[rescue] next rescue.. Sun-1.5

[Earl Baugh]

Walter,



It is a Kontron PSI 9068 system from 1984. This is an mbus system. In it,
there are:
- Sun 501-0600 CPU board
- Sun 501-0147 memory board
- a board with Z80 stuff and RS232/RS422 (appears to be a single board Z80
system for I/O)
- a board that hooks up to an empty  modem  slot
- an MFM controller and ST-255 drive
- 5.25  floppy drive
- PSU

Very cool that you go one.  Interesting set of parts!  I have a document
that describes a Sun 1.5 board
though I'm not sure if it's your board.  I can send the document, let me
know (I know the list will
filter it out).  The doc I have does indicate a 68010 for the 1.5.   The
doc doesn't list any part number
that I could find.

 I'm also curious where you found this FEH on-line.
I have a very old one in paper form at home and the earliest Electronic one
I have is 1989,
and I didn't see that board listed in it.


Taking a look at the CPU board, I noticed the 501-0600 indication. I found
an
old field handbook on the web, which mentions these Sun-1 boards:
501-0001 256KB Sun-1 68000 CPU
501-0002 256KB Sun-1 68000 CPU TI
501-0004 256KB Sun-1 68000 CPU Kontron
501-0600 256KB Sun-1.5 68010 CPU (obsolete, unsupported)


This is quite interesting. Apparently, there are specific Sun-1 CPU boards
for
TI and Kontron. And my board is a  Sun-1.5 ? The handbook says it has an
68010
but there is an 68000 in it.

Some of these boards may be the VLSI manufactured ones, so I suspect they
are SUN not Sun.
Yours from the picture you sent  is marked for Sun.   Keep in mind that I
believe it's a newer board
than a Sun 1 because of the orientation of the logo.  It was "square" to
start with... the early boards don't have a logo at all.
By the Sun 2 they were silk screening it on them.  Also note the number
starts with a 501.  Sun initially used 270 designations on
the Sun 1 boards... then you got the 500 markings... they would have
dual designations
as well (some for part, and some for assembly
from what I can tell).   Does the board you have have any  wire wrap
"fixes" on the back?  The Sun 1 boards all seem to have some either
on the front or back.

The other thing, the VLSI boards I have pic of indicate VLSI (they are
marked with it in the location where mine
is marked with the 270.   The SGI variant also has a 68000.  It's a larger
board as well...  The Sun 2 boards with the
68010 have a definitely different layout.    I wonder if the jumpers are
being use to toggle it to use the 68010.



Is this some development board for an upgraded 68010 Sun-1 that was
developed by Kontron,
but never marketed as Sun came with the Sun-2? This particular system was
marketed as an 68000 system by Kontron,
Kontron, which is based in Munich, Germany, still exists and is still
active in the market of embedded systems).


The board looks quite similar to the 501-0001 board. There are a few more
jumpers and one TTL IC has been replaced by a small board containing an
extra
AM2996PC IC.

Interesting, I hadn't seen that when I looked at the picture initially.
What's the chip next to it? I can't make out the markings in the picture.
Like to find the data sheet on it and the AM2996PC to see if I can figure
out what they're for.



RE Testing.



I put in the Kontron board with the Z80 stuff (leaving the Sun stuff out)
and
turned it on. This Kontron board has 2 RS232 and 1 RS422 port. The RS232
ports
are marked SIOA and SIOB, the RS422 port is marked SIOA. I could not get any
data on the serial ports.




I put in the Sun boards and gave it a try  The CPU board has two connecters.
One is not used. The other splits into two RS232 ports, marked  SIOE and
SIOF . I hooked up SIOE and turned the machine on. There are two LEDs on the
board, both go on briefly after turning it on. The left one went on for a
while again, then off, then on for a shorter while, off again and that was
it.
At one point I have seen the other LED on as well. I started fiddling around
with the serial settings and the serial cable (with null modem boxes). I got
some gibberish so that was a good sign. At one point, using 96007E1 I got
the
following: Using UART input.
KONTRON  PSI 9068 Monitor  (Rev C/V2.1 ) - 0x200000 bytes of memory
>
However, I could not enter anything. Still, this is hopeful. It shows the
CPU
board is working (at least at one point) and so is memory. It also shows
that
the Sun PROM has been replaced by a specific KONTRON PROM.
The pictures that the eBay seller made as well as those that I have made I
have put online at https://gallery.belgers.com/gallery/index.php?/category/7
I have been fiddling around for an hour or so now, but cannot get back a
prompt. I decided to take an old VT320 to hook up, to be sure that modem
control is working and  break  actually breaks. But no luck so far.
Walter.