I found a few interesting cards for the Apple ][ the other day.
On it are the markings "Computer Networking Specialists" with a copyright
of 1988. It has two whole chips: a 6116 and a PAL. The remaining
components are three caps, one which has blown. In fact, of all the cards
I found, they all have the same cap blown, in some cases completely
obliterated with only the two leads remaining with only a huge swath of
soot in the path of the explosion. The cap seems to filter the ground
line (it goes from what I believe is the GND pin on the ICs to the ground
plane on the card).
Each computer with the card had a cable with an RJ-45 connector on one end
and a four-pin flat connector on the other protuding from the case. I
found other computers without the card but with the cable. The inside end
of the cable (with the 4-pin connector) was loose. There is no mating
connector on the card for it either.
It seems to me that these computers were part of some network scheme, and
that these cards possibly held some networking firmware. How the cap blew
off the cards is a mystery. I could imagine a power spike coming down the
network cable and damaging the card, but like I said, the cable didn't
plug directly into the card, and I can't imagine the Apple ][ bus passing
along a power surge to the card from the cable. I didn't bother to check
any of the Apple's that I pulled the cards from to see if they were
working.
Anyway, anyone have any knowledge of these?
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Mon Jul 01 2002 - 14:29:32 BST