Micro Memory MM-6490 VME Board: Documentation? Jumper Settings??
 

halp!

I am bringing a Motorola MVME177 68060 board back to life to include an ancient primordial Micro Memory MM-6490 memory board.

I think that the 6490 is a 2GB board.

Does anyone have documentation for that board or know what the jumper settings are??

There are about 35 jumpers "helpfully" labeled J1, J2, ,... etc -

This is a high speed (for the time) dual-ported memory board and a gaggle of those jumpers are undoubtedly base addresses for the two banks of memory - but which and what is the base resolution.

I have looked everywhere on the 'net for anything, but nothing seems to exist.

Any help whatsoever gratefully appreciated.

Regards,

Jack

I have dealt with many similar problems where the parts were proprietary and no such info was published.

If it's an oldie, try this: You need a pc and a multimeter
Get the data on some chip that the jumpers feed into, by googling " <part-number> data " or datasheet. Isolate the Address bus initially. It's usually labelled A0, A1, A2, etc.

Without changing your jumpers, find what the setting is: use continuity or ohms and measure between A0 and ground, or A0 and +5V. If the jumpers are going in, one of them is probably 0 ohms. The whole bus is a binary number, and you can work it out.

The other common scheme is to have CS0, CS1, and perhaps CS2 on some chip linked to Address pins. Typically one of them is the top address pin, and the others are low ones. So a number like
1000...011 is the address. Get the idea?

Well amazing - I had not considered that sort of thing: wandering around with an ohmmeter tracking where the jumpers connect to... :) Makes sense...

I am far stronger in software than hardware, but might be able to figure this out. ...especially the CS0, etc.


This board - the Micro Memory MM-6490 for the VME bus - was manufactured in about 1995 or so and was a heavy little beast for the day: 2GB! 8)

However, Micro Memory was bought out by Vmetro in 2007 - and then they were bought out a few years ago by Curtis-Wright of all people. So, I am looking for information on a VME board that is a couple of corporate acquisitions back.

But, on the other hand, there are usually a gaggle of Micro Memory VME boards available on eBay for pennies on the dollar - just how to use - that is the problem. With that many Micro Memory boards out there, one would think that someone knows the jumpers...

Business Kid: Question:: When the memory board is in the VME rack and powered up, should any LEDs light with it just sitting there? In particular, on a memory board like this, does the "VME" LED typically light up only when something is talking to the board across the bus - or will that be on all the time???? No LEDS light even during system reset - just three LEDS and not a power LED.

With the MM-6490 board in the rack, I cannot see any memory anywhere from the 68060 processor board with the low level 68KBug thing except for memory known to be on the processor board itself - SRAM etc 64MB and down.

I have stepped up in 16MB increments from low on-board memory to 2GB, but see nothing at all anywhere. I am fairly certain that the memory board is actually 2GB as a single page data sheet that I did find claims "memory up to 2GB" and all of the memory slots are filled and the serial number are sharpied in by the manufacturer as "2GB".

Does this indicate in your mind that the memory board is simply dead or do jumpers frequently exist on a memory board that will cause it not to respond?

Thoughts?

Regards,

Jack

Engineers and their managers are inclined to fit leds where they think they would be useful. There's enough power indicator leds in the world without paying for more. I would expect some access lines (/RD, /WR, bank 0/1, etc).

for a 2 Gig page you need (by my count) 31 Address lines. So the bottom 31 lines address all the memory(= A0 - A30). The page management would have to be done with higher address lines. Maybe a few fast inverters lying around if needed. They will be driving some arrangement of the lines. There will be CS0, CS1,etc, but they might not be pins on the chip. Sorry to be so vague, but you have the boards :-).