VMEBus Video Card Wanted

What machine is it? Do any of the cards have Motorola, Force or other manufacturers written. Have you got the original card? I used to work on specialist computing equipment many years ago. And service this type of thing. If you were a little closer I would just repair the old card, as this may well be the simplest way to get you going!

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

I'm not sure of the make of the card. I'll try and take one out and get a picture of it. I've been told these cards are obselete. Do you think that maybe these cards can, if they get damaged, be repaired?

I'll hopefully post back with more information on the card tomorrow.

Thanks

Darryl

The VME bus was an older standard that was used in some high end equipment. It was used in some high priced Unix workstations I think.

I don't know if any VME card could interface to a standard VGA monitor. Most of those VME workstations used specialized non-standard monitors.

So, you are looking for a video card that:

a. Uses the VME bus,

b. Has a driver for OS9, and c. Will work with whatever brand of monitor you have right now.

Do you have the monitor that was originally used with this equipment? If so, post the make and model. Someone may be able to give you advice on whether it is VGA compatible or not.

Did this equipment originally have a video card and monitor? Some equipment from that era used a serial port and an RS-232 terminal. In fact, I think OS9 was text based, and I don't know if it had any graphic support. Think of it as more like DOS than Windows.

There is probably a newsgroup for OS9. Someone there might help you if you need help with operating system commands.

Aidan Grey

Hi Andrew,

Picture of the card is here:

and

So far the card we have is working but we are trying to get a backup card in case it goes down.

The machine is a printing press. Various pictures here

Hope these might be of help.

Thanks once again for you help so far.

Darryl

What a ripper,

My advice from across the ocean is look for any old DOS VGA cards of a similar vintage for that cirrus logic chip. The buss driver IC's are still available as surplus, also from other similar vintage VME cards. The IC in the bottom corner is probably a VGA memory chip (I can't read the number). That leaves IC12 and 14 which will be custom to the board.

If this is really a concern then trying to contact the manufacturers of the card, and getting a spare is a good idea.There seem to be a number of company's in existence. A phone call may be all that is required. If the company don't service the product any more then maybe they can put you on to a service tech who will gladly take your money, (who may well of put such a card away).

Andrew