Help id this VLB I/O controller \ VOGONS

Help id this VLB I/O controller

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by iulianv

Posted on 2013-02-13, 19:01

iulianv Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 275
Joined: 2011-01-31, 17:00
Location: Bucharest, Romania

I got four of these cards recently, and now I'm looking for information about how to set the (surprisingly low amount of) jumpers.

There are four 2-pin jumpers on the left side, labelled SPSEL0-to-2 and WPSEL (with SPSEL2 and WPSEL closed), and nine 3-pin jumpers in the center, which I assume are for enabling or disabling various functionalities, but I don't know which is which.

Also, Prime 2C is a pretty familiar chip (although I've only seen it on ISA cards until now), but I've never heard of "Lion 3+"...

Attachments

Filename

vlb_prime2c.jpg

File size

569.14 KiB

Downloads

64 downloads

File license

Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 1 of 8, by 7cjbill2

Posted on 2013-02-16, 16:40

7cjbill2 Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 153
Joined: 2011-10-26, 14:15
Location: NE GA

If memory serves, the jumpers on the left are for selecting IDE channels/disabling but I don't know what the combinations are....however I seem to recall the WPSEL having something to do with the floppy port.

The lower row is I'm certain for selecting different combinations of parallel, serial, game port functionality. All you can do is really plug it into a nice VLB board and record the BIOS splash info to figure it all out.

Will pay $$$ for:

caching ISA I/O-IDE controller

PM me for my list of trade-ables...

Reply 2 of 8, by iulianv

Posted on 2013-02-16, 21:07

iulianv Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 275
Joined: 2011-01-31, 17:00
Location: Bucharest, Romania

The card has no BIOS...

Reply 3 of 8, by sliderider

Posted on 2013-02-16, 21:09

sliderider Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 5781
Joined: 2010-06-25, 13:02

iulianv wrote:
The card has no BIOS...

He was talking about the bootup screen when you power your computer on. The one that shows the name and logo of the BIOS manufacturer in the upper left and all the devices attached.

Reply 4 of 8, by OskarTheSmurf

Posted on 2023-08-06, 01:10

OskarTheSmurf Offline

Rank Newbie

Rank: Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: 2023-08-06, 01:05

I came across this card in my collection today and found this post. In case anyone else is looking for the jumper settings, here are pics of the card the instructions sheet. Does anyone have the floppy disk image with the drivers on it?

Attachments

Filename

20230805_192833.jpg

File size

1.05 MiB

Views

604 views

File license

Public domain
Filename

20230805_192824.jpg

File size

1.2 MiB

Views

604 views

File license

Public domain
Filename

20230805_192736.jpg

File size

1.66 MiB

Views

604 views

File license

Public domain

Reply 5 of 8, by Cosmic

Posted on 2023-08-06, 01:44

Cosmic Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 210
Joined: 2021-09-01, 03:49
Location: Lost Lands

OskarTheSmurf wrote on 2023-08-06, 01:10:

I came across this card in my collection today and found this post. In case anyone else is looking for the jumper settings, here are pics of the card the instructions sheet. Does anyone have the floppy disk image with the drivers on it?

Looks like the driver can be found in the Vogons archive, though it's just the files and not an image: http://vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1 … menustate=56,55

I found another reference to this card (and the driver) in this thread: Re: List of VLB IDE Controllers

Also, welcome! :)

Reply 6 of 8, by Horun

Posted on 2023-08-06, 02:08

Horun Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 6033
Joined: 2019-09-19, 02:19
Location: USA

OskarTheSmurf wrote on 2023-08-06, 01:10:

I came across this card in my collection today and found this post. In case anyone else is looking for the jumper settings, here are pics of the card the instructions sheet. Does anyone have the floppy disk image with the drivers on it?

Nice find ! You too Cosmic !
Odd The FCC id goes to Atlantic Components Ltd which has just one entry, just this card so must be a rebrand.

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 7 of 8, by 7cjbill2

Posted on 2023-08-06, 14:53

7cjbill2 Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 153
Joined: 2011-10-26, 14:15
Location: NE GA

Don't really think it needs driver. It's probably just to add some additional/proprietary functionality, since the card is jumper-based. It might have the 32-bit Win3.x drivers on the disks, though.

Will pay $$$ for:

caching ISA I/O-IDE controller

PM me for my list of trade-ables...

Reply 8 of 8, by douglar

Posted on 2023-08-08, 03:10

douglar Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1405
Joined: 2019-11-04, 15:37

7cjbill2 wrote on 2023-08-06, 14:53:

Don't really think it needs driver. It's probably just to add some additional/proprietary functionality, since the card is jumper-based. It might have the 32-bit Win3.x drivers on the disks, though.

Turns out that the driver has some effect on performance.

I got the best throughput performance out of my card by using it with EZ Drive 9.09 and enabling 32 bit transfers in the EZ drive config. ~6.1MB/s, ~0.38ms with a Sinitechi SD device
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=1900

I got slightly lower throughput but better latency using the DTC LBA option ROM. ~5.5MB/s, ~0.20ms with a Sinitechi SD device
http://www.vogonsdrivers.com/getfile.php?fileid=2095

Both of those options support 28-bit LBA storage up to 137 GB.

The LION driver performance (~5.8MB/s, ~0.32ms) is faster than shadowed MR BIOS or XUB ( ~3.4MB/s, ~0.35ms ) but the LION driver limits your storage device to 528MB CHS addressing, which is probably a show stopper for a lot of people.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware

Main menu

Common searches