Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Older & forgotten hardware and software.
richud
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Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by richud »

Hi,

Not sure if this is of interest to anyone but my STe came with a CPU breakout board, the CPU Funky socket had been replaced with individual pins. Some nice cutting out of the RF shield! Note the ribbon cable parting to accommodate the case post!
Board also marked with 'complay' 'soldlay' - only references to this I could find were in a CAD .pdf as part of a "EE-DESIGNERS ASCII text output file."
(Seems odd it was made with right angles in all the traces?)

I believe it was for controlling lab equipment/experiments from the ST back in the day. I thought I would post some pics here for posterity.

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I replaced the socket with an original Funky PLCC from exxoshost shop couple of weeks ago, so now this lives in an anti-static bag.
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stephen_usher
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Re: Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by stephen_usher »

That's really old school hand-etched PCB with no solder mask.
Intro retro computers since before they were retro...
ZX81->Spectrum->Memotech MTX->Sinclair QL->520STM->BBC Micro->TT030->PCs & Sun Workstations.
Added code to the MiNT kernel (still there the last time I checked) + put together MiNTOS.
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Badwolf
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Re: Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by Badwolf »

richud wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:54 am Not sure if this is of interest to anyone but my STe came with a CPU breakout board

Cool! Love to see the contemporary hacks.

BW
DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
DSTB1 Open source 16Mhz 68k and AltRAM accelerator for the ST
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
FrontBench The Frontier: Elite 2 intro as a benchmark
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sporniket
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Re: Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by sporniket »

I would guess that this could watch the CPU address and data bus ? (biased by the repair thread of @rubber_jonnie :D )
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rubber_jonnie
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Re: Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by rubber_jonnie »

sporniket wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 12:26 pm I would guess that this could watch the CPU address and data bus ? (biased by the repair thread of @rubber_jonnie :D )
Got my LA on the job, A1 and A2 are bad, so need to figure out why 😁

Your schematics have been invaluable!
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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exxos
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Re: Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by exxos »

Maybe hard drive interface ?
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Re: Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by rubber_jonnie »

exxos wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 1:19 pm Maybe hard drive interface ?
I reckon you're right, possibly SCSI with that 50 pin connector. I see it says Complay top left of the picture, and Atari Interface under the 'OK' sticker.

The flux could do with cleaning off!!
Collector of many retro things!
800XL and 65XE both with Ultimate1MB,VBXL/XE & PokeyMax, SIDE3, SDrive Max, 2x 1010 cassette, 2x 1050 one with Happy mod, 3x 2600 Jr, 7800 and Lynx II
Approx 20 STs, including a 520 STM, 520 STFMs, 3x Mega ST, MSTE & 2x 32 Mhz boosted STEs
Plus the rest, totalling around 50 machines including a QL, 3x BBC Model B, Electron, Spectrums, ZX81 etc...
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frank.lukas
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Re: Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by frank.lukas »

may be ET4000 graphiccard Interface ?
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derkom
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Re: Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by derkom »

richud wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 11:54 am Board also marked with 'complay' 'soldlay' - only references to this I could find were in a CAD .pdf as part of a "EE-DESIGNERS ASCII text output file."
I think these probably simply mean "component layer" and "solder layer" and aren't going to help much in investigating this.

But this is definitely an interesting board. Who wants to visually follow all those tracks and figure it out for us? :lol:
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derkom
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Re: Atari STe CPU breakout board - "DAVE'S BOARD"

Post by derkom »

rubber_jonnie wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 1:26 pm I reckon you're right, possibly SCSI with that 50 pin connector.
No SCSI controller anywhere though. All the ICs are just CPU, basic logic, and GAL. This is some kind of more direct bus interface.
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