[NTLK] News on the NuBus cards...

Hi folks,

I recently took these pictures and posted the
links at NewtonTalk along with a couple of
questions:

<http://www.pda-soft.de/common/img/hardware/protot
ype/1771x1182_RedNewtonAdapterCardTop.jpg>
        
<http://www.pda-soft.de/common/img/hardware/protot
ype/1771x1182_RedNewtonAdapterCardBot.jpg>
        
<http://www.pda-soft.de/common/img/hardware/protot
ype/UniversalNewtonAdapterCard2.gif>
        
<http://www.pda-soft.de/common/img/hardware/protot
ype/StartupGreenNewtonAdapter2.jpg>
        
<http://www.pda-soft.de/common/img/hardware/protot
ype/StartupGreenNewtonAdapter1.jpg>

Meanwhile, thanks to an excellent tip from Jon
Glass I can (after a fair amount of internet and
NewtonTalk research) answer some of these
questions myself.
It sometimes pays to have all NewtonTalk digests
since 2001 archived on one's hard disk.

Jon suggested that the card might be called "bun
warmer". This is not true, but close. The bun
warmer was a large box that was basically a
development version of the Newton. It was
connected to the card shown in the picture by a
large ribbon cable.

Of these cards there seem to have been two models:
The ARMageddon and the ARMistice card. I have
three of them: One (the one in the pictures) is
red, the other two are green.

A long time ago Grant Hutchinson purchased two of
these cards and posted what the seller told him
about them. Here is a small excerpt:

Quote

One more thing, when you have one of these cards
(I can't remember which) in your Mac the boot
sequence is altered to include a moment when the
card is initialized and a black splash screen with
a yellow Newton logo flashes up. That's pretty
cool.

End quote

Since with the green cards the black splash screen
is shown and with the red card it is not, and
since the ARMageddon card is supposed to have
preceded the ARMistice card, I am 99% sure that
the card shown in the pictures must be an
Armageddon card and the green ones must be
ARMistice cards.

Here's some small piece of info that the amazing
Paul Guyot posted to NewtonTalk in summer 2002:

Quote

All I know about this card can be found in the
Hammer/Newtsbug debugger manuals (Newtsbug's
manual is obviously derived from the Hammer's
manual like Newtsbug is obviously a light version
of Hammer).

They used Hammer to program the Armistice card
(i.e. to download the ROM). I even suspect that
Hammer was used as well to program some ROM board
they have at Apple that can be programmed (i.e.
with Flash, the ROM connector has a R/W line). I
sometime get weird messages from Hammer that are
remains of the Armistice part (like: "Bad news,
we've stopped in UND mode").

Apparently, third party developers could get the
armistice card (I think I read something like that
in the DDK introduction guide).

However, I've never seen that card or a computer
equiped with it.

End quote

In January 2003 one Michael Merle posted the
following:

Quote

- I saw some threads in the archives regarding the
ARMistice cards and other prototypes. I happen to
have some including a very rare ARMistice card
(and the associated Mac software and rom images),
some transparent MP110, the only known 'Bazooka'
french keyboard as well as some other PIE
Division's rare stuff...

and on the following day:

Egger 1.1d49 (along with the associated image
files) is used with the ARMistice, ARMageddon, and
some Bunnwarmers. Once launched, a MP100 screen
would appear on the mac, and the newton was fully
fonctionnal, most screenshots were made that way
as well as initial testing of NTK (ARMistice cars
often had up to 2 serial minidin 8 ports, as well
as pcmcia slots)

End quote

Many list members expressed their interest in both
the software and the pictures, but I did not find
a subsequent NewtonTalk post about it actually
being uploaded or sent to anybody.

In September 2003 Andrei Chichak posted the
following:

Quote

If I come down to Calgary, I could bring that SCSI
System 7 drive with the Armistice board software
on it...hmm

End quote

This immensely valuable System 7 drive was
frequently mentioned in subsequent posts, but
again there's no trace of this software actually
having surfaced anywhere.

This card, by the way, is also briefly mentioned
in the following book by Udo Flohr:

http://www.pda-soft.de/NewtonAufbauLarge.jpg

He states that he used it to take the Newton
screenshots shown in the book.

I will get in touch with the people I mentioned
above directly. Until then, if anybody has the
Egger software, or could point me to a place where
I could get it, me and the whole Newton community
will be forever grateful. I promise that once I
find the time to write the web page about the
results of my current research, all who helped
will be honorably mentioned...

Frank

-- Newton software and hardware at
http://www.pda-soft.de

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Received on Sun Mar 15 18:26:02 2009