look in the center of the board you'll see "TOWNs" printed, and below the right end of the first ISA slot you'll see a label for "SW1" ON=Normal, OFF=FMTOWNS.

20230329_195419c.jpg

Can anyone offer explain the significance of this? From my research I have found that FM Towns systems did change to relatively "normal" PC hardware in later years, including Pentium processors right at the end, so that aligns well with the fact that this is a Socket 5 board.

I know absolutely nothing about FM Towns computers, and I haven't been able to turn up any information regarding these motherboards or whether they are particularly useful for FM Towns enthusiasts. These boards seem really rare unless I am just not searching for the right things.

Presumably just an Acer OEM board used by a number of system builders, including an FM Towns variant (try searching Google for "48.43801.003" ebay links) ...see also https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/acer-pi16-2

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2023-04-02, 05:35:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-04-02, 04:34:

I have had a couple of these boards for a while and I have never been able to figure out what connection they had to FM Towns sy […]
Show full quote

I have had a couple of these boards for a while and I have never been able to figure out what connection they had to FM Towns systems.

20230329_195419 (Custom).jpg

(Ignore the location of the arrow on my blue tape note... I moved it for the picture)

If you look in the center of the board you'll see "TOWNs" printed, and below the right end of the first ISA slot you'll see a label for "SW1" ON=Normal, OFF=FMTOWNS.

20230329_195419c.jpg

Can anyone offer explain the significance of this? From my research I have found that FM Towns systems did change to relatively "normal" PC hardware in later years, including Pentium processors right at the end, so that aligns well with the fact that this is a Socket 5 board.

I know absolutely nothing about FM Towns computers, and I haven't been able to turn up any information regarding these motherboards or whether they are particularly useful for FM Towns enthusiasts. These boards seem really rare unless I am just not searching for the right things.

Presumably just an Acer OEM board used by a number of system builders, including an FM Towns variant (try searching Google for "48.43801.003" ebay links) ...see also https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/acer-pi16-2

Bah... I guess that was the one number I didn't type in to the search box correctly. 🤣

Thanks for finding the connection to Acer.

Does anyone know what model of FM Towns system this type of board would have been used in?

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-04-02, 06:06:

Bah... I guess that was the one number I didn't type in to the search box correctly. :lol: […]
Show full quote

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2023-04-02, 05:35:

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-04-02, 04:34:

I have had a couple of these boards for a while and I have never been able to figure out what connection they had to FM Towns sy […]
Show full quote

I have had a couple of these boards for a while and I have never been able to figure out what connection they had to FM Towns systems.

20230329_195419 (Custom).jpg

(Ignore the location of the arrow on my blue tape note... I moved it for the picture)

If you look in the center of the board you'll see "TOWNs" printed, and below the right end of the first ISA slot you'll see a label for "SW1" ON=Normal, OFF=FMTOWNS.

20230329_195419c.jpg

Can anyone offer explain the significance of this? From my research I have found that FM Towns systems did change to relatively "normal" PC hardware in later years, including Pentium processors right at the end, so that aligns well with the fact that this is a Socket 5 board.

I know absolutely nothing about FM Towns computers, and I haven't been able to turn up any information regarding these motherboards or whether they are particularly useful for FM Towns enthusiasts. These boards seem really rare unless I am just not searching for the right things.

Presumably just an Acer OEM board used by a number of system builders, including an FM Towns variant (try searching Google for "48.43801.003" ebay links) ...see also https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/acer-pi16-2

Bah... I guess that was the one number I didn't type in to the search box correctly. 🤣

Thanks for finding the connection to Acer.

Does anyone know what model of FM Towns system this type of board would have been used in?

Possibly here (even mentions a TOWNS <> PC/AT mode switch) - https://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/personal/0060.html

*EDIT* - more reading...

FM-V Towns - a tale of rare Japanese equipment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Bgs5mrzNo

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2023-04-02, 06:30:

Possibly here (even mentions a TOWNS <> PC/AT mode switch) - https://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/personal/0060.html […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2023-04-02, 06:06:

Bah... I guess that was the one number I didn't type in to the search box correctly. :lol: […]
Show full quote

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2023-04-02, 05:35:

Presumably just an Acer OEM board used by a number of system builders, including an FM Towns variant (try searching Google for "48.43801.003" ebay links) ...see also https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/acer-pi16-2

Bah... I guess that was the one number I didn't type in to the search box correctly. 🤣

Thanks for finding the connection to Acer.

Does anyone know what model of FM Towns system this type of board would have been used in?

Possibly here (even mentions a TOWNS <> PC/AT mode switch) - https://museum.ipsj.or.jp/en/computer/personal/0060.html

*EDIT* - more reading...

FM-V Towns - a tale of rare Japanese equipment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Bgs5mrzNo

Interesting!

"The previous FM TOWNS was built around the TOWNS architecture. The FMV-TOWNS migrated to the same PC/AT-compatible architecture as Fujitsu’s FMV series, but it retained backward compatibility with FM TOWNS. To accomplish this, the FMV-TOWNS models had a TOWNS mode switch to switch between a TOWNS mode and a PC/AT-compatible mode. In the PC/AT-compatible mode, the computers could run Windows 95 software in the same environment as Fujitsu’s FMV DESKPOWER series. In the TOWNS mode, the computers could run Towns OS software in the previous FM TOWNS environment.

The TOWNS mode worked by using a TOWNS card in the PCI slot. This card not only contained the FM TOWNS audio and video functions; it also had an emulator so that the Towns OS could control the PC/AT-compatible CPU, memory, hard drive, CD-ROM drive, and other devices."

It sounds like a similar type of thing, but I can't seem to find any references to boards that are like this, with a standard DIN keyboard. I wonder if there were several different designs floating around for these boards and they ended up going with the ones that use PS/2 ports rather than this older style. If this is some variation of an FMV Towns board maybe the switch diagram next to the ISA slot is indicating where that TOWNS mode switch would be connected. It seems that this is only useful with the (probably completely unobtainium) FM Towns compatibility card though. Regardless, this is very cool information and I'm glad to finally have some idea of why these boards exist... though, the existence of this particular one that doesn't match any of the other designs is still a bit puzzling.

I felt this was worth posting about because I have come across absolutely nothing related to Japanese computer architectures (FM Towns, PC-98, etc.) in all the years I've been collecting hardware, except for the seemingly out of place screen printing on this normal looking Socket 5 board.