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Quato lightning PCI
Posted by: stynx on 2026-05-09 04:17:48 I have recently bought a IMS TwinTurbo 128M8 which has a 64bit PCI connector. The ROM has a label with lightning PCI version 1.1 on it. Some research gave me the info that the card is actually named the "Quato lightning PCI". Some further result gave me the following review in the german magazine "Macwelt" September 96, page 44: 2000,- Mark (1996) => ca. $2500 today The card is recognized in a beige PowerMac G3 and works normally. In the 64bit socket of a B&W Power Mac G3, it is not recognized as a Twin Turbo and the Rom does not load. Is this normal behavior? -Jonas
Posted by: stynx on 2026-05-09 04:23:43 Here is the Rom-file (version 1.1)
Posted by: Phipli on 2026-05-09 04:36:42 Interesting - I've not seen that one before. Not sure why It doesn't work in a 64bit slot. Does it work in the 32bit slot in the B&W G3?
Posted by: stynx on 2026-05-09 05:12:48 The card work now in the 64bit slot in the B&W G3. It was most likely a contact issue with the ROM. Taking it out to make a copy and reinserting it was seemingly enough to fix the problem. -Jonas
Posted by: joevt on 2026-05-09 05:28:19 I have recently bought a IMS TwinTurbo 128M8 which has a 64bit PCI connector. The ROM has a label with lightning PCI version 1.1 on it. Some research gave me the info that the card is actually named the "Quato lightning PCI". Some further result gave me the following review in the german magazine "Macwelt" September 96, page 44: 2000,- Mark (1996) => ca. $2500 today View attachment 98632 The card is recognized in a beige PowerMac G3 and works normally. In the 64bit socket of a B&W Power Mac G3, it is not recognized as a Twin Turbo and the Rom does not load. Is this normal behavior? That is not normal. If it's not recognized as a Twin Turbo, then what is it recognized as? For each machine (Beige G3, B&W G3), gather some info from Open Firmware via serial port: Do a `dump-device-tree` Do lspci as described at https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/apple-network-server-macos-based-roms-found.4756/post-42356 The fcode in Quato_lightning_v1.1.bin only includes an ndrv for Mac OS (and maybe Mac OS X). It does not include support for an Open Firmware frame-buffer. That means it can't show early boot stuff that happens before the toolbox ROM loads the ndrv such as `multi-boot` or FireWire target disk mode icons or Open Firmware console or Mac OS X spinning indicator (shown by BootX). Beige G3 doesn't have `multi-boot`. B&W G3 has `multi-boot` but it is console only (can work from serial port) and doesn't require an Open Firmware framebuffer.
Posted by: stynx on 2026-05-09 05:44:49 If it's not recognized as a Twin Turbo, then what is it recognized as? The card was just recognizedly the PCI-ID (10E0, 9128). After reseating the ROM, the card works now. In Mac OS 9.2.2, the card is now recognized as a IMS TwinTurbo 128M8. The drivers from the IX Micro "Ultimate Rez" CD v2.0 have recognized the card and acceleration works. -Jonas
Posted by: croissantking on 2026-05-09 09:58:24 So you can physically insert it into a 32-bit PCI slot, with the extra pins hanging off the end?
Posted by: Phipli on 2026-05-09 10:06:11 So you can physically insert it into a 32-bit PCI slot, with the extra pins hanging off the end? You can do that with a lot of PCI 64 bit cards, as long as there isn't anything in the way physically 😆
Posted by: chelseayr on 2026-05-10 05:55:29 the 64bit extension of pci slot is basically its own de-facto key so its no surprise that a pci64 card can physically slot into any voltage-same pci32 slot, as long as any pcb components/headers doesn't get in the way like phipli was saying. unlike with pcie where theres no keying so hence you have to physically cut the end of the slot open instead
Posted by: zefrenchtoon on 2026-05-10 23:39:10 Interesting - I've not seen that one before. Not sure why It doesn't work in a 64bit slot. Does it work in the 32bit slot in the B&W G3? I think it will not work because the 32 bit slot is a 3.3V 66MHz one (the notch is reversed one these and on @stynx picture in its first post, we can see that the card seems to not accept these slots / incompatible keying)
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