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Mathey MSATA-02MAC SATA Card
Posted by: finkmac on 2025-11-24 15:06:33 Turn It On Again, One More Time? Deja Vu for sure. Got this card a few months back. Mathey MSATA-02MAC. SiI3512-based PCI SATA Controller with MacOS compatibility. specs here: You'll note that the preview image on the mathey website is… rather different. I have no idea. The yellow version was definitely sold by mathey though. This is the best picture of the box I could find. As per the specs, It's supposed to support MacOS 8.6+ I tested it out in a few Mac clones and managed to get to the "Welcome to MacOS" screen, but I had issues getting further. To be honest, my selection of SATA disks is rather meagre, and I'm likely just running into hardware failures. Either that or an issue of skill. firmware is by... Hey look, it's Projovian again! Unlike the MSATA-13UMAC, I haven't found a compatible card on their website. firmware ROM is a 39VF020 PLCC32 in theory you could flash a regular SiI3512 card with this firmware and it would just work. wanna try? you know you want to.
Posted by: adespoton on 2025-11-25 09:58:00 Interesting; the pic on the box matches your board; the board in the picture does not. Guess they were into continual improvement 🙂
Posted by: obsolete on 2025-12-15 10:18:49 Nice find, @finkmac! Thank you for posting it. I will not try flashing another card, though, until you also dump the contents of this EEPROM, which I think is a AT24C02B: Sorry, I have been burned before 🙂
Posted by: finkmac on 2025-12-15 10:36:15 😡 and here I was hoping to avoid using hot air on this thing. bah! i'll try and get that dumped sometime this week
Posted by: obsolete on 2025-12-15 13:06:10 Thank you. These Projovian things are a pain. Luckily all the generic 3512 boards seem to have the SOIC footprint, so it's a better situation than the VIA 6421 cards. Soldering still required, though.
Posted by: obsolete on 2025-12-28 17:04:16 Well, now I'm invested. The ROM on there was a 39VF010, which will be a problem for adoption by the retrocomputing masses unless someone can reduce the ROM size like @dosdude1 is working on for the VT6421-based cards. I hope I am on the nice list and @finkmac claus brings me a Christmas present 😇
Posted by: finkmac on 2025-12-29 16:58:03 @obsolete I remembered! You're right, it's an AT24C02B.
Posted by: obsolete on 2025-12-29 17:19:06 Woohoo, thanks! Hmm, who's chengansun? Regardless, I'll give it a try.
Posted by: dosdude1 on 2026-01-01 21:10:12 Well, now I'm invested. The ROM on there was a 39VF010, which will be a problem for adoption by the retrocomputing masses unless someone can reduce the ROM size like @dosdude1 is working on for the VT6421-based cards. View attachment 93723 I hope I am on the nice list and @finkmac claus brings me a Christmas present 😇 Nice, I'll have to take a look at this one soon.
Posted by: obsolete on 2026-01-02 18:09:16 Initial results not good. I programmed the 39VF020, popped it in the socket, programmed the AT24C02D (not an 02B, surely it can't be that picky?), soldered to the board, installed in Quicksilver, I get a bong and a black screen. Never initializes video output. Out of patience for now, will come back to it when I have more.
Posted by: obsolete on 2026-01-02 18:19:32 By the way, they did actually build and sell the red card, I found a sold Mercari listing as evidence: https://jp.mercari.com/item/m27008253405 LG52M3 is silkscreened on the upper right corner of the top of the board, if you search for that you'll find there was also a Kuroutoshikou version for PCs.
Posted by: obsolete on 2026-01-11 12:58:29 Initial results not good. I programmed the 39VF020, popped it in the socket, programmed the AT24C02D (not an 02B, surely it can't be that picky?), soldered to the board, installed in Quicksilver, I get a bong and a black screen. Never initializes video output. Out of patience for now, will come back to it when I have more. I remembered I'd had problems with this style of PLCC socket being finicky before, so I tried reseating the 39VF020 a few times with no improvement. So I tried booting without the chip installed; still a bong and a black screen. I then tried removing the serial EEPROM, just to see what the card would look like in OF with no ROM installed at all...and still a bong and a black screen. So the Quicksilver just hates this card. Maybe the card is bad?
Posted by: The Finale of Seem on 2026-01-11 23:02:43 I remembered I'd had problems with this style of PLCC socket being finicky before, so I tried reseating the 39VF020 a few times with no improvement. So I tried booting without the chip installed; still a bong and a black screen. I then tried removing the serial EEPROM, just to see what the card would look like in OF with no ROM installed at all...and still a bong and a black screen. So the Quicksilver just hates this card. Maybe the card is bad? Is it the same thing with other SATA cards with the 3.3v/5v VRM problem or other quirks? Quicksilvers and their pickiness. Do you have another machine to try it out? Also, any indication as to what the jumper on the card might be for? I guess I'm spitballing here.
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