Friday, September 9, 2022

MicroVAX and 8086 smartcards for DEC Professional

   I recently came into possession of two unusual CTI bus cards, for the DEC Professional (you know, Pro-325s,Pro-350s, Pro-380s). These are apparently prototypes for never released options for the PRO line. One card has a MicroVAX II chipset on it, and apparently was for a DEC project called Meteor - a workstation with capabilities somewhere between a PRO-380 and a Vaxstation II.

  Here's pictures of it, front, and back and a close up of the card name








  It came with a memory daughter card - here's shots of it, back and front.






  The other card has an 8086 processor on it. It was apparently going to be used to allow Pro systems to run x86 software (MS Windows? On an RSX11 derived OS? The horror!).





 



  

  Presumably, "8086 SC" in the above means "8086 Softtcard". This card has had several dynamic RAM chips removed, which I am replacing before I do any testing.


Neither card had an option code on their retraction handles like normal PRO options do.

  When I get some spare time, I plan to put them in a PRO-380 and read/write the slot addresses for them and see what happens. Realistically, I don't expect to get very far without more info on them. If anyone out there has any more info or any software for these prototypes, I'd sure like to hear about it...