Hi Ian,
I have a Gespac computer somewhere in storage. I think I posted a
description of it and asked about it here on the list about three years
ago. IIRC I searched the net and found some good information on a couple of
the cards. They are standard Euro Cards and the Gespac site had a nice
description of the standard for the cards. Also Jeff Kaneko was able to
tell me more about the cards but I don't remember the details. I'm not sure
what the computer I have was supposed to do but it looked like a data
aquisition system for automotive use. I was supposed to send it to Jeff but
I never got around to it (Sorry Jeff!). I saw another Gespac computer at
the Orlando hamfest a couple of years ago. It had some manuals with it but
someone had already bought it :-( I don't think Jeff is on the list any
more but his address is Jeff L Kaneko <jeff.kaneko ^AT^ juno ^DOT^ com>.
Perhaps he can give you more details.
Joe
At 09:12 PM 11/12/03 -0500, you wrote:
>I found a box of these boards at a scrap place. I have ten boards, two
>backplanes, and a bus extender. I don't exactly know what these are,
>however. The connectors are "eurocard" style (I think that's what they
>are called), they look similar to Macintosh NUBUS connectors. I don't
>really know much about them other than what components are on the
>boards.
>
>The boards:
>http://24.194.65.231/images/gespac_boards.jpg
>
>CPU board: GESMPU-4B
>It uses a Motorola MC68000FN8, some PLA's, two 27128's, and a 1488/1486
>driver pair. It has a twenty pin IDC header on the edge of it, and two
>pushbuttons, one red and one black. It also has a five pin header, and
>two LED's.
>http://24.194.65.231/images/gespac_cpu.jpg
>
>Parallel board: GESPIA-2A
>It has two MC6821P's on it, and two twenty six pin IDC headers on the
>edge.
>http://24.194.65.231/images/gespac_pia.jpg
>
>Serial board: GESSIO-1E
>It has two 6850's. It also has two sockets for a 1488/1489 driver pair,
>but the chips are missing, with a post-it in the package, with "MC1488P
>MC1489P" written on it, as if someone borrowed the chips, and left a
>note. There are two twenty pin headers on the edge.
>http://24.194.65.231/images/gespac_serial.jpg
>
>INC board (whatever that is...): GESINC-1
>A bunch of TTL logic, some PLA's, a 34 pin IDC header, a ten pin IDC
>header, and another one of those five pin headers like on the CPU board.
>http://24.194.65.231/images/gespac_inc.jpg
>
>RAM board: GESRAM-4B
>18 TMS4256-12NL DRAMs and a bunch of logic chips.
>http://24.194.65.231/images/gespac_ram.jpg
>
>
>I also have a bus extender card. It's just a board with a connector on
>both ends, and a jumper block to select which signals are connected.
>http://24.194.65.231/images/gespac_extender.jpg
>
>Anyone know what these boards are for? What kind of a computer might
>these have come from? I probably have enough parts to create a working
>computer, but I'll need to figure out how to connect a storage device,
>and find some bootable media. Two of the three CPU cards have two NVRAM
>chips on them, the other one has two ROM chips in it's place, so I'm
>worried that the NVRAM might have become slightly more V over time, so
>I don't know if I could get them to work. I have three CPU boards, two
>parallel boards, two serial boards, two INC boards, and one RAM board.
>I also have two backplanes and the bus extender. The backplanes are
>labeled with the proper voltages, so powering it shouldn't be a
>problem, the problem will be figuring out what the pinouts of the
>serial ports are, etc. Any ideas?
>
>Thanks!
>
>Ian Primus
>ian_primus_at_yahoo.com
>
>
Received on Thu Nov 13 2003 - 10:00:08 GMT
