weedeewee wrote on 2024-12-23, 22:02:

raymv1987 wrote on 2024-12-23, 19:20:

weedeewee wrote on 2024-12-23, 18:15:

an EISA card with jumpers to set IRQ & DMA.

How odd.

raymv1987, Do you have the software that supports this card ?

That was my thought. I've never seen anything like it. This is the exe that pushes data to the board itself.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/o5k9pcoim7rkax … t=uijsoydz&dl=0

Is that all the software you have, a 32Kb executable?

Also, do you have more hardware for the transmission and reception parts ?

I do. I've got the appropriate model modulators and the end receiving adapter along with all appropriate cables. That's the full chain in terms of hardware.

There's some other bits of software. One reads a file that says when to broadcast (the exe I provided times out either way). One copies the broadcast data to the hard drive. Another plugs into the top serial port to push access data. That's more meant for subscriber info. Those all work fine. It's when I get to this last bit that gets stuck, due to the issues with the cfg/driver

raymv1987 wrote on 2024-12-23, 15:34:

If anyone wants to see if you can make heads or tails of this, I've dropped them here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lq69dfogtld3sv … t=igczl9az&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4u3tos4fn6qhx1 … t=v2a2vw7k&dl=0

Both of those are same and contain next to nothing readable, need the rom from U23.

Horun wrote on 2024-12-23, 23:34:

raymv1987 wrote on 2024-12-23, 15:34:

If anyone wants to see if you can make heads or tails of this, I've dropped them here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/lq69dfogtld3sv … t=igczl9az&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4u3tos4fn6qhx1 … t=v2a2vw7k&dl=0

Both of those are same and contain next to nothing readable, need the rom from U23.

Attached: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vo4g1s9wpwcw5l … t=poyjoo9h&dl=0

This is why I should probably update my prescription 😀

Thanks ! will look deeper into later but should have some code to setup the 80c188 cpu (can compare it with a 1992-93 data board with a 80186's rom since the cpu's are cousins 🤣)

Horun wrote on 2024-12-24, 02:08:

Thanks ! will look deeper into later but should have some code to setup the 80c188 cpu (can compare it with a 1992-93 data board with a 80186's rom since the cpu's are cousins 🤣)

I appreciate that. Hopefully some clues as to how to get my server to recognize this thing and work towards a config file! 😀

Are you positive this thing is actually an EISA card and not some proprietary interface with the same edge connector? (they exist)

If he's got RS-232 working, then it can't be too far off. However, this is sounding like a mere handful more than a one-off, single customer, no public release, in house documentation only kind of thing. So maybe it needs to be in a particular slot in a particular motherboard.

Seems like U45, the dipswitches, sets an IO port.

If i read it right, it's set for either 0xB30 or 0x4c0.

is J5 the rs232 serial port and J4 an other kind of, yet the same port, serial port. No idea what U4 & U1 are. RS485 perhaps ?

maxtherabbit wrote on 2024-12-24, 15:11:

Are you positive this thing is actually an EISA card and not some proprietary interface with the same edge connector? (they exist)

Pretty sure. I have a few notes from them and these for a brief period were used in some Compaq 3080s.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-12-24, 15:42:

If he's got RS-232 working, then it can't be too far off. However, this is sounding like a mere handful more than a one-off, single customer, no public release, in house documentation only kind of thing. So maybe it needs to be in a particular slot in a particular motherboard.

Unsure about the last bit. As far as I know, these are the last 2 that still exist. They were used specifically for broadcast of the Sega Channel and I believe the old DMX / CD-X service that Scientific Atlanta broadcast. The servers would have been configured as part of shipping. So far as my experience and knowledge, it would have been getting dos with 2 partitions on the machine plus the cfg files.

raymv1987 wrote on 2024-12-24, 17:12:

maxtherabbit wrote on 2024-12-24, 15:11:

Are you positive this thing is actually an EISA card and not some proprietary interface with the same edge connector? (they exist)

Pretty sure. I have a few notes from them and these for a brief period were used in some Compaq 3080s.

Can't get to edit from my phone and distracted by kids...but these also had gone into IBM Server 320s

weedeewee wrote on 2024-12-24, 16:44:

Seems like U45, the dipswitches, sets an IO port.

If i read it right, it's set for either 0xB30 or 0x4c0.

is J5 the rs232 serial port and J4 an other kind of, yet the same port, serial port. No idea what U4 & U1 are. RS485 perhaps ?

J5 and J4 are RS422. VR3 connects via cable to an RS232 port

Guy these originated from had some floppies labeled as drivers, but no dice. Only had something that drops a bunch of Adaptec drivers. No config files. The board does light up, and it does communicate via RS232, so it's got proof of life. I will sniff around and see what resources may come up. Based on all my research, this cfg/driver situation is the only thing blocking the Sega Channel from pseudo-broadcasting again.

Question is, would Xilinx be the chip set on this thing...or merely just what gets programmed via that RS232 interface? What that connection allows is to send test transactions, directly broadcast an individual game, or program specific adapters to receive the signal.

What usually happens with a FPGA like a Xilinx is it either gets it's code from a ROM or yeah, loaded over whichever interface, but seeing the EPROM, probably that. Might want to dump it and see if it looks sorta good or sorta bad.

He posted the roms contents earlier. Checked wayback machine on Scientific Atlanta (www.scientific-atlanta.com and www.scientificatlanta.com) and even though Sega channel was operating thru mid 1998 there was no mention of anything from them in early 1998. And nothing on the Scientific Atlanta Sega channel adapters on their website...not even a "check Sega" thing ....
Maybe need to focus more on Sega archives and General Instrument's, who also did the satellite feeding for Sega.

Horun wrote on 2024-12-29, 05:28:

He posted the roms contents earlier. Checked wayback machine on Scientific Atlanta (www.scientific-atlanta.com and www.scientificatlanta.com) and even though Sega channel was operating thru mid 1998 there was no mention of anything from them in early 1998. And nothing on the Scientific Atlanta Sega channel adapters on their website...not even a "check Sega" thing ....
Maybe need to focus more on Sega archives and General Instrument's, who also did the satellite feeding for Sega.

Oddly enough, I've got one of the General Instruments broadcast boards and the similar broadcast software specific to that infrastructure. Problem being I've got a lot less info on the specific infrastructure once it leaves said board. So recreating the service is less feasible.

Scientific Atlanta's role was merely building equipment. A separate crew worked the broadcasts at a facility in CO that worked for Sega and TCI. By 1998, they likely weren't making new gear and Scientific Atlanta weren't crazy about the prospects of the future of the service.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-12-29, 04:31:

What usually happens with a FPGA like a Xilinx is it either gets it's code from a ROM or yeah, loaded over whichever interface, but seeing the EPROM, probably that. Might want to dump it and see if it looks sorta good or sorta bad.

I'd wager the code comes from thar interface and to the board itself via the exe I also uploaded. Had a look at the data in a hex editor and it's all gibberish. Is there a way to get something any clearer out of the info? Speaking of the exe, running it through a frankensteined Windows version of Binwalker brings up a note about mcrypt 2.2 being used in it.

Threw these into ndisasm, but I can't read assembly. May as well be an upside down backwards Chinese Braille book to me. Strings does show a few things on the U23_5E6A file, but no clues as to what .cfg I am looking for.

Yeah spotting some strings and possibly error messages to determine scope of what that part of it is meant to do out of the whole system, is about best you can hope for unless you know the thing upside down and backwards already. There might be a whole lot of "teaching it how to speak satellite transponder" in there that is unnecessary for local. But not seeing a whole lot of error messages and status messages in there tends to suggest that the driver does a bit more than just point things to the right i/o port.

All I'm finding is a thread about sega channel prototypes on forums dot sonicretro dot org, unlinked due to Vogon's ROM policy. Which gets real interesting around page 22 and top of page 23 there's a link to archive.org of "compuserve drives" which I am not sure what they had to do with the subject but they are dismissed as having boring stuff on, which might include boring stuff for this board, who knows, but a lot to go through.

Then I think this doesn't have any copyrighted software linked, just descriptions, so https://segaretro.org/Sega_Channel#Sega_Chann … l_Server_Boards where all those boards were bought by a guy known as DavyPocket who had an account on X under that name, so maybe he has got something to move this forward.

raymv1987 wrote on 2024-12-29, 03:09:

Based on all my research, this cfg/driver situation is the only thing blocking the Sega Channel from pseudo-broadcasting again.

I don't think a CFG file is required at all. Your card seems to be a "halfway EISA" card, in that it supports the EISA bus protocol, but does not support the EISA configuration protocol and uses jumpers instead. As it does not support the EISA configuration protocol, it will not get detected as EISA card and picked up by the BIOS, any ECU or a non-ECU EISA card dumper. This type of card would never have been certified as "EISA compliant", but it obviosly gets the job done as well.

Looking at the pins connected to the EISA part of the bus connector, I find that except for power rails, the only signals used are the high 16 data lines and the pin for negotiating 32-bit bus width, so the EISA bus is only used to allow 32-bit I/O cycles to the card, but in any other way, that card behaves like a plain old ISA card.