Flash the raid card, to AEC-6280M from 6880M, to 6260M from 6860M

[Kay K.M.Mods]

**It has been uploaded during editing, so I will edit it, but I will fly to a place 1000km away from now on, so I will upload the pictures after returning on Monday. *Please wait for a while as we will look back at the all process again.

20 years ago, I was still active and using the PowerMac 8500, but I was hacking Acard's ATA card. It was a long time ago, but I forgot most of it.
It was reflashing from PC Ver. to the Mac Ver. , but we'll talk about that later.
I posted it for the purpose of recycling the cards left in the warehouse. There are several other SATA cards, but I used the ATA66 card because it works well on the PowerMac9600.
I don't think you need to buy this old card, but if you have a surplus in your warehouse or closet, reuse it with SD card adapter or DVD-drive.

AEC-6880M and 6860M are raid cards. You cannot connect the ATAPI CD (DVD) drive to it. In addition, there is a limit to the capacity of HD, and large-capacity HD cannot be connected. Now that the silicon storage device is mainstream and doesn't use raids, I'll write how to flash it to the AEC-6280M and 6260M.
*The AEC-6280M(6880M) is an ATA133 card and the AEC-6260M(6860M) is an ATA66 card. The ATA133 card is useful on G3 B & W and later and on G4 machines. The ATA66 card is mainly useful for beige Power Macs. The reason is that when using a normal HD on a beige PCI Mac, disk errors occur frequently due to the slow PCI. However, in this test, I used an SD card adapter, but no error occurred with the SD card adapter.

The purpose is to use the following SD conversion card and connect the ATAPI drive at the same time.

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The 6860m is compatible with 6260m, and 6880m and 6280m are compatible. Don't forget that.

Flash process
*Before flashing, turn off both 1 and 2 DIP switches on the card. If possible, fix the switch with Kapton tape so that it does not move.

1, Program on OS9. Do not attach drives to the end of the card when downloading the program to ROM. First, you have to erase the ROM data, so program a blank ROM to make the card information unknown. This is a necessary task when using the ACARD flasher.

2, There is a WhiteROM folder in the unzipped file. Open the Update6280M WhiteROM folder for the 6880M and the Update6860M WhiteROM folder for the 6860M.

3, Run the updater. This will program a blank rom and reboot.

4, Then program the 6280M (6260M) ROM into the blank ROM. Same as the previous procedure, this time we will program to start it. Use "upd62x0m_v2.16_OS9" for 6880M and "Update6260MVer3.21" for 6860M.

5, Run the updater. This will program a blank rom and reboot

6260M(ATA66) results

Max Read: 235MB/s
Max Write: 168MB/s

6280M(ATA133) results

Max Read: 245MB/s
Max Write: 173MB/s

 

[trag]

As I recall there were three or four resistors to move as well in the conversion process.

The feature that makes the 6880M unique and wonderful is that it provides RAID support in both OS9 and OSX. In other words, you can create a single RAID (0 or 1) that can be used on both Classic and OSX, transparently.

AFAIK, this is the only way to get this feature.

Finally, there is a later revision of the 6880M, Rev. 3.0 of the circuit board. I don't think anyone has successfully converted this version. If they have, they haven't talked about it. This revision also has ATP865-B instead of A as the main chip.

 

[Kay K.M.Mods]

As I recall there were three or four resistors to move as well in the conversion process.

The feature that makes the 6880M unique and wonderful is that it provides RAID support in both OS9 and OSX. In other words, you can create a single RAID (0 or 1) that can be used on both Classic and OSX, transparently.

AFAIK, this is the only way to get this feature.

Finally, there is a later revision of the 6880M, Rev. 3.0 of the circuit board. I don't think anyone has successfully converted this version. If they have, they haven't talked about it. This revision also has ATP865-B instead of A as the main chip.

You'll find that you read my post carefully.
Of course, when converting from a PC card to a Mac, it is necessary to move and add resistors. No need to move or add resistors when using 6880 (6860) Mac for 6280 (6260) Mac.

For Beige PCI Mac Raid does not perform well due to the slow PCI speed.
Performance is quite good with SD cards over 120MB / s when using the SD2IDE adapter. I thought that 6280 (6260) was better because I had a high-speed DVD drive of ATAPI that can be used with OS8 inatall in stock.

But it’s very good timing, I found my memo, it’s message from 20years ago.
Conversions from the PC version will be below this :

 

[Kay K.M.Mods]

Flash for Mac from AEC-6280(PC)

For ACHIP chip
Remove: R16/R18/R71
Add: 102 on R71

For ACARD chip
Remove: R71
Replace: 102 on R16 and R19

When I read my memo, it seems that I was using the PowerMac 8500 in striping mode at that time...lmao

The procedure for passing the flasher is the same as for the original post, and the White ROM is flashed once.

 

[trag]

You'll find that you read my post carefully.

You are correct. Two years later, I realize I did not read carefully enough. You were writing about converting from RAID card for Mac to non-RAID card for Mac. I was confused and thinking of card for PC to card for Mac.

 

[Opualuan]

Thanks for reviving an old thread, but I could use some help on converting 6880 to 6880M, this information is related but doesn’t quite cover it. Any tips on this conversion?

 

[trag]

There used to be a web page on how to do, but it's long since down. It boils down to, set a 6880M next to a 6880 and then anywhere you see a difference in the resistors, change the 6880 to match the 6880M. Then program/flash the 6880 with the 6880M firmware. There may have been one more bit to that.

But that requires having a 6880M on hand.

To further complicate things, Acard released a slightly different version of the 6880[M] towards the end of its life and the circuit boards are different. The old one has the switches to the right of the main chip. The new one has the switches next to the back plane. The old web site on the conversion won't do you any good with the new version.

I think the new one also has a 'b' version of the main chip vs. 'a'. As far as I can tell, the primary difference is that the 'b' version can supply larger drive current to the IDE busses. This is useful in the MDD, where one really needs longer than ATA-specification cables to reach from the PCI slots to the drive bays. They sold a version with the 'b' chip that says on the box "supports longer cables for MDD" or something like that.

Unfortunately, that's all I've got at the moment. I think I posted at least the 6280 to 6280M method at some point, but with the unpermanency of forums, it's probably lost to time in deleted XLR8yourmac or PowerWatch.com content.

I started working on the conversion for the new version some months ago (more than a year?) but without success, which is distressing. But my test bed seems to need a capacitor replacement, so that could have been the issue.

What worries me is that many years ago, one fellow who seemed to have insider knowledge claimed that "they" had started including a bit of memory in the main chip that let them set it as Mac or PC, but several things make me thing he was wrong/misleading. And since then, some of the boards for which he claimed that have been successfully converted. Also, adding Flash or EEPROM to a chip adds a lot of manufacturing cost, because it adds some fabrication steps that are not necessary with simple logic chips. Anyway, it's possible when he made that blanket statement that he was referring only to Acard and he didn't make it clear at the time, or (I hope) he was just blowing smoke.

I think I put some of the details for the 'b' version in a thread at 68Kmla, but I'm not sure.

Ah, found my notes. I keep a lab notebook. On the 'b' version is appears that these are the following differences:

	6880M	6880
R36	Empty	103
R37	102	Empty
R40	Empty	103
R41	102	Empty

Numbers are the actual markings on the resistors. Plus the firmware, of course.

 

[Opualuan]

I have an 6880M version as well, the main chip is different though- I’ll post photos.

 

[trag]

Ah, you probably have an 'A' version of one and a 'B' version of the other. Although Kay's posting above suggests there were already 2 versions before the 'B' came out, so there may have been 3.

 

[Opualuan]

 

[Opualuan]

Board fab 6880 is rev 1 with Achip-A main IC, 6880m also looks like 1.0 (label covering) but has an Acard-A IC… just a label or actually different? 6880 switches and associated resistors are not populated, and also missing pci bracket… couldn’t find a bracket on another card with the right spacing.

 

[trag]

Guessing and assuming Kay has the correct information, which seems likely, it looks like you would want to do the following:

For ACARD chip
Remove: R71
Replace: 102 on R16 and R19

Afterwards, follow Kay's flashing instructions above, **but** if you want to end up with a 6880M and not a functionally 6280M, then flash with the firmware for the 6880M, not with the firmware for the 6280M.

Just for completeness, here's the Rev. 3 card. Suggests there's a Rev. 2 out there somewhere, unless they never shipped it.

 

[trag]

Board fab 6880 is rev 1 with Achip-A main IC, 6880m also looks like 1.0 (label covering) but has an Acard-A IC… just a label or actually different? 6880 switches and associated resistors are not populated, and also missing pci bracket… couldn’t find a bracket on another card with the right spacing.

IIRC, they had some kind of software control for setting the RAID mode on the PC card so that the switches were not needed.

 

[Opualuan]

I’ll give it a try this week and report back, appreciate the guidance!

 

[trag]

I’ll give it a try this week and report back, appreciate the guidance!

Good luck. Looking forward to the report. The switch is just a 2 gang DIP switch. Ought to be easy to get from Mouser or similar, but shipping will be four times as much as the switch.

 

[Opualuan]

Actually, my 6880 is the one with the Achip, so I tried this:

For ACHIP chip
Remove: R16/R18/R71
Add: 102 on R71

I was able to update to FW2.45 but then the Mac won't boot past initial gray screen. 6880M still works if I swap it in.

I'll add the missing the missing R79/R80 102 going to the switch block, and strap the switch to normal mode for now (didn't order a switch block yet).

 

[trag]

Actually, my 6880 is the one with the Achip, so I tried this:

For ACHIP chip
Remove: R16/R18/R71
Add: 102 on R71

I was able to update to FW2.45 but then the Mac won't boot past initial gray screen. 6880M still works if I swap it in.

I'll add the missing the missing R79/R80 102 going to the switch block, and strap the switch to normal mode for now (didn't order a switch block yet).

Right you are. I hope I was posting late at night and not just having that much brain disfunction naturally....

Good luck after installing the switch block. Keep us posted. It's great to read about your progress.