Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

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GadgetUK164
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Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by GadgetUK164 »

Hi, do you know anything about either of these boards? I need to fix the pins on the Vortex, and both may have other faults yet.

I am assuming these are both designed for the Atari ST? I can't find much info on either. The 030 board has "ST" written in white on a couple of the GALs, so I would assume they had a version for the ST and one for the Amiga maybe?!? And that also has EPROMs with 3.06 written on, I am assuming TOS 3.06.

20210928_134628.jpg
20210928_134628.jpg (104.12 KiB) Viewed 2685 times
20210928_134614.jpg
20210928_134614.jpg (110.74 KiB) Viewed 2685 times

There's a wire under the 030 board that looks like you connect it somewhere on the motherboard - any ideas to what?
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DoG
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Re: Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by DoG »

The top pic is a PC "emulator" 386SX for Atari ST. The bottom is a PAK 68/3 030 board. Also for Atari ST.

http://www.wrsonline.de/pak3.html
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Re: Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by rubber_jonnie »

The ATOnce is definitely ST and will need the ATOnce software to run. I have a 286 version and it works just fine, I may have the 386 software too if you want to PM me when you're in a position to try it.

The 2nd board looks like some sort of PAK, so almost certainly ST, though it seems to have TOS 306 written on the ROMs, which is likely the biggest giveaway :)

@frank.lukas Might be able to tell you more about the 2nd board.
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PhilC
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Re: Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by PhilC »

@GadgetUK164 The bottom photo is of a Pak68/3 booster board. The red and black wires are for extra power feeds I believe. Mine doesn't have those connected.

And you are right it is tos3.06

Have a look here for details (use google translate as its in German)
http://www.wrsonline.de/download.html
If it ain't broke, test it to Destruction.
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DoG
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Re: Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by DoG »

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frank.lukas
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Re: Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by frank.lukas »

GadgetUK164 wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:14 pm There's a wire under the 030 board that looks like you connect it somewhere on the motherboard ...
The single wire under the PAK68/3 go to a PuPla or PuPla/2 board.
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Re: Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by GadgetUK164 »

Thanks for all the info there =D Much appreciated!
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Darklord
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Re: Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by Darklord »

As the others have mentioned, that is a Pak 68/3 board in the bottom/2nd picture.

These are wonderful accelerator boards if you can get this one working correctly.

Upto 50mhz 68030 and 50mhz 68882 FPU, as well as TOS v3.06, the possibility of
64 megs of Fast RAM with a Frak/2 and PuPla/2 board, total and complete software
compatibility with one simple switch and a 68000 chip installed in the socket, etc, etc,...

About that black ground. The docs highly recommend using multiple grounds to insure
the best signal and performance. I think I've got 3-4 grounds on mine. Something to
think about.

I hope you can get it going! :)

[EDIT] Corrected the sentence where I forgot to put "Frak/2" in as well....
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DoG
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Re: Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by DoG »

Darklord wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 8:48 pm Upto 50mhz 68030 and 50mhz 68882 FPU, as well as TOS v3.06, the possibility of
64 megs of Fast RAM with a PuPla/2 board, total and complete software compatibility
with one simple switch and a 68000 chip installed in the socket, etc, etc,...
The PuPla/2 is a bus buffer board. You will need the FRAK/2 board to get EDO fast RAM.
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Darklord
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Re: Vortex ATonce-386 & 030 Board

Post by Darklord »

DoG wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 10:24 pm
Darklord wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 8:48 pm Upto 50mhz 68030 and 50mhz 68882 FPU, as well as TOS v3.06, the possibility of
64 megs of Fast RAM with a PuPla/2 board, total and complete software compatibility
with one simple switch and a 68000 chip installed in the socket, etc, etc,...
The PuPla/2 is a bus buffer board. You will need the FRAK/2 board to get EDO fast RAM.
That is correct. I meant to add the Frak/2 board in that sentence but overlooked it. I
mentioned the Pupla/2 board because it's usually recommended if you use the Frak/2
board.

Thanks.
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Atari SW/HW based BBS-Telnet:darkforce-bbs.dyndns.org 1040
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