Hi retro experts,
I asked a question in
My cool 486 EISA tower
I try asking it again, as an extra topic.
There are people here with huge hardware collections as far as I know.
Who knows Micronics' Local Bus?
Anybody has ever seen a video card with it?
That is what the manual says about it.
Of course I tried googling, but I obviously got only results for Vesa Local Bus or other staff.
I have no problems finding infos about it using Google.
This one from Google Groups shows that there was at least one graphics card available, the ATI Ultra Pro.
In Google Books, you can also find articles about it in PC Mag and InfoWorld.
And here's some FAQ:
http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/Archive/Micronics/comquest.txt
Apparently, it hit the market in 1992 and was abandoned in 1993 when VLB became a standard.
derSammler wrote on 2020-01-06, 13:00:I have no problems finding infos about it using Google. […]
I have no problems finding infos about it using Google.
This one from Google Groups shows that there was at least one graphics card available, the ATI Ultra Pro.
In Google Books, you can also find articles about it in PC Mag and InfoWorld.
And here's some FAQ:
http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/Archive/Micronics/comquest.txtApparently, it hit the market in 1992 and was abandoned in 1993 when VLB became a standard.
OK, thx.
So the Gateway 486DX2-66 system (model 4DX2-66V) had this slot?
Anybody here having this machine?
And there was a ATI Graphics Ultro Pro with this slot type?
Must have been extremly rare, it's not listed here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATI_Mach
"Port: ISA, EISA, VLB, PCI, MCA", but NO micronics' local bus.
Honestly spoken I am not convinced that your first link is really about Micronics' Local Bus.
They write: "with the new Micronics local bus motherboard", this could be as well a Micronics Vesa Local Bus Board.
https://books.google.at/books?id=0HJN4wxEVI4C … inboard&f=false
Yes, so your link is clearly about Vesa Local Bus, but thanks for trying to help.
I might have a found a computer with such a mainboard:
https://books.google.at/books?id=blEEAA ... 22&f=false
Data Storage "DataStor 486/50"
but it used a 16bit video card, so the slot was not used 😁
Maybe such video cards did never exist.
Micronics was actually one of the first manufacturers of vesa local bus boards, that makes googling for that bloody slot so hard.
What does “fig 1.1” look like referenced in the manual?
Does this manual have a photo of the slot ?
Is it just an normal ISA slot with higher band width ?
Looking at the picture of the mb in the referenced thread it looks like VL-Bus extension slot but positioned further apart from the ISA slot.
Never heard about that before. But there was a proprietary local-bus implementation from Orchid which was possibly more common. Given that Orchid was acquired by Micronics, could that be the same thing?
Yes, I have a couple Gateway 2000 486/33 desktop computers and I hate them.
They are loud and noisy and the Micronics motherboard bios is terrible.
I could only get one of them to work.
It’s and all ISA riser board however. No VLB.
Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-01-06, 15:57:What does “fig 1.1” look like referenced in the manual?
Does this manual have a photo of the slot ?
Is it just an normal ISA slot with higher band width ?
HI Intel486dx33, please check the photo in the other thread.
EDIT: The slot should be 32bit (like EISA), but with 33MHz instead of 8MHz.
mpe wrote on 2020-01-06, 16:27:Looking at the picture of the mb in the referenced thread it looks like VL-Bus extension slot but positioned further apart from the ISA slot.
Never heard about that before. But there was a proprietary local-bus implementation from Orchid which was possibly more common. Given that Orchid was acquired by Micronics, could that be the same thing?
I am referring to a picture of an Orchid (or Opti) local bus card that I found here on vogons.org.
The connector looks very different.
CoffeeOne wrote on 2020-01-06, 18:04:The connector looks very different.
Looks like they have used the Microchannel connector in another local bus variant 😉
If you look at the old Micronics support pages on archive.org, the only two boards that list the "32bit local bus for Micronic's high-resolution graphic adaptor" are your board, the 80486 ASIC EISA (09-00117), and the 80486-50MHz EISA 2 ASIC EISA (09-00128). If you search by board part number there's reference online to the model of this adaptor being MVC32LB and based on the ATI Mach 32 (ATI68800) chip...
https://www.infania.net/misc/moboarchive/Micronics/
Not sure of the source of those text files (00117.txt & 00128.txt) but their content is available at a number of links online.
If you search for MVC32LB you'll see it's listed at TH99 and other sites, but the graphic doesn't reflect the wider slot spacing? Can't find an actual picture of it anywhere.
PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2020-01-07, 19:43:If you look at the old Micronics support pages on archive.org, the only two boards that list the "32bit local bus for Micronic's […]
If you look at the old Micronics support pages on archive.org, the only two boards that list the "32bit local bus for Micronic's high-resolution graphic adaptor" are your board, the 80486 ASIC EISA (09-00117), and the 80486-50MHz EISA 2 ASIC EISA (09-00128). If you search by board part number there's reference online to the model of this adaptor being MVC32LB and based on the ATI Mach 32 (ATI68800) chip...
https://www.infania.net/misc/moboarchive/Micronics/
Not sure of the source of those text files (00117.txt & 00128.txt) but their content is available at a number of links online.
If you search for MVC32LB you'll see it's listed at stason and other sites, but the graphic doesn't reflect the wider slot spacing? Can't find an actual picture of it anywhere.
https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/graphics-cards/M … GA-MVC32LB.html
Nice, you found a bit more than me.
But not sure, if the info about "MVC32LB video card Settings and Configuration" is correct.
Actually the very same description is inside "MVC8000LB video card Settings and Configuration".
And no one has ever seen a Micronics Video Card with a Mach32 chip(?)
Oh, now I found something different:
https://books.google.at/books?id=6wZXSf0Yg78C … erators&f=false
".... A chief customer is Micronics whose special-slot local bus product is S3-based"
So maybe with S3 86C911 chip
I think the info re. the MVC32LB is reasonably sound as it's trackable back as far as late 95 / early 96 on sites thru archive.org (seems to have originally been a support file call 'all.txt' before others broke it up into individual files by Micronics part number).
The Micronics MVC8000LB definitely existed, but is a 'standard' VLB card rather than their proprietary one, and is indeed based on the ATI Mach32 chip. A search of Google Books shows a system, the Sidus SCI933Dg/VL, which used it (in a review of 100MHz DX4 PC's)...
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-Qil3sD8b … CI933Dg&f=false
The FCC ddatabase https://fccid.io/GRA isn't much help with either of these but does refer to the other Micronics video cards and a (possible) S3 card from late 1992 ; GRA-S3-1702A, which fits that articles timeline.
PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2020-01-08, 05:26:I think the info re. the MVC32LB is reasonably sound as it's trackable back as far as late 95 / early 96 on sites thru archive.o […]
I think the info re. the MVC32LB is reasonably sound as it's trackable back as far as late 95 / early 96 on sites thru archive.org (seems to have originally been a support file call 'all.txt' before others broke it up into individual files by Micronics part number).
The Micronics MVC8000LB definitely existed, but is a 'standard' VLB card rather than their proprietary one, and is indeed based on the ATI Mach32 chip. A search of Google Books shows a system, the Sidus SCI933Dg/VL, which used it (in a review of 100MHz DX4 PC's)...
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-Qil3sD8b … CI933Dg&f=false
The FCC ddatabase https://fccid.io/GRA isn't much help with either of these but does refer to the other Micronics video cards and a (possible) S3 card from late 1992 ; GRA-S3-1702A, which fits that articles timeline.
OK, so the MVC32LB existed, but it's not what I search, it's a clearly a VESA Local Bus Graphics Card, so the th99 database is correct in this aspect.
The article is from 1994, and Micronics produced VLB boards since 1992, so the timeline is fitting.
The other "GRA-S3-1702A" could be the one of Micronics local bus. But end of 1992 is probably also too late, mid of 1992 would be the right time span.
I guess I should stop searching for such a graphics card, it is hopeless.
