General Category > LisaList2
Another Prototype Lisa Card
rayarachelian:
yeah, I mean, if you're willing to write your own drivers for it, sure you could make use of it, but if you're going to go through that much trouble why not use the normal 2x parallel card and wire up whatever set of 16 relays to that for your home automation setup. :)
patrick:
At Commodore they call this an "user port". You would need some PEEK() / POKE equivalent for Lisa Pascal, that's all.
Apple used to use their own machines as end of line production test equipment. This board might have been used in that context.
rayarachelian:
--- Quote from: patrick on June 19, 2020, 03:25:49 pm ---At Commodore they call this an "user port". You would need some PEEK() / POKE equivalent for Lisa Pascal, that's all.
Apple used to use their own machines as end of line production test equipment. This board might have been used in that context.
--- End quote ---
Yes, as a Commodore kid, I know exactly what you mean. :) I've seen them on pets, vic20's, c64's, and c128's. :)
So there actually is another Lisatest card up on ebay, but this one is damaged, it's supposed to have large power resistors at the top and a ROM in the socket. It's $150 now, but it's incomplete. The same seller had a complete one that was sold much earlier on. If you one you picked it up perhaps you could dump its ROM.
What's interesting is that I've noticed about the Test card (not this guy) is that it has an ADC chip at the top right under the resistors. So they used this to measure voltages (or perhaps watts) in the card as a proxy to test the power supply.
There's also a COP421 controller attached possibly to one of the VIA6522's and the other one goes to a DB25. There's also a DB9? not sure what these were for but likely to communicate with external test equipment. I'd imagine that they could boot off the test card rather than have to insert a LisaTest floppy, but that's conjecture.
Possibly one VIA allows the Lisa's CPU to talk to the COP to test the slot. Maybe the COP sent some bytes back and forth through that VIA to the Lisa to test the slot. The external VIA was likely used to talk to whatever the factory floor umbilical cord had to pass/fail and maybe upload a copy of LisaTest to that Lisa's RAM.
(I'm guessing here.)
I don't think this specific prototype card was used in factory line QC testing, I think it was really a prototype for an early parallel port expansion though it may have grown into that later on.
blusnowkitty:
Here's some more interesting stuff that seller has put up...
Only known surviving copy of WidEx? https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-APPLE-COMPUTERS-WIDGET-STATUS-MONITOR-CARD-DISKETTE-LISA-1985/303595450646
Prototype 10MB ProFile? https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-PROTOTYPE-VINTAGE-APPLE-COMPUTERS-PROFILE-10-MEG-LISA-TEAM-ENGINEER-ESTATE/303603209953
But I think the most interesting listing is this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-APPLE-COMPUTERS-INTERNAL-ENGINEERING-LOT-LISA-TWIGGY-TEST-5-25/303603206506
Pictures again re-uploaded for posterity - it's mostly Apple II and III disks, but there seem to be a number of Lisa test applications on cassette tape! Anyone ever heard of a Lisa with a cassette tape drive, or perhaps the Lisa originally started life in the Apple II?
stepleton:
The Widget test disk documentation doesn't quite match the Widex documentation here, I don't think:
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/apple/disk/widget/Widex_May84.pdf
But it's probably similar. Maybe a stripped down version for dealers.
The other sale looks exciting but is too rich for my blood. I hope whoever gets it takes good care of it!
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