The vast majority of these things have a normal BIOS and just boot devices connected up to it as any other pc.

Some have embedded disk-on-chip modules or flash ROM as a mini hard drive, but most, if fitted can be removed.

I would be willing to bet that if you hang a floppy drive and small CF card off it, it will work just fine.

One issue with it is the eisa type edge connector if you wanted to plug it into a simple backplane to add any additional cards to it (eg a sound card). Plain ISA edge connectors are simpler and just need a passive ISA board or even a basic riser from a low profile desktop.

Okay good to know. With the extra daughter card visible I'm assuming it has a 2 or 3 slot PCISA backplane. What I really want is an ISA slot free for an ISA sound card. Fingers crossed!

I guess in that case you will want something like this:

https://www.icp-deutschland.de/en/industrial- … 4s2-rs-r40.html

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-06-11, 07:12:

I guess in that case you will want something like this:

https://www.icp-deutschland.de/en/industrial- … 4s2-rs-r40.html

🤣. That's exactly what I was looking at! Again, I have no idea what's going to be inside this metal case because the eBay listing doesn't say. It really only shows a pic of the part number indicating the Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 CPU Card. But, the other pic, it clearly shows a sound card with a stamped serial or batch number that corresponds with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster PCI 128 CT4740. This means it has at least a single-position PCI backplane inside. However, I also see the edge of another circuit board almost covering the heatsink of the 233MHZ processor. Unless this is some kind of ROM shield, it may be another card inside.

I actually bought this exact board today, (PCISA IP-4S2-RS-R40) from a surplus reseller called OCO Automation for $19! The shipping was actually more than the card but far cheaper than the eBay listing for some of these backplane boards. They only had one but that was an insane price. I really need something super small to add to my retro gaming rig. Ideally, if this board's internal graphics work, I'd only need a single ISA slot for a sound card to play old DOS games. A full computer in only two card slots is cool. The 4 slot version might allow for a Voodoo card or something just to make it ridiculous.

What I'm wondering is if this SBC processor can be swapped!

To be truthful, I really wanted some variety of 486 socket 3 SBC. Those are quite expensive though. I searched a bit but this PCISA or PISA backplane standard seems to have started with socket 7 systems meaning that the socket 3 systems are all (older) ISA-based. This sucks because some socket 3 chips do work with PCI devices, but the ISA-only backplanes don't have PCI and those older SBCs (at least the ones I've seen), didn't have built-in graphics. If they do, the price is sky-high and it's the larger edge-connect backplane style for monster cards! Or, the very rare PC104 graphics cards that are even more expensive! This was a sticking point for me because decent ISA graphics cards are also quite expensive for some reason. So wanting a pure DOS secondary system to fit into the retro rig means something super small! The SBC's seemed like a perfect fit.

So, what I'd like to do is swap for a slower 166MMX and use the SETMAUL tool to play some of my favorite games that my other socket 7 system is too fast for. Or figure out how to downclock the 233MMX chip. I'll just have to wait for everything to get here.

Tevian wrote on 2024-06-10, 11:57:

I've wanted to mess with an SBC and have recently found this card on eBay. It's marked as a Rockwell Automation 140420-030 Allen […]
Show full quote

I've wanted to mess with an SBC and have recently found this card on eBay. It's marked as a Rockwell Automation 140420-030 Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 CPU Card SBC.

This appears to be a short socket 7 single board computer with a PCISA interface.

It looks very similar to this one from a sold listing on eBay.

Screenshot 2024-06-10 043752.jpg

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134578344467

I'm having zero luck finding documentation on this thing and it's bugging me.

The pictures show an Intel 233MHZ CPU, an ALI M1531/M1543 chipset, and a CHIPS F65550B graphics chip.

My question/issue is getting this card to boot standard DOS or Windows. Everything from the pictures tell me it's standard PC parts, but I've never played with SBCs and am unsure what to expect. Do these cards have single-use/embedded software I will find difficult to remove or bypass? It appears to have one IDE and one floppy so I should be able to connect standard drives/CD-ROM? Anything else I should be aware of? No documentation is annoying so if something doesn't work I won't have a manual.

I'll know more when it arrives. The pictures of the eBay listing I purchased show it's inside a metal housing. There is also what "looks" like the back side of a sound card (possibly PCI) on one side meaning the metal enclosure might also contain a backplane piece. That would be awesome but I don't know. The price was super low so if it turns out to be a dud I won't be out much.

Anyway, I'll post a pic when it gets here. 😎

Sadly, can't seem to find docs on the SBC itself (they did exist but possibly only in paper form - each system could ship with a range of different spec SBCs and the correct manual shipped accordingly ). Did find this (extracted from full system doc)...

You can see the full system doc (and a couple others which briefly mention this SBC) by searching for 233mhz, here... https://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/supp … re-library.html

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2024-06-11, 19:52:

Sadly, can't seem to find docs on the SBC itself (they did exist but possibly only in paper form - each system could ship with a […]
Show full quote

Tevian wrote on 2024-06-10, 11:57:

I've wanted to mess with an SBC and have recently found this card on eBay. It's marked as a Rockwell Automation 140420-030 Allen […]
Show full quote

I've wanted to mess with an SBC and have recently found this card on eBay. It's marked as a Rockwell Automation 140420-030 Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 CPU Card SBC.

This appears to be a short socket 7 single board computer with a PCISA interface.

It looks very similar to this one from a sold listing on eBay.

Screenshot 2024-06-10 043752.jpg

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134578344467

I'm having zero luck finding documentation on this thing and it's bugging me.

The pictures show an Intel 233MHZ CPU, an ALI M1531/M1543 chipset, and a CHIPS F65550B graphics chip.

My question/issue is getting this card to boot standard DOS or Windows. Everything from the pictures tell me it's standard PC parts, but I've never played with SBCs and am unsure what to expect. Do these cards have single-use/embedded software I will find difficult to remove or bypass? It appears to have one IDE and one floppy so I should be able to connect standard drives/CD-ROM? Anything else I should be aware of? No documentation is annoying so if something doesn't work I won't have a manual.

I'll know more when it arrives. The pictures of the eBay listing I purchased show it's inside a metal housing. There is also what "looks" like the back side of a sound card (possibly PCI) on one side meaning the metal enclosure might also contain a backplane piece. That would be awesome but I don't know. The price was super low so if it turns out to be a dud I won't be out much.

Anyway, I'll post a pic when it gets here. 😎

Sadly, can't seem to find docs on the SBC itself (they did exist but possibly only in paper form - each system could ship with a range of different spec SBCs and the correct manual shipped accordingly ). Did find this (extracted from full system doc)...

RAC6000 Pentium Socket 7 CPU PISA Half-Length Processor Board.pdf

You can see the full system doc (and a couple others which briefly mention this SBC) by searching for 233mhz, here... https://www.rockwellautomation.com/en-us/supp … re-library.html

Thank you so much! This might prove to be very useful. I indeed found a technical drawing that looks exactly like the peripheral layout of the SBC, at least from the pics online that have the same part number 6189-1CPU233.

This might be a long shot, but what are the chances of finding an (updated) BIOS firmware for this SBC? I mean if it's working that's fine, but I wonder if they made updates for it...

You might find some inspiration in my recent build which just happened to be a tiny 486 SBC system!

Tiny 486 build - SBC with ISA backplane

I went for a bespoke wood case and a 3 slot backplane (SBC + network card + soundcard) plus a CF card for disk as well as (just!) squeezing in a 3.5" floppy.

megatron-uk wrote on 2024-06-12, 18:38:

You might find some inspiration in my recent build which just happened to be a tiny 486 SBC system! […]
Show full quote

You might find some inspiration in my recent build which just happened to be a tiny 486 SBC system!

Tiny 486 build - SBC with ISA backplane

I went for a bespoke wood case and a 3 slot backplane (SBC + network card + soundcard) plus a CF card for disk as well as (just!) squeezing in a 3.5" floppy.

img20240407170803.jpg

That's super cute! 😄 I was looking for a socket 3 SBC with a built-in VGA adaptor in ISA form. Mainly because I didn't want to get a separate ISA graphics card. Cool you found that board and the build looks awesome! I went with the socket 7 SBC mainly because of the price I paid and i'm being impulsive.

My SBC will eventually find its way into my retro rig (BRICK) alongside my P5A-B socket 7 system. My intention is to put a slow Pentium and use SETMULE to access the older games I want. The whole thing is quite impractical, but that's not the point right?! 😅

This is the place it will live once I get it working the way I want.

Okay!! Lot has happened and I'm glad to say it's mostly working. Still have some issues that I'm not completely sure how to solve. However, the issues I'm encountering probably won't affect the purpose I intend for the SBC. Finding information was difficult and/or impossible for this thing! Super thanks to @PC Hoarder Patrol for the links to Rockwell Automation Library. I didn't find any of the specifics I needed but it was useful, thanks.

Hopefully, this post may help others if they ever encounter this Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 SBC, or the PISA backplane Rockwell Automation A140422-010.

Let's start with what came in the mail. As I suspected, this was a modular SBC unit with a backplane plus a few cards. This was not apparent AT ALL from the eBay pics! FYI, the seller let this go for $35, so major bargains can be found if you're patient! 😎

Notice the SBC is a taller card than normal daughter cards. This may be an issue if you plan to install it in another casing.

The extra cards were in fact a Sound Blaster CT4740, Equinox SST-4 serial card, and the LCD interface for the touchscreen control system.

Let's start with the Rockwell Automation A140422-010 PISA backplane.

So, there are two ways in this system to power the SBC. I'll explain the backplane first.

This is a two-card expansion backplane. The SBC and the integrated LCD interface card take the first two slots, and you get a choice of two PCI or one PCI and one ISA. Here is the power pin pinout as far as I can tell.

The backplane has a built-in 3.3V supply for the SBC. It will only function if the 12V and 5V are present. This is important because the PISA SBC card doesn't have a 3.3V supply and needs this supplemental supply from either the backplane or the older but NOT COMPATIBLE 6-pin AT power connector. This backplane doesn't seem to need an enable signal (AFAIK), it just seemed to work along as you provide 5V and 12V.

The Molex-type power connector on the backplane seems rather proprietary. It looks very similar to the standard ATX power connectors, but it's a strange 14-pin version. I had to butcher a few PCIE cables to make something that would fit. I even had to clip the lower 12V pin because it's keyed in a 90-degree fashion to the standard direction. Maybe someone knows where to find one of these female connectors?

The Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 has an older style AT power connector. The connector is keyed and I had to clip the tall key pins off the connector before it would fit. Note in the picture that the forth key pin is the only one needed to fit. The standard AT power connector had three!

The pinout:

PIN 1: 12V
PIN2: GND
PIN3: GND
PIN4: 5V
PIN5: 5V
PIN6: 3.3V

The card indeed supports K6-2 processors. It also has VCORE adjustments for 2.8V and 2.2V.
Above the CPU socket between the RAM is appears to be VCORE select jumpers. I only tried jumpering each in turn and none together.

-VCORE 2.8V-
JP6 SHORT
JP9 OPEN
JP4 OPEN

-NO VCORE-
JP6 OPEN
JP9 SHORT
JP4 OPEN

-VCORE 2.2V-
JP6 OPEN
JP9 OPEN
JP4 SHORT

Not sure what JP9 is for. Again, I only tried these jumpers in turn and none together. Although it's weird that they are all together but labeled 6, 9, and 4 rather than in sequence...

The multiplier select jumpers (at least that's how they act), are below the CPU socket near the edge connecter and labeled JP14 and JP13.

I was using a K6-2 350mhz to test with and these are the results.

-2.5x- 166MHZ
JP14: 1-2 short
JP13: 1-2 short

-3x- 200MHZ
JP14: 1-2 short
JP13: 2-3 short

-3.5x- 233MHZ
JP14: 2-3 short
JP13: 2-3 short

-6x- 400MHZ
JP14: 2-3 short
JP13: 1-2 short

Not sure why it jumps to 6x from 3.5x. I only did a power on test for these and didn't boot into an OS to check for stability! Also, I'm assuming the constant 66mhz FSB but didn't pull out my scope to check...

In short, it all seems to work rather well. There are a few hiccups and I'll get to that.

Here's a setup using an auxiliary PCI graphics card and ESS1868F ISA sound card. Unisound works fine and this is running DOOM2 in DOS.

Installing Windows 98 had a few issues. On my setup, the machine would blue screen after the second restart of the installation process!

For some reason, I had to disconnect the CD-ROM drive leaving just the hard disk drive to finish the Windows 98 setup. After this, it worked fine, but I reinstalled 6 times with different BIOS options thinking I was doing something wrong. I swapped RAM, CPU, HD but nothing worked. It's possible I have a bad IDE cable or flakey CD drive, but after the setup finishes I re-connect the CD drive and it works!

It appears that all the hardware was recognized. The embedded network card works fine as well. The first issue is the fixed screen resolution of 640 x 480!

The graphics chip is C&T 65550 with 2MB of VRAM. On the initial install of Windows 98, no matter what resolution to choose, the desktop space will change but the on-screen resolution stays fixed to 640 x 480. You can move around the larger desktop space, however.

I've found a poster here on Vogons about such a problem with another SBC with a similar graphics chip. C&T 65550 CRT BIOS

The post speaks about a BIOS issue but I'm not sure how to go about solving this beyond the following solution. Another post here has a link to a specific driver set that supports the C&T 65550. When using this driver, you get a small tab on the display properties window that allows you to change the mode from LCD/CRT to CRT only! Switching to CRT mode allows the output resolution to be changed beyond 640 x 480, but it will always revert after a power cycle! This is annoying, to say the least, but being locked to 640 x 480 might not be an issue for me as I'm only installing DOS and playing DOS games on this rig. However, if someone knows how to change the BIOS to default to CRT mode, chime in, please!

Those drivers are on this post. Of integrated graphics and P1-era systems: Unfindable CHIPS drivers download/file.php?id=19203

Either way, installing an auxiliary VGA adapter works as expected!

The second issue is when I tried to use a Voodoo 2 PCI card in this system. The card is recognized and the settings tab loads and works, but no matter what game or 3D benchmark I try results in a hard reboot of the system. I have the latest DirectX version installed for Windows 98. I've tried both slots on the backplane and reinstalled the drivers but no good. If I load GLQuake for instance, I don't even see the 3DFX logo before it reboots. This might be some kind of resource conflict, but I don't know how to troubleshoot that since everything appears to be working.

Other than that, I'll post more once it gets installed into its new home. Hopefully, this information helps anyone looking to get one of these SBCs. I have another backplane coming that got the ISA slot on the back side of the SBC. This will give a total of 3 cards plus the SBC to play with. Will update when it gets here. 😅

Okay... Got the passive backplane today, PCISA IP-4S2-RS-R40 and there's definitely a problem or incompatibility!

!!! WARNING !!! !!! WARNING !!! !!! WARNING !!!

I'm not totally sure if this was a problem on my end or a real issue with compatibility. I went ahead and tried powering the Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 from its internal power socket and... it didn't post! Weird I thought, so I pulled the board and tried a power-up without a backplane, which is how I was testing the board earlier, and.... nothing! I was worried I killed the board, but I was happy to see the post screen when I reinstalled the SBC into the original active backplane with the 3.3V supply on board.

Super weird so I started probing and I found that the 3.3V fuse on the SBC being fed by the power socket had blown cutting off the 3.3V VBus. The 2.8V VCORE was still working because this is a dual voltage socket 7, but the main 3.3V was no longer working without the original backplane that has a 3.3V dedicated supply.

So... something strange is going on with this passive PCISA IP-4S2-RS-R40 even though this looks compatible with the PISA socket on the "older" backplane. Will have to start probing and see if these are pin-compatible as far as power rails are concerned. Either a 3.3V edge pin is grounded, or it's connected to 5V or 12V. This IP-4S2-RS-R40 has status LEDs and the 5V and 12V light up as I tried to power from the socket on the SBC.

Oh well. At least the SBC is still working!

Mm... I think I found at least one incompatibility in the pinout.

One of the pins that is connected to 3.3V on the Rockwell backplane is GROUNDED on this IP-4S2-RS-R40 backplane! I'm not fully sure what the differences are yet. The ISA and PCI pins "seem" right with a few random pins probed. Also, the other power pins seem to match up.

There are 8 total 3.3V pins directly connected on the Rockwell board. According to the PISA Bus datasheet here, https://www.kontron.com/download/download?fil … f&product=87221 those pins are labeled as /REQ2, PCICLK3, /GNT2, PCICLK4, PWRGDIN, /REQ3, GND, /GNT3. The one marked GND is the culprit. I'm glad to see it's not crossed with 5V or something. I don't know much about the PCI bus architecture, but these pins all being 3.3V all the time might be the reason the Voodoo 2 didn't work correctly.

I'm super confused! There are newer SBCs that use this PISA/PCISA bus architecture. Maybe this older socket 7 Allen Bradley SBC just shared most of the design specs for their own industrial computer backplanes.

🙄🙄🙄

Quoting from 4.1 Power Supply Definition

"The PISA CPU Board does generate its own 3.3V and CPU voltages as needed, and therefore needs no 3.3V supply."

This is obviously not the case with the Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 so this is not a compatible system!

EDIT:

Spent some time probing and found "most" of the differences on the Rockwell Automation A140422-010 backplane over the PISA. Along with the obvious injection points for 3.3V for the Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 SBC, there are also connections for the BIOS battery! Instead of having a normal CMOS battery, they decided to engineer the SBC with a super cap and a CR2023 battery on the backplane itself! This means there are connections from the backplane battery to the ALI M5819P RTC and BIOS. This is all at 5V including the super cap but the battery is only 3V so there is diode protection.

While I was testing, (DON'T DO THIS), the SBC would fail to even POST. After taping off many pins without success, I decided to peak with the thermal camera while installed in either backplane. One thing that stood out quickly was the diode connected to the RTC and supercap. Obviously, the grounded VBAT and HBAT pins were the issue. Once I taped everything off, it did in fact POST. ALL the different pins are marked in red. All the ISA and the remainder of the PCI pins correspond with each other.

I'm not entirely sure how many of these Allan Bradley SBCs are out there, but not nearly as many as the PISA compatible SBCs with their internal 3.3V supply. Since these two systems are so close, I wonder if a kind of "universal backplane" could be crafted... 🤪

The plot thickens!

I received another SBC today marked Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 but is slightly different than the one I have. It has an AMD K6-2 400MHZ running at 366MHZ. I did some more poking and found that JP15 is a selector to change the FSB for the faster CPUs.

One major difference is this SBC has a fixed resolution of 800 x 600 instead of 640 x 480. You can see from these pics this fixed resolution is even in the POST screen!

While the POST screen and DOOM2 are fixed at 800 x 600, the normal DOS prompt is fullscreen.

Here are the BIOS images for each. Unfortunately, they both show an identical build time and version. That's a little frustrating, but there is obviously something different that changes the fixed output resolution.

PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0

So the question is, now that I have two different BIOS images, is it possible to identify and modify the code to change the output resolution, or make this revert to a CRT mode that will allow for different resolutions?

Hope someone with more knowledge can post with suggestions!

Tevian wrote on 2024-06-16, 10:21:

The card indeed supports K6-2 processors. It also has VCORE adjustments for 2.8V and 2.2V. Above the CPU socket between the RAM […]
Show full quote

The card indeed supports K6-2 processors. It also has VCORE adjustments for 2.8V and 2.2V.
Above the CPU socket between the RAM is appears to be VCORE select jumpers. I only tried jumpering each in turn and none together.

The attachment Allen Bradley 6189-1CPU233 CPU CONFIG.jpg is no longer available

-VCORE 2.8V-
JP6 SHORT
JP9 OPEN
JP4 OPEN

-NO VCORE-
JP6 OPEN
JP9 SHORT
JP4 OPEN

-VCORE 2.2V-
JP6 OPEN
JP9 OPEN
JP4 SHORT

Not sure what JP9 is for. Again, I only tried these jumpers in turn and none together. Although it's weird that they are all together but labeled 6, 9, and 4 rather than in sequence...

The multiplier select jumpers (at least that's how they act), are below the CPU socket near the edge connecter and labeled JP14 and JP13.

I was using a K6-2 350mhz to test with and these are the results.

-2.5x- 166MHZ
JP14: 1-2 short
JP13: 1-2 short

-3x- 200MHZ
JP14: 1-2 short
JP13: 2-3 short

-3.5x- 233MHZ
JP14: 2-3 short
JP13: 2-3 short

-6x- 400MHZ
JP14: 2-3 short
JP13: 1-2 short

Not sure why it jumps to 6x from 3.5x. I only did a power on test for these and didn't boot into an OS to check for stability! Also, I'm assuming the constant 66mhz FSB but didn't pull out my scope to check...

Hi, i obtained Rockwell Automation 140420-010, and with reaserch i found out, that jumpers JP6 and JP4 are for core voltage selection
-VCORE 2,8V-
JP6 SHORT
JP4 OPEN

-VCORE 2,2V-
JP6 OPEN
JP4 SHORT

-VCORE 3,0V-
JP6 SHORT
JP4 SHORT

-VCORE 0V-
JP6 OPEN
JP4 OPEN

With JP4 and JP6 OPEN, you can CLOSE jumpers JP10, JP11, JP12, JP16 for single voltage CPUs, then VCORE is set to 3,3V

JP9 migth be used to turn off VCORE regulator, bu all OPEN does have same result. There migth be more in Voltage regulator Datasheet, in my case Voltage regulator is MAXIM MAX1624.
This voltage regulator should be able to create any VCORE from 3,5V to 1,1V. However three other pins are pulled up to +5V. Base on my board and exploration, conections are

D0-> R173
D1 -> JP4
D2 -> R175
D3 -> JP6
D4 -> R186

With this knowledge, there is posibility to unlock whole range, with aditional jumper block to be able to pull D0,D2 and D4 to ground. (not tested yet)

JP13-JP15 are used to set multiplier, JP13 -> BF0, JP14 -> BF1, JP15 -> BF2

I was using a K6-2 500MHz to test:

-2.5x- 166MHZ
JP15: 2-3
JP14: 1-2
JP13: 1-2

-3x- 200MHZ
JP15: 2-3
JP14: 1-2
JP13: 2-3

(-3.5x- 233MHz
JP14: 2-3
JP13: 2-3
JP15: 2-3)*

-4x- 266MHz
JP15: 1-2
JP14: 2-3
JP13: 1-2

-4,5x- 300MHz
JP15: 1-2
JP14: 1-2
JP13: 1-2

-5x- 333MHz
JP15: 1-2
JP14: 1-2
JP13: 2-3

-5,5x- 366MHz
JP15: 1-2
JP14: 2-3
JP13: 2-3

-6x(2x)- 400MHz
JP15: 2-3
JP14: 2-3
JP13: 1-2

*Interesting is that both of my K6-2 (300, 500) refused to post with 3,5x multiplier, so i have to test it with my P166.

FSB is wired for 66MHz, my board does have CY2273A-1 core clock generator, so there migth be posibility to get 60,75 and 83 FSB. But control pins(SEL0(26),SEL1(46)) migth be tie rigth to ground and power planes.

P.S. Thank you @Tevian for all the informations about these boards, i found them very helpfull. Even the backplane you made is soo cool.

Just catching this before bed. Thank you so much for clearing up some things!!

I see I was a bit confused about JP15 being part of JP13 and JP14 as far as CPU multiplier. Thx for that! It would be interesting if the FSB could be modified.

Glad to hear someone else is "trying" to get these boards working. 😉 If you can, please post some picks. I'd like to see the board you have. And also, do you have the ability to post the BIOS dump? As said in this forum post, I'm seeking a fix for the fixed resolution. Does your board also suffer from this?

😁

Tevian wrote on 2024-06-23, 08:02:

[...] or make this revert to a CRT mode that will allow for different resolutions?

Hope someone with more knowledge can post with suggestions!

There are ultilies that can change to CRT / Flat panel /Both modes, in Dos here (read readme.doc): http://ftp.emacinc.com/LegacyProducts/SBC/pcm … 5/Drivers/Bios/
The BIOS .bins are for another SBC. But it does use the 65550.

In windows, to stop the 640x480 fixed size + panning, you can also change to CRT mode in the 'Chips' tab next to where you set the display.

Reprogramming the BIOS: There is a tutorial here from advantech, but I haven't heard success from people who've tried it. Should include settings such as crt mode and 640x480/800x600. https://www.advantech.com/emt/support/details/faq?id=1+FY+68