Mystery ISA Memory Expansion Card Settings?

[commodorebob]

I recently picked up a great IBM haul when I get an IBM PC, XT, and 5155 Portable that also came with tons of accessories and cards.
They were all in various states if disrepair and I recently got the 5150 fully operational and almost have it the way I want it.
In the pile of cards are two 8-Bit ISA memory expansion / multi IO cars that I have not been able to find definitive info on.

The one I really want to use in my 5150 is this awesome looking MBI Monte Carlo multi I/O card that looks like it contains 256KB of RAM, an RTC, and Serial / Joystick Ports.
Unfortunately, it does not like to be in the system along with my XT-IDE due to a conflict of some sort. I could probably fix it if I knew how to setup the card.
This particular card is a complete mystery to me, as I have not even been able to find proof of the companies existence while doing my research while not even getting close to an actual manual.
The model number that seems the most relevant is IBMMC101, however there is another model number on the back that is PC00MCC01.


The second card is the Everex PWA-00071 Memory Expansion Card.
I believe this is a 2MB EMS (with 1MB populated) card.
The closest match I was able to find is the MAXI MAGIC EMS EV-165A, which does seem close.
https://th99.infania.net/i/E-H/52637.htm

Here are some detailed images of the cards.

If anyone knows any information on these I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[modem7]

The second card is the Everex PWA-00071 Memory Expansion Card.

That PWA number is a red herring. For example, the Everex EV-346 is pictured at [here]. Note the PWA number at the top-right, to the right of 'EV-346'.
PWA is likely to stand for Printed Wiring Assembly, which could be just the printed circuit board alone (no components).

 

[modem7]

The one I really want to use in my 5150 is this awesome looking MBI Monte Carlo multi I/O card that looks like it contains 256KB of RAM, an RTC, and Serial / Joystick Ports.
Unfortunately, it does not like to be in the system along with my XT-IDE due to a conflict of some sort. I could probably fix it if I knew how to setup the card..

What I think some of the switch/jumper settings might be:

---------------------------------
Switch bank SW1
---------------------------------
1 through 4 ('CONFIG 0' through 'CONFIG 3'): ???????? Maybe RAM size
5 ('I/O CK'): ???????
6: Unused
7 'CLK': Disable/enable real-time clock (RTC)
8 ('CLKINT'): Disable/enable interrupt generation by the alarm functionality in the RTC

---------------------------------
Switch bank SW2
---------------------------------
1 and 2 ('LP1' and 'LP2'): Only one of these is set to ON. LPT1 to ON if parallel port is to be LPT1 (I/O base address of 378h), or, LPT2 to ON if parallel port is to be LPT2 (I/O base address of 278h).

3 and 4 ('CM1' and 'CM2'): Only one of these is set to ON. CM1 to ON if serial port is to be COM1 (I/O base address of 3F8h), or, CM2 to ON if serial port is to be COM2 (I/O base address of 2F8h).

5 through 8 ('START ADR'): Configures the starting address of the RAM.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Jumper block below connector 'LPT. CONN'.
------------------------------------------------------------------

3 pins on the left set the interrupt used by the serial port (COM).
- Jumper on [T] and [1] sets interrupt usually used by COM1, which is interrupt 4.
- Jumper on [2] and [T] sets interrupt usually used by COM2, which is interrupt 3.

3 pins on the right set the interrupt used by the parallel port (LPT).
- Jumper on [T] and [1] sets interrupt usually used by LPT1, which is interrupt 7.
- Jumper on [2] and [T] sets interrupt usually used by LPT2, which is interrupt 5.

 

[dhau]

commodorebob please share the drivers for EMS and RTC if you have them. Thank you.

 

[commodorebob]

commodorebob please share the drivers for EMS and RTC if you have them. Thank you.

I wish I did, however I only have the physical cards themselves and not much else. For the MBI card I'm going to replace the battery and try some RTC drivers to see if I can get anything that works I will update if I get anywhere on that front. The RTC is a MM58167AN, so I plan to look for cards that have that chip and available RTC drivers (if there are any) and start from there.

 

[commodorebob]

What I think some of the switch/jumper settings might be:

---------------------------------
Switch bank SW1
---------------------------------
1 through 4 ('CONFIG 0' through 'CONFIG 3'): ???????? Maybe RAM size
5 ('I/O CK'): ???????
6: Unused
7 'CLK': Disable/enable real-time clock (RTC)
8 ('CLKINT'): Disable/enable interrupt generation by the alarm functionality in the RTC

---------------------------------
Switch bank SW2
---------------------------------
1 and 2 ('LP1' and 'LP2'): Only one of these is set to ON. LPT1 to ON if parallel port is to be LPT1 (I/O base address of 378h), or, LPT2 to ON if parallel port is to be LPT2 (I/O base address of 278h).

3 and 4 ('CM1' and 'CM2'): Only one of these is set to ON. CM1 to ON if serial port is to be COM1 (I/O base address of 3F8h), or, CM2 to ON if serial port is to be COM2 (I/O base address of 2F8h).

5 through 8 ('START ADR'): Configures the starting address of the RAM.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Jumper block below connector 'LPT. CONN'.
------------------------------------------------------------------

3 pins on the left set the interrupt used by the serial port (COM).
- Jumper on [T] and [1] sets interrupt usually used by COM1, which is interrupt 4.
- Jumper on [2] and [T] sets interrupt usually used by COM2, which is interrupt 3.

3 pins on the right set the interrupt used by the parallel port (LPT).
- Jumper on [T] and [1] sets interrupt usually used by LPT1, which is interrupt 7.
- Jumper on [2] and [T] sets interrupt usually used by LPT2, which is interrupt 5.

Thank you, this is immensely helpful, I at least have a starting off point so I can get the proper configuration for this card.
I'm going to do some experimentation to get a solid config on the LPT and COM ports.
According to CheckIt, the Parallel Port is configured to LPT 2 at address 278h (LPT 1 is on the MDA card), meanwhile, the Serial Port is displaying as COM1 at 2F8H.
The more tricky part will be finding the start address of RAM and the RAM config itself.
Currently, the PC is showing no additional RAM installed with only 256K of base memory available, however that may be because I populated the last bank on the card without changing the jumper settings, causing it to not show any extra RAM at all.
I'll try removing the bank to see if I get any extra RAM showing. If I can get extra RAM showing, I'll continue from there.

I'll send an update with my findings soon.

 

[modem7]

The RTC is a MM58167AN, so I plan to look for cards that have that chip and available RTC drivers (if there are any) and start from there.

I would be surprised if none from [here] worked. I suggest that of those, you try the 'PC Timer' batch first.

Related to this, maybe the 'I/O CK' next to a switch is short for I/O CLOCK, allowing the user a choice of two possible I/O port ranges for the RTC.

 

[modem7]

I'm going to do some experimentation to get a solid config on the LPT and COM ports.
According to CheckIt, the Parallel Port is configured to LPT 2 at address 278h (LPT 1 is on the MDA card), meanwhile, the Serial Port is displaying as COM1 at 2F8H.

Regarding the terms COM1, COM2, .... and LPT1, LPT2, ...

Ideally, card makers should not be using them, instead, using the base I/O port addresses. I know they are trying to be more user-friendly, but it can cause confusion. For an example of COM1/COM2 confusion, see the 'Potential anomaly' section at [here]. The same issue exists with parallel ports.

 

[commodorebob]

I would be surprised if none from [here] worked. I suggest that of those, you try the 'PC Timer' batch first.

Related to this, maybe the 'I/O CK' next to a switch is short for I/O CLOCK, allowing the user a choice of two possible I/O port ranges for the RTC.

Thanks for the help! I was able to get everything working on the card with a bit of tinkering. I replaced the battery, switched CLK and CLKINT on and used CLOCK.COM to set and read the clock.
For the RAM I was able to find (mostly by trial and error) the correct setting to get it working with with the whole 265K of RAM on the board. I tested the RAM with CheckIt just to make sure and everything looks good!

Here are the dip switch settings I used to get it working.

For the Everex Card, I was able to identify it as an EV-165 (functionally identical to the EV-165A). I tested it with the EMS driver and it seems to work. Have some RAM on order to bring it to 2MB to use in my 5160.

 

[modem7]

Here are the dip switch settings I used to get it working.

I think that the important ones are the RAM related settings. In case the photos that you pointed to later disappear, I have made the following record.

START ADR 0/1/2/3 = off/off/on/off
CONFIG 0/1/2/3 = off/off/on/off

Is that 'start address' setting for a starting address of 256K ?

 

[commodorebob]

I think that the important ones are the RAM related settings. In case the photos that you pointed to later disappear, I have made the following record.

Is that 'start address' setting for a starting address of 256K ?

Yes, that is a 265K starting address, and the layout of both RAM setting and start address setting look to be the same.
I will experiment a bit more and post some setting options just in case anyone out there find ones of these cards and and needs to use it in a different configuration.

I did discover that when setting the config to off/on/on/off it looks like it added 128K (or more?) to the RAM config, as the system showed 640K total system RAM.