68kMLA Classic Interface
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| Rare PCI card | |
| Posted by: indibil on 2026-03-13 09:36:49 Hello everyone. A friend of mine found this PCI card with a 68020 chip inside a G4 he bought. What's it for? Is it still useful today? And what software does it need?  | |
| Posted by: Melkhior on 2026-03-13 10:03:30 Becton & Dickisnon makes medical equipment, but the collective wisdom of the internet seems to not know what that is specifically... | |
| Posted by: gsteemso on 2026-03-13 10:35:14 in the extreme case you could try contacting them, but I've had poor luck trying that with very old items because the people who worked with them usually aren't there any more. | |
| Posted by: joevt on 2026-03-13 14:43:49 PCI vendor / device IDs? PCI Option ROM dump? | |
Posted by: Phipli on 2026-03-13 14:55:06PCI vendor / device IDs? PCI Option ROM dump?It might only show details of the interface chip. I suspect it is one of those chips to help you build easy PCI cards by sort of bridging to an ISA style interface. | |
| Posted by: indibil on 2026-03-13 23:11:57 It's strange that it's so little known. I've seen it on eBay for quite a price, but if it's not usable, it doesn't make much sense. At first, I thought it might be some way of "emulating" old hardware, because of the 68020. If I can meet up with my friend, we'll try to find out more. | |
Posted by: paws on 2026-03-14 00:02:52It's strange that it's so little known. I've seen it on eBay for quite a price, but if it's not usable, it doesn't make much sense. At first, I thought it might be some way of "emulating" old hardware, because of the 68020. If I can meet up with my friend, we'll try to find out more.That's unlikely. The 68020 was a very common embedded processor. Processors on PCI cards (add-in cards in general) are very common. As has been said, Becton-Dickinson, whose name is visible along the right edge, make medical equipment. This is meant to plug into some box in a lab or hospital and control it and/or display test results or something in software on the computer the card is plugged into. The 68020 system here runs code to offload the host - maybe the box needs data sent with a very specific timing, or it sends more data than the host cares about and it gets filtered on the way in somehow. It is almost certainly not very interesting without the software and thing it plugs into. | |
| Posted by: Phipli on 2026-03-14 01:08:37 Yeah as others have said, it's likely a specialist hardware interface card. You sometimes find such things for a lot of money on eBay either because people are just chancing their arm, or they're waiting 10 years for that moment when someone is desperate because the interface card for their $200,000 machine broke and they need one by tomorrow. To us normal people they're usually worthless unless you fancy reverse engineering it and writing your own drivers, or harvesting parts. | |
| Posted by: indibil on 2026-03-14 09:31:29 Well, my friend isn't looking to sell it. It piqued our interest, and we thought it might have some "retrocomputing" use, like the x86 cards that were installed in old Macintosh computers. If that's the case, I don't think it'll serve any other purpose than being another item in his collection. | |
| Posted by: Builder68 on 2026-03-14 11:33:34 "Legacy Becton-Dickinson (BD) Biosciences equipment, specifically flow cytometers from the late 1990s and early 2000s, frequently utilized the Apple Power Macintosh G4 as its dedicated workstation. These systems, referred to as BD FACStation workstations, typically ran on Mac OS 9 to maintain compatibility with proprietary hardware interface boards and software." "The Power Mac G4 was the standard controller for several iconic BD instruments, like flow cytometers" FACSCalibur "While originally paired with earlier Macintosh models, many were upgraded to G4 workstations to run later versions of BD software." "Technical Specifications & Software For these legacy setups, maintaining the specific hardware/software environment is critical: Operating System: Most legacy BD software for the G4 requires Mac OS 9.2.2. While some G4 models can run Mac OS X (up to 10.5 "Leopard"), the "Classic" environment within OS X is often unsupported for direct instrument control. Key Software: CellQuest / CellQuest Pro: The primary application for acquisition and analysis on the FACSCalibur and FACSVantage. BD FACSComp: Used for automated instrument calibration and setup. BD FACStation Software: The overarching suite that managed the Macintosh environment for these laboratory tasks. Hardware Compatibility: The G4 must have a compatible PCI slot to house the BD PCI Interface Board, which connects the computer to the cytometer's fluidics and optics. BD officially ended service contracts for many of these legacy systems, such as the FACSCalibur, on December 31, 2022. Future support is generally limited by the availability of spare parts and specialized technicians." DB Schem PCI Interface Board | |
| Posted by: killvore on 2026-03-15 04:35:27 I have a simular card from the same company which also has a 68020, but its a NuBus-version. It was sitting in a Quadra 650 - I'll see if I can recover anything from the hard drive. | |
Posted by: indibil on 2026-03-15 07:18:12I have a simular card from the same company which also has a 68020, but its a NuBus-version. It was sitting in a Quadra 650 - I'll see if I can recover anything from the hard drive.Beautiful!! Thanks everyone for the replies. My friend has a rare collectible item. | |
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