Subject: Please help with Board ID

From: Roger Merchberger <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Mar 11 21:38:28 2003

Just had a bunch of "stuff" dropped off at the store, not the least of 
which 2 AT&T 3b2/EXP boxen with 5.25" floppies & several RJ-type ports in 
the back, and we also got a x86-based AT&T box (386, methinks) and in it 
there is an 8-bit board with the follwing markings:

"TIL-XPC" and "TIL SYSTEMS LTD. XPC91 REV 2.0"

It's got 4 RJ45 ports (I'm guessing RS-232, from all the 1488's & 
1489's...) 4 R6551's, an MC68B54 & an MC68B09EP... Is this just a 4-port 
serial board with the 6809 playing traffic cop, or is it an "elusive" OS-9 
- based SBC?

If it's the former, not any great shakes to me (tho I might keep it just in 
case I need replacement parts for my CoCos...) but if it's the latter... 
I'll be looking for some software... ;-)

Thanks for any help,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
[email-masked]

What do you do when Life gives you lemons,
and you don't *like* lemonade?????????????

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From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Tue Mar 11 21:38:53 2003

> serial board with the 6809 playing traffic cop, or is it an "elusive" OS-9 

I doubt it's the latter :-(. It sounds like a mult-port serial card (the 
4 off 6551s...). The oddity is the 68B54. That's a synchronous serial 
chip, used for some low-cost networks like Acorn's Econet (and for other 
things of course). I wonder what it's doing here....

-tony

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From: Roger Merchberger <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue Mar 11 21:39:10 2003

Rumor has it that Tony Duell may have mentioned these words:
 > I wrote before that...

I know -- I'll be able to put up pix tonite, but here's a little more info 
that "makes one wonder..."

It's got 64K of RAM -- not sure why a multiport board would need that much 
"oomph..." ;-)   and it's got 4 or 5 PALs (I think... they've got labels on 
them ["XPC U23" is the label of one - the labels correspond to the 
silkscreen of the sockets]) I didn't want to peel the labels, altho I don't 
mind -- I'd rather see things work, than labels stay in place... ;-)

It's also got 2 single-hex-digit rotary dial switches [0-F] not sure what 
those would be used to select... Not that many DMA channels in an AT class 
machine, unless it needs 2 IRQs? (They're pointing to 5 and 6, currently)

Also, there are 3 1488's and 3 1489s, so maybe the first port isn't RS232? 
Dunno...

Oh, and the card's a full length, or damn near, anyway... ;-)

Anywho, I'll write back when I have pix... Tony - is there any format of 
pictures you can view, or are you text-only? I have some software that can 
spit out IFF (Amiga, isn't it?), SUN, SGI & Targa...

Thankz,

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From: [email-masked] (Tony Duell)
Date: Tue Mar 11 21:46:00 2003

> It's got 64K of RAM -- not sure why a multiport board would need that much 

Perhaps it's (also?) some kind of custom network card. That could explain 
the 6854 and the RAM.

> them ["XPC U23" is the label of one - the labels correspond to the 

I guess the product is called the 'XPC' then. The 'PC' part would appear 
to be obvious...

> those would be used to select... Not that many DMA channels in an AT class 

Network address?

> Also, there are 3 1488's and 3 1489s, so maybe the first port isn't RS232? 

You can't conclude that. There are 4 independant driver or receiver 
circuits in each chip. It could easily be 3 per external connector. These 
connectors have 8 pins, right? In which case, one has to be signal 
ground. I could well believe 3 outputs (TxD, RTS, DTR, say) and 3 inputs 
(RxD, CTS, DSR (or DCD)) for each port.

> pictures you can view, or are you text-only? I have some software that can 

My PC is still text-only. I have access to a Mac, but transfering stuff 
onto it is a pain. So I probably can't easily view the pictures (and I 
probably couldn't deduce that much from them anyway).

-tony