It's a motherboard that's designed to use an 80486 processor, but uses PCI (which was more common on Pentium machines, but was designed to be processor-agnostic) instead of VLB (which was designed especially for the 486). They were briefly popular at one point in the mid-1990s, but the P54C (second-generation Pentium) and the chipsets made to support it made them obsolete quickly.
I have Windows 95 installed on the 486. It is slow, slow, slow...the paddleboard IDE is really not helping matters any. Thing is, I don't remember 486s being this poky, but then I'm probably remembering the faster DX2 and DX4 chips.
If you're going to restore a box, make it something worth restoring. 2/3/486 class machines were the retarded red headed step children of computers. Anything worth restoring is much older than that. Go back to at *least* 8088 or prior, not something barely qualifying as a beta test for the Pentium 1 generation.
I mean, I understand debates about what counts as vintage or not, but complaining about 1990s PCs being "retarded" doesn't help anyone. The 1990s were 20 years ago. They count, dammit.
so anyway, thanks to twitter, I now know that modern Western Digital drives with the Marvell chips are either single or dual Marvell Feroceon (ARM9-ish), and that they can run Linux directly if you use a version written for an ARM9 with no MMU. Kind of makes me wonder if OpenWRT would work...replace the SATA interface with wireless radio and enjoy your teeny-tiny NAS.
Also, I found deep Russian crap that says they might have used either MCS-296 or ST10 at some point, just like Seagate did. I know Seagate eventually had to stop using ST10 because it was a pain in the ass to handle more than 16 MB RAM with one...the memory management on the base-model 10, at least, is about as nice as a 286. :P
I do know the really old Caviars were 80C196, so they may have upgraded to MCS-296 at some point before going to Feroceon. I don't know when that point may have been, though.
The really old MFM/RLL Seagates are 6502 or 8051, if they have a CPU at all (the ST-506 didn't). They used the 6502 on classics like the ST-4000 series, the ST-225 and the ST-251. Seagate's MFM and RLL controller boards were 8051, and the ST-157 and its friends were 8051 as well (and re-used many of the parts from the ST-21R :P). I forget what the ST-412 used...may have been either Rockwell 6500 or an 8048.
All the Control Data stuff Seagate inherited was 8048 or 8051, and the Barracuda and Hawk upgraded to the 80C196. At some point, they started using Barracuda and Hawk parts in their downlevel IDE drives, and I saw the 80C196 in a few of those as well. A few drives from this era have integrated processors, and so I have no idea what they're running. After the Conner merger, it seems they standardized on the C166 and the ST10, and I've seen them using both; eventually the high-end stuff moved to ARM9 (LSI Logic's version), and the cheap drives got ARM (I think!) when the 7200.11 came out.
I don't know what the old Samsung stuff used (I'd have to dig up an early-1990s Samsung to tell, and those aren't common), but late 1990s Samsung used Adaptec and ST glue-and-go chips (no idea what CPU), and the super-common SpinPoint drives have always been Marvell and as far as I know have always used Feroceon.
A lot, and I mean a lot of the hole-in-the-wall storage companies around back then used three-in-one controller chips like the WDC Vanilla or the Cirrus 260 as soon as they were available, and either rolled their own servo and analog crap, or pulled it directly off National or Silicon Systems app notes. I remember reading a Quantum engineer saying that Adaptec was infamously difficult to deal with (even though Quantum wasn't the only company specifying their chips; Conner used 'em too, as did several others), and so that's why they learned Verilog and started using TI and Toshiba gate arrays instead.
Blargle blargle blargh, the BIOS my 1540 came with has an 8 GB limit. :P It can see all 50 GB of my drive just fine, but FORMAT sure can't! Not even ASPI4DOS.SYS seems to help.
It really is just a Super VGA with 1 MB. It has a few enhancements, such as 256-color raster op support (expanding on the 16-color raster op support VGA already had) and hardware cursor, but otherwise, it's a late-1980s/early-1990s Super VGA that just happens to be sitting directly on the 486 bus. The Cirrus I got can kick this thing's ass, even without VLB...it has true-color support and a blitter!
I did get the right memory. I must have damaged the socket putting it in. :P
A decent 8-port USB+HDMI KVM switch is practically made of unobtanium, but I can get a 2-port VGA+PS/2 KVM switch with audio for less than $10.. What the hell. :P
Also, it seems Windows 98's FORMAT and FDISK can see all 120 GB of the Seagate I'm using; it's just that they can't believe anything bigger than, oh, 32767 MB actually exists.
Okay, it's actually 65535 MB that's the display cutoff.
It's repoting that the disk is 48,93.93M [sic], but the real capacity of the drive is 234,441,648 sectors, or ~114,474 MiB at 512 bytes/sector. 114,474 modulo 65,536 is 48,938. closeenough.jpg
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Whoa, I'd forgotten how much the minimum system requirements jumped between 95 and 98
It's kind of easy to ignore it nowadays because they're both painfully obsolete by modern standards but at the time it made a big difference
Fun fact: Most modern PC clones aren't actually IBM PC-compatible; they're compatible with the PC/AT (5170), and many machines made after 1990 or so have partial PS/2 compatibility (PS/2 mouse and keyboard, fast gate A20, etc).
I'm using a 2005-vintage Logitech mouse on the 486 through one of those green plugs, a USB-to-PS/2 adapter (the mouse itself has to be able to speak PS/2 for it to work).
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
USB-to-PS/2 adapters seem like the only decent option for using a mouse with a 1990s-vintage computer, since with most actual PS/2 mice you'd be stuck with a ball mouse instead of an optical mouse.
Yup, unless you happened upon a vintage Mouse Systems mouse somewhere. They're rare as hen's teeth, and if you don't get the special mouse pad with it, you're screwed.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
I was trying to remember where I'd heard of those before, and then it clicked:
I have all my old stuff in one corner of my room, by my closet i never use. I've been wanting to do something like this for a while.
I haven't decided what to do with the G3 or the G4...I kind of want to keep the G3 around to play with PowerPC Linux, since the mini is going to be in 10.4 most of the time, but that role may be better served by the G4, as it's a New World machine and far easier to work with. In any case, I'm almost out of space here.
Someone found a copy of the ST-225 schematics and posted them to Bitsavers.
Interesting take-aways:
The 225 could microstep. It had both a normal stepper motor driver (apparently a semi-custom L297 + L293D combo), and a high-current DAC made from two 7445s and a resistor ladder. This would explain a lot about both the 225 and the 251...
Everything else looks pretty standard. It has a single chip controlling the write gate, disk pulse detection, and read filter, but that's not too weird.
Track 0 and landing zone detection is indeed through some magic signal on the disc. The read filter sends samples of the raw data to the microcontroller for its perusal.
Oh man, I'd forgotten that the ST3283/ST3655/ST31220 drives all used a Zilog Z8, for some reason. As far as I know, Seagate has never used the Z8 in anything else; it's all been either R6500, 805x, 80C196, ST10 or ARM (as well as their TMS320 servo DSPs, as well as the 68HC11 and HC16 stuff they inherited from Conner).
Oh,and apparently the early MiniScribe stuff was all 6801 or 6803. The schematics for the 2012 and what I'm guessing is the 1012 are in IBM's tech manuals for the XT.
As for who did use the Z8, I saw a bunch of them in the schematics for the ProFile and the Widget, and I also seem to remember OMTI's controllers using them.
A BegaleBone Black seems like overkill; hiding a 1 GHz ARMv7 in your 30-year-old 16-bitter just seems wrong, somehow. I would have used something like a TMS320 or some other jellybean DSP, but they're probably more expensive and fussier to work with...
Now I'm wondering how much different it'd be to handle ESDI. ESDI uses the same cabling, but the electrical interface is totally different; it's more like SD, with binary commands and SPI-ish data, than it is ST-506.
The 225 could microstep. It had both a normal stepper motor driver (apparently a semi-custom L297 + L293D combo), and a high-current DAC made from two 7445s and a resistor ladder. This would explain a lot about both the 225 and the 251...
Aaaaaaand it turns out this is only true for certain very old revisions of the 225. It was used to implement a feature called "recovery mode", which allowed the controller to move the heads with more precision if a read error was detected. Apparently this idea never caught on, and the parts that implement it are missing on later revs of the 225 (including all the ones I've seen).
MacBook Pro with Retina Display 13" Early 2015 Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)
Proprietary pentalobe screws continue to make opening the device unnecessarily difficult.
The battery assembly is entirely, and very solidly, glued into the case, thus complicating replacement. Additionally, the battery covers the screws holding the trackpad in place, meaning it's impossible to replace the trackpad without first removing the battery.
The Retina display is a fused unit with no separate, protective glass. If anything ever fails inside the display, the entire ($$$) assembly will need to be replaced.
The RAM is soldered to the logic board. Pay for the upgrade now, or be stuck with 8 GB forever. There is no chance of upgrade.
The proprietary PCIe SSD still isn't a standard drive. Cross your fingers for future compatible drives; for now, you're stuck with what you've got.
This type of shit is why I seriously dislike post-iPhone Apple.
It used to be that you could fix their stuff, however begrudgingly. Late 1990s and early 2000s Macs were great about this, and durable enough that you didn't have to buy a new one for quite a while. Now it's all made to be thrown out, replaced with a new model every year and a half like clockwork. Who fucking has the money for that? [answer: Silicon Valley assholes, that's who]
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
My biggest point of contention with the new MacBook is the USB.
Ok, so it's a USB-C connector, and you have to use an adapter to plug in "regular" USB stuff. That's kind of annoying, but it's typically Apple of them to adopt a new standard well before it's popular in the PC world, and at least it's not some proprietary shit.
But...one port? Really? And it's the goddamn charging port? So I would have to choose between charging my computer or using a mouse with it?
The data rates and power rating of USB-C would allow you to plug the Macbook into essentially a dock that would break out all the ports you'd need. I imagine they'll be on the market soon; similar devices exist for Thunderbolt, and with USB-C it can power and charge the laptop too.
And the great thing is: this is Apple using an established standard for their power again, which means that you'll be able to buy third-party chargers.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Yeah, I don't object to their adoption of USB-C in and of itself, I just dislike that they're being stingy with the single port. I suppose it's an engineering decision to simplify the motherboard or some such, but I know I regularly plug 2 or more things into my laptop and I'd be mildly annoyed if I needed a hub to do so
CA: it's probably also them saying "If you want that, buy the more expensive Pro version", Apple always being big on product differentiation aka forcing you to upgrade.
Anyway, I did some more studying on the EFI thing and
welp
It seems 32-bit EFI is a hack, or at least the Linux people consider it one. It's something along the lines of the Open Firmware in the beige PCI Macs---enough to enumerate PCI devices and load Mac OS, but not enough to do much else. If you want to run another OS on this thing you pretty much have to use the BIOS.
This makes dual booting something of a challenge unless you install an EFI shell. :P I ain't doin' that on a machine that's not mine!
Of course, the other problem is that this is a 2006 MacBook Pro, the latest OS X it can run is 10.6.8, and support for 10.6 is dropping steadily. iTunes is still kept up-to-date enough to work with the iPhone 6 (amazingly), but I'm having issues with other things. Never versions of LibreOffice want Lion to work. Firefox hasn't dropped support, but I bet they want to.
If these things happen, I will eventually have to put Windows 7 (32-bit, because this thing has a 945 chipset :P) or Linux on it...
MacBook Pro with Retina Display 13" Early 2015 Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)
Proprietary pentalobe screws continue to make opening the device unnecessarily difficult.
The battery assembly is entirely, and very solidly, glued into the case, thus complicating replacement. Additionally, the battery covers the screws holding the trackpad in place, meaning it's impossible to replace the trackpad without first removing the battery.
The Retina display is a fused unit with no separate, protective glass. If anything ever fails inside the display, the entire ($$$) assembly will need to be replaced.
The RAM is soldered to the logic board. Pay for the upgrade now, or be stuck with 8 GB forever. There is no chance of upgrade.
The proprietary PCIe SSD still isn't a standard drive. Cross your fingers for future compatible drives; for now, you're stuck with what you've got.
This type of shit is why I seriously dislike post-iPhone Apple.
It used to be that you could fix their stuff, however begrudgingly. Late 1990s and early 2000s Macs were great about this, and durable enough that you didn't have to buy a new one for quite a while. Now it's all made to be thrown out, replaced with a new model every year and a half like clockwork. Who fucking has the money for that? [answer: Silicon Valley assholes, that's who]
now i have another reason to avoid buying apple shit and rag on macwhatever and iwhatever
Comments
bro obviously wants to make an abacus
albeit with a PS/2 to USB converter
MacBook Pro with Retina Display 13" Early 2015 Repairability Score: 1 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair)
Proprietary pentalobe screws continue to make opening the device unnecessarily difficult.
The battery assembly is entirely, and very solidly, glued into the case, thus complicating replacement. Additionally, the battery covers the screws holding the trackpad in place, meaning it's impossible to replace the trackpad without first removing the battery.
The Retina display is a fused unit with no separate, protective glass. If anything ever fails inside the display, the entire ($$$) assembly will need to be replaced.
The RAM is soldered to the logic board. Pay for the upgrade now, or be stuck with 8 GB forever. There is no chance of upgrade.
The proprietary PCIe SSD still isn't a standard drive. Cross your fingers for future compatible drives; for now, you're stuck with what you've got.
Ok, so it's a USB-C connector, and you have to use an adapter to plug in "regular" USB stuff. That's kind of annoying, but it's typically Apple of them to adopt a new standard well before it's popular in the PC world, and at least it's not some proprietary shit.
good.