Modern PDS Riser Card for SE/30

[retr01]

Hello everyone!

I have been thinking for a while about video and ethernet cards for my SE/30. I want to get a 24-bit video card. I already have a short height ethernet NIC. An accelerator later on, too, once Garrett's Workshop or Bolle comes up with a modern accelerator for the SE/30 that is shorter in height.

So, that would be three PDS cards. I am aware that there are vintage PDS connector cards and that some video / accelerator cards have PDS connectors. In recent years, Artmix came out with a PDS connector / riser card, but it is limited to use with an accelerator and expensive.

There is a need for a modern solution now. It should be easy and straightforward to design the Gerber and go from there to PCB.

Is anyone on here interested to create a new and simple modern PDS riser card that will connect up to three PDS cards in the SE/30 with jumpers to adjust the slot addressing? The card needs to connect to the SE/30 PDS slot and clear the chassis. Then, it needs to have two PDS connectors on the side at approbate heights below and above the HDD and FDD. Finally, this card should have one more PDS connector on the top. It needs to be height appropriate to allow a tall PDS card connect and still fit in the SE/30 case. The point is to avoid stacking three miles high and breaking through the roof of the SE/30.

Any one want to get started?

 

[Trash80toG4]

Artmix PowerCache adapter card has been around for quite a few years. More recently, @Bolle has cloned the DiiMO adapter card, which is likely what Atrmix had done.

Bolle did one better, he has the full size card with a single passthru at top, equivalent to Artmix, but has also designed a PowerCache Adapter meant to sit atop an Asante IIsi NIC with R/A PDS slot for use in the IIsi removed and replaced with a "wrong angle" vertical passthru for the stubby PowerCache adapter to be plugged into. That two card assembly has the vertical passthru for full size GrayScale card to fit inside the bucket as do the two full height adapters. The NIC/Adapter setup uses two of the three available interrupts/Slot IDs available on the 030 PDS.

In today's HDD free, SCSI to whatever/SD to whatever environment, a second passthru can ever so just barely be placed underneath the PowerCache Slot (IIci Cache adaptation of 030 PDS) to make use of the third interrupt for PDS card expansion in the cubic normally occupied by the spinning rust cage.

Pushing things to support three PDS Cards along with Accelerator is a lofty goal you've set for yourself.

Seasonic PSU replacement to the rescue on one front, but there's still the two TTL input driving limitation of 030 PDS to be dealt with. Cooling budget remains tightly limited even after Seasonic infusion.

 

[retr01]

The purpose of this modern PDS riser adapter is to be flexible and allow SE/30 owners have more freedom to choose the NIC, video card, and accelerator.

Limiting the PDS adapter to require accelerator is causing problems and does not make sense. Also, some NIC and video cards do not have a pass-through PDS.

I agree that three PDS connectors is a lofty goal and the stock PSU may not provide enough power. We can settle for PDS riser card with two connectors and then maybe add third one when a modern accelerator that is of appropriate height and does not draw much power is ready. Modern accelerator card would most likely be FPGA based rather than standard 030 or 040 setup. A FPGA could replace the 68030 and 68882 on the SE/30 logic board and have its own RAM, much like the new Apple Squeezer for the Apple IIGS.

 

[demik]

Sorry but a 68030 in a FPGA ain't happening. The "best" open core is a 68020 (TG68K.C) and it has only a 16 bit wide which won't work in a SE/30. 68030 would require a MMU (68851 or compatible core), which doesn't exist. To my knowledge no open FPU implementation exists either.

I also agree with @Trash80toG4, @Bolle or Artmix adapter is your best choice for now.

 

[retr01]

Why would @Bolle's DiiMO adapter or Artmix's Stratos Technology TwinSpark adapter be the only current options to have two PDS cards in the SE/30, when they require the use of an accelerator card? Why not create a new adapter card that does not necessarily require an accelerator card? That way, when someone isn't ready to hunt down for a vintage accelerator, almost any combination of NIC or video card could be used without an accelerator?

 

[Trash80toG4]

I understand your obsession with this. Many years ago I started the ProtoCache1 threads, not trying to build a new tech adapter, but to complete a project abandoned by the Gamba team. This was the traditional approach to SE/30 expansion, PowerCache Adapter development to go with the crazy stack of expansion cards explored and documented by the gang. Early study from 2016:

This was to be a wire wrap build in the pre-10cm square, inexpensive PCB day. In gray, note the outline of the Artmix board, which is identical to the DiiMO board that was the basis for the adapter that @Bolle @joethezombie and I developed in a PM skunkworks project documented in Hacks at the MLA.

The SE/30 gang seems to be a band of traditionalists, willing to spend quite a bit of money on scarce cards, accelerators and the masterpiece crystal clear case @MacEffects achieved.

For a "modern" project, I think we'll be better off going LCD coupled with the re-imagined LCIII in Compact form factor board @max has up his sleeve.

For a more traditional, if far out there approach, a NuBus riser with two PDS Slots and PowerCache implementation has been in the works for much of the time ProtoCache1 was in development.

Such would be the source of my obsession with reversing the discrete component implementation of the original, 1.0 release of the Macintosh II.Even if we can't manage to reverse the logic, examining the 16MHz CPUCLK to 10MHz NuBus clock might lead to modification of the three GAL IIsi NuBus adapter made by Radius for use in the SE/30.

 

[Trash80toG4]

Why would @Bolle's DiiMO adapter or Artmix's Stratos Technology TwinSpark adapter be the only current options to have two PDS cards in the SE/30, when they require the use of an accelerator card?

They do not require an accelerator, they support a IIci Cache Slot interfaced accelerator. They are perfectly usable sans Accelerator which requires no interrupt.

If building a riser for the SE/30, provide PowerCache support, but leave connector and PAL unpopulated and you have a three PDS riser for a much larger market and so less costly per unit shipped.