VOGONS


Reply 2940 of 4734, by HanJammer

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Some Robotron stuff. Case and PSU was effed-up beyond repair (machine had some sort of seals and somebody used brute force to get inside) but cards were pristine - I doubt anybody removed them before...

New items (October/November 2022) -> My Items for Sale
I8v8PGb.jpg

Reply 2941 of 4734, by HanJammer

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

More Robotron stuff... I don't really need it so all is on eBay right now...

New items (October/November 2022) -> My Items for Sale
I8v8PGb.jpg

Reply 2942 of 4734, by TechieDude

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
HanJammer wrote on 2020-10-30, 22:56:

More Robotron stuff... I don't really need it so all is on eBay right now...

What even is all that Robotron stuff? I haven't even heard of them.. The cards look a bit like 8-bit ISA.

Reply 2943 of 4734, by K1n9_Duk3

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
wikipedia wrote:

VEB Kombinat Robotron (or simply Robotron) was the biggest East German electronics manufacturer.

Reply 2944 of 4734, by TechieDude

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
K1n9_Duk3 wrote on 2020-11-01, 21:23:
wikipedia wrote:

VEB Kombinat Robotron (or simply Robotron) was the biggest East German electronics manufacturer.

Thanks, for some reason, all Google gave me was science fiction movies and arcade hardware.

Reply 2945 of 4734, by wiretap

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Pulled these out of some new old stock VME multiplexer communications boards that were being scrapped. I also found a few Evergreen 486 upgrade chips, but I need to desolder those from the boards first.

sml5orK.jpg

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals

Reply 2946 of 4734, by Baoran

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

There is a pentium mmx cpu in the local recycling center here. The cpu seems to have 2 dents in the middle where the text is. Would damage like this prevent the cpu from working?

The attachment mmx.jpg is no longer available

Reply 2947 of 4734, by debs3759

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Baoran wrote on 2020-11-06, 22:25:

There is a pentium mmx cpu in the local recycling center here. The cpu seems to have 2 dents in the middle where the text is. Would damage like this prevent the cpu from working?

mmx.jpg

No, that won't stop it working

See my graphics card database at www.gpuzoo.com
Constantly being worked on. Feel free to message me with any corrections or details of cards you would like me to research and add.

Reply 2948 of 4734, by pentiumspeed

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
wiretap wrote on 2020-11-06, 22:04:
Pulled these out of some new old stock VME multiplexer communications boards that were being scrapped. I also found a few Evergr […]
Show full quote

Pulled these out of some new old stock VME multiplexer communications boards that were being scrapped. I also found a few Evergreen 486 upgrade chips, but I need to desolder those from the boards first.

sml5orK.jpg

040RC means has no FPU. I prefer 040 with FPU.

PS: evergreen 486 upgrade, be careful especially soldering too much will make soldered pins to come off from the upgrade board with that SMD CPU.

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 2949 of 4734, by Wolfus

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-11-07, 01:45:
040RC means has no FPU. I prefer 040 with FPU. […]
Show full quote
wiretap wrote on 2020-11-06, 22:04:
Pulled these out of some new old stock VME multiplexer communications boards that were being scrapped. I also found a few Evergr […]
Show full quote

Pulled these out of some new old stock VME multiplexer communications boards that were being scrapped. I also found a few Evergreen 486 upgrade chips, but I need to desolder those from the boards first.

sml5orK.jpg

040RC means has no FPU. I prefer 040 with FPU.

PS: evergreen 486 upgrade, be careful especially soldering too much will make soldered pins to come off from the upgrade board with that SMD CPU.

Cheers,

I thought FPU-less version is 68LC040...

Reply 2950 of 4734, by luckybob

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Wolfus wrote on 2020-11-07, 14:28:
pentiumspeed wrote on 2020-11-07, 01:45:
040RC means has no FPU. I prefer 040 with FPU. […]
Show full quote
wiretap wrote on 2020-11-06, 22:04:
Pulled these out of some new old stock VME multiplexer communications boards that were being scrapped. I also found a few Evergr […]
Show full quote

Pulled these out of some new old stock VME multiplexer communications boards that were being scrapped. I also found a few Evergreen 486 upgrade chips, but I need to desolder those from the boards first.

sml5orK.jpg

040RC means has no FPU. I prefer 040 with FPU.

PS: evergreen 486 upgrade, be careful especially soldering too much will make soldered pins to come off from the upgrade board with that SMD CPU.

Cheers,

I thought FPU-less version is 68LC040...

The 68LC040 is a low cost version of the Motorola 68040 microprocessor with no FPU. This makes it less expensive and it draws less power. Although the CPU now fits into a feature chart more like the Motorola 68030, it continues to include the 68040's caches and pipeline and is thus significantly faster than the 68030.

Some mask revisions of the 68LC040 contained a bug that prevents the chip from operating correctly when a software FPU emulator is used. According to Motorola's errata,[4] any chip with a mask set 2E71M or later does not contain the bug. This new mask was introduced in mid-1995 and converted the 68LC040 chip to MC status.[5]

The buggy revisions are typically found in 68LC040-based Apple Macintosh computers. Chips with mask set 2E23G (as used in the LC 475) have been confirmed to be faulty. The fault relates to pending writes being lost when the F-line exception is triggered.[6] The 68040 cannot update its microcode in the manner of modern x86 chips. This means that the only way to use software that requires floating-point functionality is to replace the buggy 68LC040 with a later revision, or a full 68040.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 2952 of 4734, by wiretap

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Here's pictures of the other new old stock scrap boards. I thought they both had Evergreen chips, but one is a PNY Quickchip.

LUxn3i0.jpg

1KCnJMI.jpg

BNOIMSD.jpg

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals

Reply 2953 of 4734, by chrismeyer6

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Nice finds. Are they old routers or networking equipment? And it's nice they still have there ram as well.

Reply 2954 of 4734, by luckybob

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

are you pulling those DOC modules too? I've also started de-soldering and stockpiling 30/73 pin simm sockets (mostly the metal clip ones, at the moment) also the EEPROMS as well.

Hell, i'd keep the whole damn board as parts.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 2955 of 4734, by wiretap

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Yes, I'll keep the boards and DoC modules. These came out of proprietary multiplexer/networking equipment that was only used at a handful of nuke plants.

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals

Reply 2956 of 4734, by chrismeyer6

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Nice. I'm curious as to why they used upgrade modules instead of just regular 486s

Reply 2957 of 4734, by wiretap

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Probably due to the extra speed needed for real-time data processing. These had to process thousands of data points on a millisecond resolution. (these were input rack CPU's) They would then forward the aggregate data to another set of multiplexers to be forwarded to a host CPU.

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals

Reply 2958 of 4734, by luckybob

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
wiretap wrote on 2020-11-08, 00:49:

...extra speed needed for real-time data processing...

Shouldn't that be the domain of CPLD chips? I mean, you'd still have a x86 moving things around.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 2959 of 4734, by wiretap

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

I'm just guessing. I don't know the architecture of the board itself, I just know the system it was meant to be used in. This board would have sat in a nest of ADC input boards that convert the voltages to digital data at a millisecond scale, then forward it to an aggregate multiplexer via fiber.

Edit: I'll pull up the vendor manual and datasheet later. It doesn't exist on the internet that I know of, but I have a hardcopy at work.

My Github
Circuit Board Repair Manuals