X86 PC on a SCA bus? What’s that? - Printable Version
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X86 PC on a SCA bus? What’s that? - kubatyszko - 03-08-2024
Hi there.
I got a couple Sun workstations a while back and when I was rummaging through the box of hard drives that come with them - I found this strange device.
It’s definitely a PC, has IDT winchip CPU - seems to be equivalent to Pentium 200MMX, some RAM and a mn onboard ROM or Flash.
On the other board - there’s a standard SCA connector.
I’ve never heard of such a “PC”.
Searching part numbers came with nothing…
Any ideas?
RE: X86 PC on a SCA bus? What’s that? - robespierre - 03-09-2024
The Qlogic ISP1040B is a SCSI host chip. So the SCA connector really is just SCSI.
The Intel S82557 is a 100 Mbit Ethernet chip and there is a RJ45 socket.
So the most likely explanation for this card is that it is a NAS server that fits inside a drive bay on a SCA backplane.
There is even a company name silkscreened on the front of the board, although your pictures don't show it clearly. Where it says "XXX, INC. © 1998 ASSY ..."
The pattern of square lands on the circuit board is quite distinctive for equipment fabricated by Digital, and by 1998, Digital had been acquired by Compaq.
But this could also have been a contract for another company, manufactured by Digital.
RE: X86 PC on a SCA bus? What’s that? - kubatyszko - 03-09-2024
(03-09-2024, 01:36 AM)robespierre Wrote: The Qlogic ISP1040B is a SCSI host chip. So the SCA connector really is just SCSI.The company name is "CDS INC".
The Intel S82557 is a 100 Mbit Ethernet chip and there is a RJ45 socket.
So the most likely explanation for this card is that it is a NAS server that fits inside a drive bay on a SCA backplane.
There is even a company name silkscreened on the front of the board, although your pictures don't show it clearly. Where it says "XXX, INC. © 1998 ASSY ..."
The pattern of square lands on the circuit board is quite distinctive for equipment fabricated by Digital, and by 1998, Digital had been acquired by Compaq.
But this could also have been a contract for another company, manufactured by Digital.
You certainly have a good theory, but with a single (likely 10/100mbit) Ethernet port, that's unlikely to be an actual data port for said NAS.
It might be some management interface - that would be more plausible.
RE: X86 PC on a SCA bus? What’s that? - robespierre - 03-09-2024
(03-09-2024, 05:27 AM)kubatyszko Wrote: The company name is "CDS INC".Century Data Systems, a Xerox company?
RE: X86 PC on a SCA bus? What’s that? - kubatyszko - 03-09-2024
(03-09-2024, 06:31 AM)robespierre Wrote:That would make sense, but given that they went to Xerox in mid-70's , why would they put their own name on a product that's roughly mid-90's? (judging by the IDT winchip that came out probably in 1997)(03-09-2024, 05:27 AM)kubatyszko Wrote: The company name is "CDS INC".Century Data Systems, a Xerox company?
Still, that's the closest we've come to figuring out what it is. CDS was in fact a storage manufacturing company so an accessory that works out of SCA bay makes total sense...