I think that's just a CD-ROM interface card for LMSI drives, with the jumpers you select IO port and IRQ and the RCA jacks are just outputs for the CD audio (you connect the audio cable from the drive to the black connector on the card).

Exactly - just a CD-ROM controller card.
It's clearly visible that the RCA jacks are only connected to P4, ie. audio input from the CD drive.

Ok I see, probably quite a rare piece.
Finding a working drive for this would even be harder.
I think i have another drive somewhere that uses a Sony interface but is not branded Sony but it looks more like a floppy cable in width.

nzoomed wrote on 2025-12-10, 06:23:

Ok I see, probably quite a rare piece.
Finding a working drive for this would even be harder.
I think i have another drive somewhere that uses a Sony interface but is not branded Sony but it looks more like a floppy cable in width.

LMSI is definitely less common these days compared to other interfaces, but the drives even more scarce so it can be hard to find a use for the controller cards.

In general, CD-ROM controller cards aren't that rare because so many of them were made and most outlived the usefulness of the drives they were meant for. Basically, anyone who had an LMSI\Sony\Panasonic\Mitsumi interface CD-ROM drive and later got a faster one would have likely ended up with an IDE drive (or maybe SCSI), which meant the old interface card was no longer needed (and it seems most cards ended up separated from their drives).

Now, finding an original combination of card + cable + drive (or even the box and software) is a different story... I don't know about anyone else, but when I come across even just a matching card + drive I feel this need to cram them into a PC to see the pair working as intended again after 30 years. 😁

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-12-10, 06:41:

LMSI is definitely less common these days compared to other interfaces, but the drives even more scarce so it can be hard to fin […]
Show full quote

nzoomed wrote on 2025-12-10, 06:23:

Ok I see, probably quite a rare piece.
Finding a working drive for this would even be harder.
I think i have another drive somewhere that uses a Sony interface but is not branded Sony but it looks more like a floppy cable in width.

LMSI is definitely less common these days compared to other interfaces, but the drives even more scarce so it can be hard to find a use for the controller cards.

In general, CD-ROM controller cards aren't that rare because so many of them were made and most outlived the usefulness of the drives they were meant for. Basically, anyone who had an LMSI\Sony\Panasonic\Mitsumi interface CD-ROM drive and later got a faster one would have likely ended up with an IDE drive (or maybe SCSI), which meant the old interface card was no longer needed (and it seems most cards ended up separated from their drives).

Now, finding an original combination of card + cable + drive (or even the box and software) is a different story... I don't know about anyone else, but when I come across even just a matching card + drive I feel this need to cram them into a PC to see the pair working as intended again after 30 years. 😁

Yeah I agree.
I went through a bunch of drives I had sitting around and half of them didnt even work.
Not sure if it was just a dirty laser, but most of those early drives seemed to fail rather fast.
The ironic thing is i hardly use my CDROM drives nowdays, as i have a compact flash card in the back that lets me quickly transfer data, I probably use my floppy drives more often. On a windows 95 system I would be running more games that require a CD, so would probably use it more in those instances.

Why the hell does it have 64kB of SRAM. This is extreme cache for that era.

nzoomed wrote on 2025-12-10, 06:23:

Ok I see, probably quite a rare piece.
Finding a working drive for this would even be harder.
I think i have another drive somewhere that uses a Sony interface but is not branded Sony but it looks more like a floppy cable in width.

I have the external CDD 461 and it was quite difficult to find a controller card for a reasonable price. Most were sold for around 100€. So take care of your card 😉

Cyberdyne wrote on 2025-12-10, 14:04:

Why the hell does it have 64kB of SRAM. This is extreme cache for that era.

Audio buffering?

Predator99 wrote on 2025-12-10, 18:35:

nzoomed wrote on 2025-12-10, 06:23:

Ok I see, probably quite a rare piece.
Finding a working drive for this would even be harder.
I think i have another drive somewhere that uses a Sony interface but is not branded Sony but it looks more like a floppy cable in width.

I have the external CDD 461 and it was quite difficult to find a controller card for a reasonable price. Most were sold for around 100€. So take care of your card 😉

Going off topic a little bit, but I have to ask.
What controller card do you need for that drive ? I also have one, as well as a 460 or 462.
Unfortunately I do not have a controller card for it and was wondering if the one that Tech Tangents duplicated is usable for these drives ?

pan069 wrote on 2025-12-10, 19:59:

Cyberdyne wrote on 2025-12-10, 14:04:

Why the hell does it have 64kB of SRAM. This is extreme cache for that era.

Audio buffering?

Sweet, I will hang on to it!

weedeewee wrote on 2025-12-10, 20:06:

Going off topic a little bit, but I have to ask.
What controller card do you need for that drive ? I also have one, as well as a 460 or 462.
Unfortunately I do not have a controller card for it and was wondering if the one that Tech Tangents duplicated is usable for these drives ?

Im not sure what brand it is, but think it could be sony, been a while since i looked at it, ive got a few creative labs cards that have all these various CD-ROM interfaces on them.
Will grab a photo when i get a chance.

I own these 2 cards now. But I have to admit I didnt test them so far. I have to make an adapter for the external connector first...

pan069 wrote on 2025-12-10, 19:59:

Cyberdyne wrote on 2025-12-10, 14:04:

Why the hell does it have 64kB of SRAM. This is extreme cache for that era.

Audio buffering?

The audio is decoded inside the CD-ROM drive before it reaches the controller card, so it would not be for that purpose

Audio part is totally analog and passive.

pan069 wrote on 2025-12-10, 19:59:

Cyberdyne wrote on 2025-12-10, 14:04:

Why the hell does it have 64kB of SRAM. This is extreme cache for that era.

Audio buffering?

I think i found the CD-ROM drive for this card.
Im missing the cable for it but its all there, see photos.

nzoomed wrote on Yesterday, 11:10:

I think i found the CD-ROM drive for this card.

Looks like it matches the drive sold in a bundle
https://www.ebay.com/itm/136234860932

nzoomed wrote on Yesterday, 11:10:

I think i found the CD-ROM drive for this card.
Im missing the cable for it but its all there, see photos.

Nice!

You know what's funny... after seeing the drive it jogged my memory. I actually have a drive almost identical to that in what I think might be an original box (no retail markings sadly) and it came with a CM250 card. The card is similar to yours but just has one SRAM chip, and the NCR chips looks a bit older.

The seller was some goofy young man on ebay who was absolutely struggling to just respond to messages, understand what I was saying and follow through. I explicitly pointed out the LMSI cable, card and drive in the pile of stuff on his garage floor that he kept taking pictures of at different angles (which makes it nearly impossible to tell how many there are of different things). In the end, I got the card and the drive but no cable. Bleh!

Thankfully, I'm pretty sure you can get any cable with the correct number of pins. I have not been able to test it yet though. I tried powering on the drive without the interface connected and it simply did nothing... so either the card is 100% required to get any response from the drive or it is dead. So, after all that messing around I was a bit deflated and never got around to finding a cable for it.

If you get a chance, can you just hook that drive up to power to see if it does anything at all? If yours also does nothing then maybe that is by design and there is still hope for them.

NeoG_ wrote on Yesterday, 11:53:

Looks like it matches the drive sold in a bundle
https://www.ebay.com/itm/136234860932

That looks 100% the same as mine. I dont know if its worth messing around with a drive of this age, many I find no longer can read the CD's. Even the 8X i installed in my 386 no longer appears to work, but at the time when I installed it, it was working.
Would be fun to try out nonetheless, the IDC connectors are easy enough to find. Could be a good drive to throw inside a high end 286 build.

Ozzuneoj wrote on Yesterday, 12:01:

Nice! […]
Show full quote

Nice!

You know what's funny... after seeing the drive it jogged my memory. I actually have a drive almost identical to that in what I think might be an original box (no retail markings sadly) and it came with a CM250 card. The card is similar to yours but just has one SRAM chip, and the NCR chips looks a bit older.

The seller was some goofy young man on ebay who was absolutely struggling to just respond to messages, understand what I was saying and follow through. I explicitly pointed out the LMSI cable, card and drive in the pile of stuff on his garage floor that he kept taking pictures of at different angles (which makes it nearly impossible to tell how many there are of different things). In the end, I got the card and the drive but no cable. Bleh!

Thankfully, I'm pretty sure you can get any cable with the correct number of pins. I have not been able to test it yet though. I tried powering on the drive without the interface connected and it simply did nothing... so either the card is 100% required to get any response from the drive or it is dead. So, after all that messing around I was a bit deflated and never got around to finding a cable for it.

If you get a chance, can you just hook that drive up to power to see if it does anything at all? If yours also does nothing then maybe that is by design and there is still hope for them.

Just looked on the date of that ebay listing and its actually a year newer than mine!
Thats a bid weird if the NCR chip is an earlier type, my drive is dated 1993, and that ebay listing is 1994.

Its definitely the card that would have been used from this drive as I pulled it out of the same computer, funny how the cable was missing inside.
How easy is it to find the drivers for these? I should give it a go for the price of the connectors, although i reckon its a 50/50 chance it will work.

nzoomed wrote on Yesterday, 21:35:

That looks 100% the same as mine. I dont know if its worth messing around with a drive of this age, many I find no longer can re […]
Show full quote

NeoG_ wrote on Yesterday, 11:53:

Looks like it matches the drive sold in a bundle
https://www.ebay.com/itm/136234860932

That looks 100% the same as mine. I dont know if its worth messing around with a drive of this age, many I find no longer can read the CD's. Even the 8X i installed in my 386 no longer appears to work, but at the time when I installed it, it was working.
Would be fun to try out nonetheless, the IDC connectors are easy enough to find. Could be a good drive to throw inside a high end 286 build.

Ozzuneoj wrote on Yesterday, 12:01:

Nice! […]
Show full quote

Nice!

You know what's funny... after seeing the drive it jogged my memory. I actually have a drive almost identical to that in what I think might be an original box (no retail markings sadly) and it came with a CM250 card. The card is similar to yours but just has one SRAM chip, and the NCR chips looks a bit older.

The seller was some goofy young man on ebay who was absolutely struggling to just respond to messages, understand what I was saying and follow through. I explicitly pointed out the LMSI cable, card and drive in the pile of stuff on his garage floor that he kept taking pictures of at different angles (which makes it nearly impossible to tell how many there are of different things). In the end, I got the card and the drive but no cable. Bleh!

Thankfully, I'm pretty sure you can get any cable with the correct number of pins. I have not been able to test it yet though. I tried powering on the drive without the interface connected and it simply did nothing... so either the card is 100% required to get any response from the drive or it is dead. So, after all that messing around I was a bit deflated and never got around to finding a cable for it.

If you get a chance, can you just hook that drive up to power to see if it does anything at all? If yours also does nothing then maybe that is by design and there is still hope for them.

Just looked on the date of that ebay listing and its actually a year newer than mine!
Thats a bid weird if the NCR chip is an earlier type, my drive is dated 1993, and that ebay listing is 1994.

Its definitely the card that would have been used from this drive as I pulled it out of the same computer, funny how the cable was missing inside.
How easy is it to find the drivers for these? I should give it a go for the price of the connectors, although i reckon its a 50/50 chance it will work.

The one that just sold isn't mine. I bought my card (CM250) and drive (CM205) a while ago... probably early spring.

I just checked and my drive is dated January 1994, and the dates on various parts of the card indicate mid 1993. So, probably similar age to the ones you have. Doing a bit more digging, the CM206 is a 2x drive, where as my CM205 is 1x.

I would really like to know if your drive does anything at all when you just plug it in to power though. 🙂