What exactly does a zorroII card look like?

[Generale]

Hi there.
Having worked with a lot of other computers, and only a500s in the Amiga range I don't really know what a Zorro II card looks like.

I saw a picture of one today. It surprised me.
Are there _any_ other cards which have the connector at the back (near the bay plate) AND at the front of the card too?

I'm asking this because years ago I was given a whole pile of computer hardware including expansion cards (a 'present' to make up for a notebook I bought of the guy that exploded like a grenade).
back to the story. There were a few cards with a bus that was unknown to me. Ie having the connector at the front, and the connector at the back. I remember one of them has a whole stack of angle mounted SIMM slots on it. Unfortunately these cards are at my mothers place over 1000 km away, so I'll have to ask her about them next time I talk.

So, is there any chance these cards are for an Amiga?

[MrZammler]

If you can find any markings on the cards, then head over to www.amiga-hardware.com. Do a search there, lots of pics to identify your hardware.

[redrumloa]

@Generale

It's possible. However it sounds like what you are describing is probably some old AT cards.

[Erwin-K]

Back in the early scramble to make IBM clones companies used all kinds of propriatory "non-standard" cards and interfaces to add stuff to their motherboards. Wyse, among others, comes to mind. (Of course Compaq still does.)

Some years ago I found a full length card that looked identical to a Zorro card. Turned out it added ports and ram to a very specific PC. C= was not the only operation to use a 100 pin edge conector.

[Generale]

So true. I think I have a few of those odd beasties in my collection.
I even have one of those amstrad dealies that look like the a500, with monitor too. can't remember the name. I even have a T1000. not the liquid metal variety though. Sigh. One day...

But the thing that gets me is that one of them looks like an 8-bit isa on a full length XT/PC card with another bit of edge connector way down the other end. That's the one covered in 256k simms.
I know it's a long shot. But I can always hope.

Slowly chiselling away at the big book of amiga hardware anyway. This PC is painfully slow, so I have my work cut out for me.

[graffias79]

Generale wrote:

But the thing that gets me is that one of them looks like an 8-bit isa on a full length XT/PC card with another bit of edge connector way down the other end. That's the one covered in 256k simms.
I know it's a long shot. But I can always hope.

Sounds a lot like an ancient Vesa Local Bus or VLB video card.  It's a PC thing.  Looks like an ISA slot with a brown PCI slot behind it on the motherboard, except it isn't a PCI slot.

[Floid]

graffias79 wrote:

Generale wrote:

But the thing that gets me is that one of them looks like an 8-bit isa on a full length XT/PC card with another bit of edge connector way down the other end. That's the one covered in 256k simms.
I know it's a long shot. But I can always hope.

Sounds a lot like an ancient Vesa Local Bus or VLB video card.  It's a PC thing.  Looks like an ISA slot with a brown PCI slot behind it on the motherboard, except it isn't a PCI slot.

I wouldn't expect SIMMs on a video card, but you never know.  One likely possibility, if it *is* an Amiga card, is that it's a bridgeboard -- those are the only cards that'd touch both the ISA bus and the Zorro bus lurking inside a big-box Amiga -- so compare and contrast some likely photos of that.

Just as likely (and finding a manufacturer on the silkscreen would help confirm it) is that it's one of the proprietary PC expansions thus-described...

...And from there, it could even be a whole standalone 486-on-a-card or similar, intended for use with an industrial backplane.