Where can I find MVME board descriptions ?

[Fred Mau]

I picked up a surplus MVME rack, stuffed with motorola VME boards that
I'm having difficulty identifying, Doing a web search shows these cards
in various seller's inventories, but I haven't yet found anything that
tells me what these cards actually ARE - I can lookm at the cards and
make a general presumption of what it's for, but where do I get the full
data ?

Is there a good resource for doing this type of 'catalog' research ?

What I have is:

MVME 187B (Okay, I figured out this is an 88K CPU card)
MVME 323
MVME 350
MVME 712A/AM (ser/par/ethernet interface board for the 187B ?)
MVME 705A (6 serial ports ?)
MVME 332 "Transition BD." (8 Serial ports?)
MVME 707 (2 serial ports and a 50-pin header)
MVME 823 (SCSI Hard disk and QIC tape drive)

All this in a double-side box (Motorola ? No label.) with a fairly hefty
power supply

My objective is a simple system for playing around with a BSD (FreeBSD,
NetBSD, etc). I'm presuming that the bare minimum I need is the 187B for
a CPU; 712A for a console interface; and the 823 for storage ?

I played around with VME a bit in the early '90s, mostly XyCom and Texas
Instruments equipment for industrial process control; I wouldn't begin
to call myself an expert - Any advice to a semi-newbie would be
appreciated.

Thanks.

- FM -

[William Dennen]

You could try http://www.motorola.com/computer/literature although
documentation is probably not available; these boards went EOL a _long_ time
ago. From memory:
MVME187B -- 88100 single board computer, 32MB
MVME323 -- ESDI disk controller
MVME350 -- QIC tape controller
MVME332 -- 6 port serial
MVME712 -- rear transition module for the MVME187
MVME705 -- rear transition module for the MVME332
MVME707 -- SCSI transition module; don't recall it having serial ports and
it wouldn't normally go with any of the boards listed
MVME823 -- disk/tape

how many slots in the chassis?

Regards
--
Bill Dennen ][ We have met the enemy,
>@< ][ and they are us ...
ieee...@hotmail.com ][ -- Pogo
"Fred Mau" <fred-d...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:Xns961F989ADCED8fr...@216.196.97.131...

[Fred Mau]

"William Dennen" <ieee...@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:d1ov5t$q59$1...@domitilla.aioe.org:

> You could try http://www.motorola.com/computer/literature although
> documentation is probably not available; these boards went EOL a
> _long_ time ago. From memory:
> MVME187B -- 88100 single board computer, 32MB
> MVME323 -- ESDI disk controller
> MVME350 -- QIC tape controller
> MVME332 -- 6 port serial
> MVME712 -- rear transition module for the MVME187
> MVME705 -- rear transition module for the MVME332
> MVME707 -- SCSI transition module; don't recall it having serial ports
> and it wouldn't normally go with any of the boards listed
> MVME823 -- disk/tape
>
> how many slots in the chassis?
>
> Regards

I forget the terminology for describing the slots in the chassis,
haven't seen a VME system in years.

It's a 19" rackmount chassis. Motorola sticker on the side of the
chassis has the numbers 01-W1323B01 and 100003-11X, if that means
anything.

Anyway, the front of the chassis has, starting from the left, a double
row of 4 (single-height?) spaces, one of which is the power switch and +
5/+12/-12 LEDs; 9 (Full-height) slots with the backplane; space for the
MVME823 disk/tape drive.

The rear of the chassis has a (triple-width?) panel with circuit
breaker, then room for mounting 15 or so single-with full-height modules
but no backplane.

The whole thing is mounted in a Schroff "portable" cabinet with a 1U fan
set underneath, as if this might have been a portable demo unit.

A decal on front of the fan panel calls it "VME System 1000", but this
may or may not mean anything; it doesn't have the look of the original
Motorola nameplates (Which were black/silver plastic, not decals, as I
recall).

- FM -

[William Dennen]

Fred
It's a Motorola chassis, but one so old that it predates the Computer Group.
Probably an 1121 system from the Microcomputer Division of SPS.
Nevertheless, VME is VME and it'll work.

The smaller slots on the left are for 3U VME cards, MVME6xx series. Haven't
seen those since the early 90's. The 187 should go in the leftmost 6U slot
and the remainder in any order proceeding to the right (leave no empty
slot). The 712M should have a small paddle card -- that will plug into the
rear; same slot as the 187. The cable from the 705 plugs into the rear P2
of the bus in the same slot as the 332. Can't fully recall how the 323 and
350 connected to a disk and tape respectively. In any case all you'll
really need for a system is the 187. It's got 4 serial, 1 parallel, SCSI,
and ethernet. All that comes out to the 712M. Console is 9600 8N1 DTE. It
should boot up into 88KBug. If you can't find a manual for that, use one
for 68K (162, or 167) as the command structure was identical.

Regards
--
Bill Dennen ][ We have met the enemy,
>@< ][ and they are us ...
ieee...@hotmail.com ][ -- Pogo

"Fred Mau" <fred-d...@comcast.net> wrote in message

news:Xns96215C3F9E8EFfr...@216.196.97.131...

[Fred Mau]

I picked up this system surplus back in March, as indicated by the
thread below.

Since then, looking around at the general shape of the VME world, since
I don't fit any of the niche categories (Aerospace, etc) that still use
VME, I've concluded that the only thing more pointless for me than
learning about VME is learning the M88K processor on the 187 board.

Anybody want this stuff ? I'm keeping the Schroff Cabinet, but the rack
and everything else is up for grabs.

All I'm asking for it is the cost of shipping it to wherever. Shipping
would be from Portland Oregon 97006.

Contact me off-line if interested.

fred(dot)mau(at)comcast(dot)net

- FM -

"William Dennen" <ieee...@hotmail.com> wrote in

news:d1qc8v$plv$1...@domitilla.aioe.org: