An invasion of parts from the north

[@dmnsonic]

"I'll try to do things a little shorter" understand Adrian, we like long videos, at least I love seeing a long and instructive video of yours. Keep good work!

[@mikeuk666]

I cringed the other day when some complained about long videos 👍

[@jdpiper]

The great thing is he keeps saying this and then the next video using the same format will nevertheless end up being 45 minutes long anyway. At this rate he's going to wind up doing a telethon. :B

[@More_Row]

I think he’s trying to also limit the workload. I don’t think he wants them to be too long. * for his own sanity. And we as followers don’t want him to get burned out.

[@lyledal]

I came here to say this. Also, weren't the "mini mail calls" an attempt to make things a little shorter? :D

[@kirkanos3968]

@@mikeuk666 if too long for them they can run it at 2x speed haha

[@guffaw1711]

Regarding the IBM 3270 cards. You could ask curiousmarc if he needs those. He's on an IBM binge lately.

[@chriswelch9328]

You could make a 3 hour special and I’d still watch it.

[@lucuselliott9728]

I think one of the AMD processors is actually an 8086

[@jameslewis2635]

I remember Aztech cards as being relatively decent Soundblaster clones back in the day. I think they went as far as copying the Soundblaster 16 standard before they dissapeared from the market. While I'm not sure about this I think they had a range of low cost PC add-ons a bit like StarTech has today. I think we had one such card in our family PC which was a Tiny branded 486 DX2 66Mhz. My stepfather added a Roland GS wavetable card to it which made it a really awesome sound card for the time. Unfortunately with it being an ISA card it was not compatible with the PCI based system that we replaced that computer with.

[@marcovtjev]

I had one, a Aztech SG16 iirc, and it was a PRO compatible, with something more (it could do 44000k stereo, but only in Windows Sound System mode). It was sometimes PRO compatible and sometimes 16 (if it didn't require the roland MPU)

[@Vermilicious]

If you don't need the "simverters", maybe you can take the sockets off and use as replacement for plastic ones. And perhaps the OPL chips can be taken off also, to be used on more useful/modern cards. So much old hardware... what to do with it all!?

[@azmi3333]

Starlan was a network product line from AT&T and used CAT-3 twisted pair wire. Originally it was a 1Mbs network and later updated to 10Mbs. The caveat with this pre-standard gear was it didn't implement link status pulses, so you couldn't use them with standard 10Base-T hubs. However there were 10Base-T cards from other manufactures that would allow you to disable link status so they would work with legacy Starlan hubs.

[@XLessThanZ]

SOUNDBLASTER: One of my favorite single-guy t-shirts was my SoundBlaster t-shirt that read "I'm Compatible".

[@RambozoClown]

There were 4 models of SIMMverters, back in the day. Left and right low versions, and left and right tall versions. With the four versions you could populate all four DIMM slots in a typical motherboard. Back when memory wasn't cheap as chips.

[@marksterling8286]

Love simverters. Saved me a fortune back in the 90s

[@stinkertonsden]

@@Inject0r I remember that as well! You'd get a tall and short A and B. The tall ones in the middle two slots, short ones on the outer slots. It stood as a "tower" of chips and let you keep your RAM without having to pay ridiculous prices. The most we ever paid for a single computer part was $300ish for a single 8MB 72-pin SIMM for the Performa 476 we had, all because 1 game wouldn't work with the 4MB it already had and needed 8MB. I convinced my parents we should get the 8MB instead of just a 4MB since there was only 1 slot and it would extend the life of the machine. I was absolutely right in doing so.

[@GeFeldz]

One of the chips you called 8088 was marked 8086. Fancy 16 bit stuff. EDIT 23:39 that's the one. AMD made 8086-2

[@oldguy9051]

Yes, and he also put an 8085 into his 8088-stash. I guess he will find out if he puts one into a PC/XT...

[@TheMovieCreator]

Also some other notes: Z80BCTC is a Z80-CTC, the Zilog version of an 8-bit clock/timer chip (roughly similar in features to the Intel 8253/8254). Intel 8251 is an USART, the big-brother of the 8250 UART used for serial ports.

[@christopherdecorte1599]

Those ram card converter boards have quality slots would be useful for replace bad Sim slots on old pc

[@GeFeldz]

Accton ETHERCOAX-16 EN1642 10 Mbps Ethernet card with RG-58A/U 50 Ohm coax and AUI ports. I posted a comment earlier with a link, but it was removed... Maybe YT doesn't allow links? I don't know. The link does mention NE1000 as well.

[@oldguy9051]

And just because I'm a pedantic a$$: 8035 = This is a 8048 without a mask ROM. It's therefore re-usable but the challenge is to find a device with it... Z80BCTC = Z80-family "CTC" = "counter/timer circuit". It's similar to the 8253 but not compatible. 8251 = "communication interface" = standard serial I/O chip from Intel since the 8080/8085 Z6132-5 = 4Kx8 = true 4 KByte(!) of RAM. It's speciality is that it is dynamic RAM that does an internal(!) refresh. So from the outside it behaves like static RAM. + as others have mentioned the 8088 stash contains an 8085 and an 8086...

[@chris-tal]

I think that one of the unknown ethernet cards is an Accton EN1640 with their own EN50903 ethernet controller. Trade name for the card could be EtherCombo-16. It's NE2000 (and NE1000 backwards) compatible.

[@wbfaulk]

FWIW, 3270 is the model of the terminal, not what you'd be "connecting to".

[@minty_Joe]

@Adrian's Digital Basement, if any, extract the 30-pin RAM slots from the 72-pin adapters to replace the stock ones on the Mac SE and SE/30 logic boards. Throw away the rest. Then you've got a board that has metal tabs and not plastic ones.

[@An_Onion]

Can you use the sockets on the SIMMverters to replace the crappy plastic clip sockets on a motherboard?

[@colinstu]

You should dive down into recreating some old networks. Get the wiring / equipment and configure 2-3 computers to communicate with token ring, IPX/SPX, thick/thinnet, and I just looked up that "StarLAN" thing... also kinda neat to have a retrospective series or something.

[@MonochromeWench]

Sim converters would be a good source of replacement 30 pin simm slots for boards with broken plastic clips

[@uni-byte]

Your 3270 cards allow a PC, with appropriate software, to act as IBM 3270 dumb terminals. They would connect via a coax cable to something like a 3274 terminal controller to access (for example) a System/360 mainframe. Lots of fun!

[@richardkelsch3640]

That one ZiLOG chip is a Counter/Timer Controller (CTC) usually for Z80 chips, but works fine for Intel. It's part is Z8430 (above the Z80BCTC label).

[@rtechlab6254]

Curiousmarc may be able to use the 3270 cards

[@dangerotterisrea]

Between you and LGR I have learnt more about the soundcards I had back in the day than I ever knew XD Great video!

[@MrDAndersson]

I think we need to find a old IBM S/390 and send for a mail call so the 3270 cards come to use, may be a bit hard to fit in the basement 😀 The network card is not token ring..

[@SharkoonBln]

Possibly an ARCNET card.

[@homelessEh]

the aztec sound blaster 19.9 k modem isa card was my savior back in the day.

[@DavePoo]

9:35 - I didn't know about the Soundblaster program. Maybe i never had a real Soundblaster back in the day.

[@chillofi5284]

Those dance moves really gave me a huge smile❤️

[@TzOk]

I had AZT2316 sound card in my IBM PC 330 466DX2. It was configured by jumpers, not the driver command line/did not require any TSRs like newer ISA PnP cards, and I had absolutely no compatibility issues with it.

[@MrKsoft]

Yes, these are EXCELLENT SBPro clones. They are actually my card of choice.

[@pelgervampireduck]

I loved it because of that, it didn't need drivers that consume ram, everything worked perfectly both in DOS and Windows, I never had compatibility problems.

[@TheBitPunch]

Bro. I always watch your videos before I go to sleep. Best bedtime story ever. Thank you.

[@realnutteruk1]

Go read the Wikipedia entry on Run Length Limited encoding... it's clever and interesting, and RRL coding is still very much in use... it's a data encoding technique, not a drive interface type....

[@ChannelConnorsWinnipeg]

Greetings from Winnipeg, Manitoba.

[@CanuckGod]

I grew up in Winnipeg and other places around the province (living in Calgary now), so it's cool to see some some fellow Manitobans around.

[@ChannelConnorsWinnipeg]

@@CanuckGod yes indeed

[@Kboyer36]

Here is a little more information on the Aztech cards. The gold one with FCC ID I38-MMSN834 is a Sound Galaxy Washington 16 with the Aztech AZT2316 Chipset. The more green one with FCC ID I38-MMSN834 is just known as the Packard Bell 030101. It has the Aztech AZT2316R chipset. I actually have an Aztech card in my 5170 and the OPL chip sounds amazing. The Sound blaster compatibility with mine seem to be pretty good but mine have the crystal audio chips instead of the rockwell so these ones may be different. Either way, I have found them to be perfect cards for 286 machines. I am also pretty sure the 16 bit address lines are just for the CD controller so it's possible they may work in an XT class machine as well since the sound blaster 2.0 and adlib are both 8 bit cards. For drivers, there is a massive dump of Aztech drivers on Vogons but you may have to resort to a Packard Bell recovery CD to get the driver for the second one.

[@markkalitta6125]

Doyoulike hamradio? Gooday

[@markpstapley]

ACCTON TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION ETHERCOAX-16 (EN1642) network card

[@dallesamllhals9161]

22:03: AUCH!!?? Here i am on my Phenom 1100t AS my primary(desktop) in 2021! ..guess I am using RETRO right now! Oh well: Polar bears and Greta T. ♥ me ;-D ..grumble..if i could just get an AMD K6-IIIAHX 400MHz for my first selfbuild in 1997! Socket 7 Iwill pP55XB2 (ALAS a Rev.1.21) To a NOT OMG-price.... EDIT: YES! I know i'm a bit to "young" when REAL x86. Sry'! C64 and Amiga were my beginnings = Nothing before 486 dx2-66MHz.

[@Renville80]

I have no complaints about the length of your videos, Adrian, but if it helps make better use of your free time, that’s perfectly understandable. Either way, it’s good content for some of us to get reacquainted with vintage technology or just get answers for those thoughts rattling around in the back of our minds. Oh, and the 6800 series equivalent of the 8253 timer IC is the MC6840.

[@jeromethiel4323]

Rick puts "the man" back in Manitoba! ^-^

[@kepkepler8941]

The progression of St 506 was.. MFM, RLL, ESDI. xfer rate of MFM was 5 Mbit/s , RLL 7.5 Mbit/s, ESDI was 10 to 24 Mbit/s. IDE was a step back in speed initially [ it sucked ] but was less expensive. I had converted all my computers/servers to ESDI 24 Mbit/s.

[@gbclab]

Hey great Adrian I have a very strange little board by many years that I cannot understand what it is… EPSON TOMM BOARD Y45120920000…it looks like a memory expansion little board with two connectors and two empty sockets for 27256/27128…where can I contact you to show you a photo?

[@brostenen]

I have a Vibra16 with OPL3 chip on it. It has the absolute best bass punch and rich sound. What it in return lacks, are variable bass and treble. And it lacks mixer, except for volume controll. It is silent, so it will filther out drive read/write noises from harddisks. Normally you can hear it, when there is no sound on older creative cards. I will say that it is much like the SB16 Value Edition CT2770 model. However the value have mixer and bass/treble controll yet you can hear static noise and drive activity. Not all Vibra cards are lacking OPL3. Just the same with AWE32 models. 3 AWE32 models have OPL3 chips, yet they are highly in demand. One is the CT3900 model. The other is the CT2760 model. (Or was it CT2670?) The third is something with CT39XX.

[@kirbyyasha]

I had many of the Aztechs that had the 14.4k modem (with the riser board and MKE interface) they were amazing. Never had problems with any DOS games I played on it + OPL3 was nice too. I have a bunch of Packard Bells hehe. Common on the late 486/Pentium socket 4/5 systems.

[@NightSprinter]

That telephony sound card with the Rockwell chips looks like the one in my AST P133. Sound Galaxy is Aztech's brand of sound cards. Feature-wise, they were pretty decent. The 16-bit ones gave you proper OPL3 FM, SB Pro compatibility, and Windows Sound System for 16-bit 44.1KHz audio. For games, definitely some of the more-compatible cards out there. The one you showed, is the Sound Galaxy Washington 16. According to the cutely-named site "I Love Paws", this card has no WaveBlaster header. So any MPU-401 usage will have to be via the joystick port (which the VOGONS thread confirms that card does have MPU-401 UART support). Furthermore, Adrian, Aztech actually was VERY prolific in terms of their soundcards being so plentiful. You are right about one card being a Packard Bell OEM version (as they were the ones who supplied Packard Bell and probably other OEMs their cards), and even companies like Reveal used them in their multimedia kits (I still have one from such, complete with a Panasonic 2x CD drive that was the same model used for Creative's 3D0 Blaster).

[@herrbonk3635]

29:58 4Kx8 usually means 4Kx8 not 512x8... 512 byte or 4 Kbits SRAMs were not "pretty expensive" in 1982. Even the ultra cheap ZX80 from 1979 had them (two 1Kx4 SRAM and a 4Kbyte ROM).

[@atsukoito5186]

This Creative SoundBlaster totally has the place for OPL3 chip, matching Yamaha DAC, and an XTAL on a PCB (empty QFP and SSOP in the middle).

[@grumpyoldwizard]

Man, I wish I had known about you a few years back when I moved. I finally had to get rid of components and games I had carried with me for decades like a Asus Black Pearl MB, two Diamond 3DFX (when they were first released) I used in SLI back when it first came out and had about 2 games that could use it, and a ton of other cool boards and games, as I said.

[@clawsofscorpius]

The family of microcontrollers the 8048 belongs to is the predecessor to the 8051 microcontroller series. Both have an External Enable (EA) pin allowing the internal ROM to be bypassed. With the addition of some external components (most notably an EPROM or EEPROM) it can execute code from external storage rather than the internal factory programmed ROM. It only has 64 bytes of internal RAM, so compared to a modern Arduino it's a bit weak. However there are microcontrollers currently manufactured that are very limited as well. An example would be the PIC10F200 with 256 Flash Words of program storage, 16 bytes of RAM, 4 I/O points, and one timer. I've repurposed some 8051 microcontrollers for projects this way years ago - long before Arduino boards existed. The instruction set for both microcontrollers is similar.

[@iguanac6466]

People complained about those winmodem Rockwell chipsets, but if your ISP had Rockwell based modems on the call-in lines and you disabled error correction and compression in your connect string those things were great. That error correction (on by default) was a real performance killer. I was getting ~100-130ms pings when other modem users were getting ~200-250ms pings when I used to play Quake 2 CTF competitively. People thought I was playing on ISDN (cable modems and DSL weren't quite a thing yet).

[@fdikzx]

Do you have an PCI AWE64d CT4600/4650? Does AWE64d have a CQM FM synthesizer?

[@Wenlocktvdx]

I used to have have an SB16MCD card on my Windows 95 machine that supported three different CD ROM drives but the last version of the drives stopped supporting the Panasonic drive. I had to roll back to get my CD ROM going again. Can’t recall the Soundblaster card on my Windows 98 machine.

[@djdublo]

Another excellent video Adrian! Very nostalgic when you were talking NE1000/2000 and those sound blaster cards with CDROM connectors, that was around the time I first worked with PCs building machines and working for a small company installing Novell networks around London. Always carried a ne2000 driver floppy with us to set up new machines!

[@JonnSandon]

Back in the 80's UK Amstrad PC1512 there was a shortage of HDD's and there was a spate of hardcards delivered with MFM drives and RLL controllers to give you 30MB instead of the native 20MB. They were fairly reliable but not to be trusted without backups!

[@kd7cwg]

In ‘92, my mom gave me a computer for my birthday. Packard bell pb8810 8088, 640k ram and an 80mb ide hdd, with an 8 bit IDE card. I can’t imagine what that cost way back then. 😳

[@WagonLoads]

I am trying to find another one of your videos where you are showing PCBs and one of them was a HPIB(GPIB) interface card. I can't find that video again, but I am very interested in finding out as much as possible about HPIB circuits. From my screen shot of the HPIB PCB you had, I could tell that that edge connector was the HPIB connector. You just need a ribbon cable with edge connector at one end and HPIB connector at the other end. Can you post a link to that video, or make an in-depth video about that PCB... My goal is to reverse engineer that PCB and figure out what I need to remake it with a esp32. Do you know if there is a one-chip solution that handles all HPIB protocols and converts it to either serial(RX/TX) or i2c?

[@gbowne1]

14:35.. No. that's not Western Digital. WDC is Western Design.. the people that make the WDC65C02.

[@jaymartinmobile]

I didn't read all the comments so this might already have been said, but one of the last chips you looked at was a Z80B CTC (Cluster Terminal Controller) and the last one was a 4K (4096)x8bit QSRAM which is a Quasi-Static RAM. This very interesting piece is a 4Kx8 dynamic ram array with a built-in refresh system to make it act like a static ram. It does assert a wait-state if it's in the middle of a refresh when a memory access is requested but it was a creative way of building an 8-bit computer with cheaper dynamic memory but without having to build a refresh logic circuit. It deserved a little more "respect" than the gloss-over it got. It was designed as a companion to the Zilog Z8 processor and both have an interesting history.

[@gato38]

Wow I live like 30 mins from Oakbank MB! I had one of these soundcards/modem it was washington sound galaxy 16, never worked properly ever. I had the OEM for packard bell. The one I had showed up as seperate devices modem and soundcard but most of the time the Sound card portion would "disappear" and multiple reboots to get it back. Seems when we used the modem it would kill off the sound card from device mangler.

[@jensschroder8214]

The NE558 are four NE555s with slightly reduced connections. The NE556 are two complete NE555s. With the joystick, an impulse is set and then the time is counted until an RC element is charged. An NE555 is required for each channel, but only in one circuit variant, therefore, pins can be internally connected.

[@invictus0x0]

The Accton card is nice software configurable WFW 10-base2 card. You could also force it into a NE1000 mode by closing JP1

[@andre0baskin]

I remember a fair number of 16-bit RLL cards in the period before IDE took off. Because the difference between RLL and MFM is the disk format not the interface protocol it is possible to use any ST-506 drive with either controller. However RLL requires a more accurate drive mechanism so using an MFM rated drive with an RLL controller is hit or miss at best.

[@JonnSandon]

If memory serves the Z8 contained Basic so it was used on my college course for easy access to Microcontroller programming, we built many variations of a black/white ping pong ball sorting system with the Z8 at its heart to learn IO and electronics interfacing. Probably would have be circa 1982-85

[@Dorff_Meister]

My first hard drive was a 30MB RLL drive. A Christmas gift from my dad in 1988. He got one for himself, too.

[@jasonharmon4588]

Your 5th chip down was an 8086 with a 16 bit bus, not an 8088 with an 8 bit bus. Some viewers might not know the difference between those.

[@rodhester2166]

I wonder how many complete computers you could build with everything you have.

[@stonent]

So on the Aztech cards, they did support 16 bit audio but via the Windows Sound System standard. So in windows everything was good and there were some DOS games that supported WSS and could do 16 bit everything on these cards.

[@Veksta]

How funny as soon as I heard "8 bit testing" I thought OMG I have completely forgotten about that only to hear Adrian say "who remembers that!"

[@senilyDeluxe]

Does nobody wonder where the Stop button is on that Walkman on his shirt at the beginning? Also from the settings of the volume controls, either the head is dirty or the recording is borked! (actually I find the fact I'm nagging at something that minor hilarious)

[@kd7cwg]

Seen those sound/modem combo cards In the packard bell pc’s. Funniest part, you can have the same exact model packard bell side by side, and the combo cards could be different in each. I think they just used whatever they could get the cheapest at the time.

[@emmanueloverrated]

I had an AZTech card back in the days. It was indeed soundblaster pro compatible, but It was noisy as F compared to the real one. It was pretty compatible though, no problems with it.

[@opp31337]

i need that soundblaster 16 for my windows 95 machine i just built!

[@billmilligan1705]

You really want to get your hands on some SMC ultra ISA NICs. It's one of the few ISA cards that can do back to back packets

[@robjw66111]

nah not token ring, would have an rj45 or some such not coax and a round green 16/4 sticker, they all look like ne2000 types, ohh the nostalgia

[@jjosetheman]

The pink foam is not Anti static. That is why IC go bad all the time when handling them. The black ones or Anti Static foams, you can look it up online if you need more foams or not. up to you. Only an observation and advice.

[@rpavlik1]

The old zilog ram chip isn't just like a main memory thing: it's sram not dram, so more expensive, I think often faster, etc.

[@BobJones-bi8ip]

The ch game card was used for when a joystick, throttle and rudders needed to be connected. You could hook up just joystick and throttle to the sound card, but a single game port could not support a rudder. Also, there were joystick timing issues if the gameport was on a pci sound card but playing an early dos game. This card prevented that issue. Only pro flight sim players had these installed as it became a niche product.

[@cbecht]

You could use those SIMMverters as donors for metal-latch SIMM sockets if you ever have a machine where the plastic latches have broken.

[@riz94107]

WDC on that chip probably indicates "Western Design Center", not Western Digital.

[@glenncaughey5044]

Hi Rick from Manitoba! So am I 👍 Got any other stuff lying around?

[@GamersUplink]

Where's Elaine Bennice when you need her? #fake-8-bit-danceparty

[@naib_stilgar]

So much information about the ISA sound cards on this video is outright wrong. Come on, Adrian..

[@rpavlik1]

Sound Blaster cards can be good, or they can be bad: see the possessed Jill of the Jungle experience Clint recently had.

[@monchiabbad]

Try to see what the biggest amount ram is you can put in the SIMM Adaptor that will work.

[@MRooodddvvv]

Back then i was wondering why no one came up with idea of using soundcard as modem to save money. When "winmodem" became a thing it became even more strange. Was surprised to know someone indeed was thinking in that direction but with different intentions.

[@316diag]

that's bc you don't have a map with pins in locations where gift-giving viewers live.

[@redace001]

3270 stuff? Might ask Curious Marc.... :D

[@questionablecommands9423]

...can't look at the Rockwell logo without thinking of the Retro Encabulator.

[@spytromics]

Have you considered getting get a silver Sharpie? It would be easier to read on black things like chips.

[@welbow]

I had one in a Windows 95 Packard Bell PC. I was new to sound cards at that time, but I remember it didn't always wanted to play right in DOS. I don't remember DOS drivers (like sb16.sys) for it.

[@pelgervampireduck]

in my experience it always worked great, and it didn't need drivers, i mean no TSR, no loading stuff on config sys, only SET BLASTER and a path in autoexec.bat. the port and irq were set with jumpers. I loved that card, everything worked great both in DOS and windows. never had compatibility problems. maybe it depends on the model?. I know there are some plug and play models out there, maybe those don't have jumpers and need drivers?.

[@rtechlab6254]

The face tracking is the reason for the existance of Mr Spotty in Vehicor videos

[@fumthings]

i just didnt feel the same love for the soundblaster that you get with the 8 bit dance party...

[@stonent]

One of those last CPUs was not an 8088 but an 8085 which is a variant of the 8080 series.

[@mikedelta68]

Not all of the processors are 8088 models. I saw one intel 8086 and one Intel 8085.

[@YarisTex]

I had to stop the video to comment: Adrian, why do you feel that the Aztech card not being SB16 compatible limits things? The best standard for MS-DOS software is the Sound Blaster Pro without a shadow of a doubt.

[@YarisTex]

Also these cards do not emulate Sound Blaster standard. Instead Aztech, Media Vision and others licensed Sound Blaster from Creative Labs.

[@racecar_spelled_backwards868]

14:52 A standard NE1000 card as far as I can tell arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/n/A-B/40459.htm

[@MicrophonicFool]

You gave away your origins with Zed-80

[@markkalitta6125]

Ilike nec9821series 49yearsold

[@romanhimmes171]

There is an online database that can tell the manufacturer from the Mac address...

[@dennisp.2147]

My wife had one of those Aztech sound/modem cards in her Packard Bell. It was, as was the Packard Bell, less than great. The drivers were buggy and it was hard to keep the modem working. Do not recommend.

[@pelgervampireduck]

maybe there are different models, I got an Aztech second hand, I used it a lot on a clone, both the sound card and modem worked great and never had any problem with it. it didn't need drivers in DOS, win9x supported it out of the box.

[@ShadowTronBlog]

Z80BCTC is a Z80B CTC or Counter/Timer Chip

[@rallyscoot]

I really like to know if 16 bit RLL / MFM are any faster then the 8-bit cards. Hope you could test this as well.

[@kepkepler8941]

NO they did have a faster xfer rate but less latency vs 8 bit cards MFM 5 Mbit/s RLL 7.5 Mbit/s ESDI 10 to 24 Mbit/s