They have code protection from dumping.

georgel wrote on 2024-05-08, 06:34:

They have code protection from dumping.

Oh, ok... Seems like this board is a write-off then. Maybe I'll find a donor board someday.

georgel wrote on 2024-05-08, 06:34:

They have code protection from dumping.

But you can still "copy" them with projects like this
Arduino-based combinatorial PAL dumper
or DUPAL.

I might actually have this board, although I am not 100% sure. I have definitely a UC41xx that has very similar layout. I will try to locate it tomorrow and if we are all lucky, it actually doesn't have the protection bit set and any bruteforcing is unnecessary. Gravis cards, for example are using unprotected PLDs. But bruteforcing is definitely doable, it is something I have manually done on a few devices myself but I know what the chip was supposed to do and I merely had to verify that it does.

Tiido wrote on 2024-05-08, 22:26:

I might actually have this board, although I am not 100% sure. I have definitely a UC41xx that has very similar layout. I will try to locate it tomorrow and if we are all lucky, it actually doesn't have the protection bit set and any bruteforcing is unnecessary. Gravis cards, for example are using unprotected PLDs. But bruteforcing is definitely doable, it is something I have manually done on a few devices myself but I know what the chip was supposed to do and I merely had to verify that it does.

Thanks... If you can, would you also please check the capacitor values for me? All of them were torn out... It seems though they're all tantalums. Voltage isn't important, just the uF value...

I found my board and it is UC4913 rev2.0, similar layout and same UMC chipset but no PLD between ISA slots or anywhere else so, unfortunately, no luck factor this time 😒

Capacitors on it are 4.7µF for the most part, but there are few 10µF ones too.

Tiido wrote on 2024-05-09, 16:05:

I found my board and it is UC4913 rev2.0, similar layout and same UMC chipset but no PLD between ISA slots or anywhere else so, unfortunately, no luck factor this time 😒

Capacitors on it are 4.7µF for the most part, but there are few 10µF ones too.

Thanks for checking.

Does it work? is it dead? have you traced where the PAL is connected?

Hmm the ECS AL486 also has a GAL (16V8B) and it is connected to the VESA slot portion for sure, and appears to go to the waitstate/speed jumpers (not 100% verified, just looking at back of board, could be wrong)...
maybe it is for same reason??? If so the board should work fine with just ISA cards AFAIK

Horun wrote on 2024-05-10, 01:12:

Hmm the ECS AL486 also has a GAL (16V8B) and it is connected to the VESA slot portion for sure, and appears to go to the waitstate/speed jumpers (not 100% verified, just looking at back of board, could be wrong)...
maybe it is for same reason??? If so the board should work fine with just ISA cards AFAIK

Thanks! I'll give that a shot and maybe someone can get me the capacitor values in the meantime... If it's still functional but only without the VLB slots then that's still cool.