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Mystery pre prod Novy Quik20? accelerator - missing chips, indentification
Posted by: Byrd on 2020-08-26 11:44:37 Hi all, A while back I purchased this 68000 accelerator (advertised as an Amiga accelerator), shoved it in a box and bought it out the other day trying to work out what it was. From research, the closest match from the 1992 book "Build your own Macintosh and save a bundle" is to that of a Novy Quik30 (I believe also badged as a Total Systems Mercury), but with the following differences: - 68020 12Mhz and 68881 FPU, 1MB RAM installed (set to 1MB, another jumper for 4MB assume max) - Everything socketed, bodge wires aplenty - especially underside, on top some random wires snipped - Missing various PALs, Motorola chips (according to the stock image) @Bolle any thoughts on what I need, possibly to cannibalise from similar vintage Mac part? - No SCSI connector, making me assume it was designed for a Mac Plus over a 128K/512K - I can't find much info on the Novy Quik boards without SCSI All up, it seems rather rough and suggests some sort of pre-production/test board. Yes the crystal is wrong - I just had it there and put it in. Seems though, I could potentially clock this to 16/25/33Mhz - straight swap in 68030? I'd love to see it functional again with the right PALs, a Mac Plus being my first love. Thank you JB
Posted by: Crutch on 2020-08-26 12:02:42 Yeah that’s a Quik30, I have (or had) the same one without SCSI, I think I sold it but have this photo of it installed in case it’s helpful at all. It may still be hiding in a closet somewhere, removed from my motherboard.
Posted by: johnklos on 2020-08-26 12:25:23 Seems though, I could potentially clock this to 16/25/33Mhz - straight swap in 68030? While the '020 should clock to 16 MHz, you can't swap in an '030 - they're not pin compatible. A company made a small board that adapts an '030 to an '020 socket (I had one), but I can't find examples on the Internet.
Posted by: Byrd on 2020-08-26 13:01:17 @Crutch - thanks for that pic, Novy Quik20 it is - that's a great help. Looks like I'm missing 2 x SN74F257N, 1 x LM393P, but 3 - 4 missing Lattice GAL or PAL chips I can't determine covered by stickers. The snipped wires on mine appear to be for setting wait states according to your board - two are snipped. @johnklos - ah, that's why this will never be an 030'; still I suppose 12Mhz 68020 and FPU would have been a reasonable boost at the time.
Posted by: Crutch on 2020-08-26 20:22:49 (And don’t I feel silly for posting too late at night ... yes yours is clearly an 020 and mine is an 030, I do realize that 🙂 🙂 ) By the way, nice find on this, I prefer 68000 or 020 accelerators for the really old Macs for maximum compatibility. It’s much easer (but still not easy) to find 030s it seems. I used to have a Radius 16 in a Plus that I later sold, it was really nice.
Posted by: Byrd on 2020-08-27 20:00:15 Going off Crutch's Quik30 image and a few other remnants found online, I can approximate all bar one of the missing ICs as follows - see edited pic below. The biggest mystery is the DIP14 package as marked - no idea what it is - as the Quik30 has a DIP20 package labelled as "CX06-02B" or "CX06-04B". Does anyone have any thoughts on what the DIP14 package could be, or has a Quik30 they could look at their board please. I assume there might be an older, equivalent package in DIP14 format for the Quik20. Thanks all! Even if I source and replace the missing chips there might be some other duds on there, but I'd love to see this running in a Mac Plus. It certainly looks and feels like a kit, you soldered most of it and put the marked ICs in yourself. JB
Posted by: Phipli on 2020-09-02 16:46:51 Some of the similar Total Systems Mercury 030 boards shown in old adverts don't have a crystal installed, so don't assume that your crystal is missing. They have a jumper for setting the clock source. The attached does have a crystal, interestingly a 20mhz when the boatd only seems to be advertised as 16. The clock-free ad I saw had the jumper at "out" (it says "in" out of sight). Are the two pin headers on this thing for RAM and video expansions?
Posted by: techknight on 2020-09-02 20:58:48 I have that exact novy. if you need pictures or part numbers, I can dig through my old photos to see if I took pics of it. otherwise, I could dig it out?
Posted by: Byrd on 2020-09-02 21:06:52 @Phipli: The Total Systems Memory certainly appears to have been released around the same time and appears quite similar, if larger @techknight Yes thanks mate, any pics or confirmation of the ICs I have missing would be splendid. I've spent some time searching and can find most, but not all part numbers. I can then attempt to rebuild the accelerator and try it in a Plus 🙂
Posted by: techknight on 2020-09-02 21:23:17 I think mine is the 030, I will have to double check. If this matters at all?
Posted by: Byrd on 2020-09-03 06:48:32 I think mine is the 030, I will have to double check. If this matters at all? Appears the 020 and 030 cards have the same ICs, except the different in a DIP20/DIP14 package is as marked above ?? - it'll be DIP20 on yours, I can work with that
Posted by: techknight on 2020-09-03 08:30:25 ok let me grab it and see.
Posted by: techknight on 2020-09-03 08:33:29 Found some reference photos I took when I first got it, and Unfortunately, they are all AMPALs. So a PAL. Here is a couple pics: Not sure if this helps at all, Let me know if you need anything additional. So unless our resident evil genius @Bolle has any methods to dump the logic from AMPAL16V8 chips, were kinda full stop right here...
Posted by: Realitystorm on 2020-09-03 10:07:18 I have 2 Novy 30s for the plus, both installed with the power supply mod, you might have this one: https://archive.org/details/MacUser8803March1988/page/n125/mode/2up
Posted by: Byrd on 2020-09-03 15:35:28 @techknight Thanks so much for posting your Novy30 - can you please reel off what's marked on these two ICs below? Can't quite make them out but appears they are the same. The DIP20 socket on mine has a PAL16R4BCN, and you'd assume same in both however my missing IC is DIP14 ... n00b alert to find equivalent do I look up the datasheet and try to find a DIP14 variant? @Realitystorm Thank you, Novy MAC20X it is - amusingly "documentation is unclear and incomplete" [:O] I'll try to find a higher resolution version of the magazine which would reveal more. It appears all sockets are populated, including the crystal.
Posted by: techknight on 2020-09-04 05:21:14 I believe its an AMPAL16V8, but ill double check soon as I can dig it out off the shelf.
Posted by: techknight on 2020-09-04 05:52:12 @Byrd Here ya go:
Posted by: Phipli on 2020-09-04 21:29:58 So these various boards, where they have an optional crystal and a jumper to select internal or external clock... can you put in any speed crystal within the limits of the logic and CPU grade (I realise that you probably can't put a 50mhz chip in a 16mhz board because the timings in the PALs and other logic are likely to be out - but please correct me on this 🙂 ). For example, if I had a 16mhz board, could I put an 16.9344mhz into it, or a 22.5972mhz, if I had a 25mhz CPU. Or, do they need to be multiples of another speed on the system, or the PALs can only cope with very specific speeds... etc. etc.
Posted by: Byrd on 2020-09-05 07:54:59 With these early accelerators you probably don't want to go out of spec too much at all, for all the reasons you've noted. This one has a 68020 12Mhz which must have a 16Mhz crystal, and some sort of "slow" "fast" jumper that might help out on a mild overclock. Of course if I ever get this one working I'll pick up a cheap 68020 25Mhz with requisite crystal and give it a crack. There are some interesting workarounds in modern 68000 accelerators in Amigas that might help our cause in future. @techknight Thank you, I've sourced exact matches from mostly the same seller dealing in vintage NOS ICs for all but the ?? DIP14 package that is a variant of a PALCE16V8H-15PC (Quik30) or PAL16R4BCN (my MACX20), no idea what it is.
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