Last week I was sorting through some of my old Mac parts and found a box I'd sorta forgotten about. It contained a whole pile of CPU cards for Beige-generation PCI Powermacs. I remember now I bought them in a bulk lot many years ago but never needed many of them. Now that I'm busy trying to put my older Powermacs back into service and good uses, I decided it was time to finally go through all the CPU cards to identity them, test them, and trace the software I didn't already have before it's permanently unavailable.
I went about the testing using a Power Computing Power Center 150 as the host. All of the cards are either G3 type or 604e. Out of all the cards tested there were only three I couldn't get running for one reason or another. They are as follows as far as I can identify them:
1. NewerTech MAXpowr 604e(?) 225MHz
2. XLR8 MACh Speed 604e 225MHz
3. Mactell PowerJolt(?) G3 250MHz (from similar photos online I believe this is the make/model)
1. I don't have reference material for this NewerTech model. The jumper settings don't seem to have any effect, nor does it matter if I set them in the two standard positions from the manual for the later G3 versions. I don't know if any software was available for it.
2. While I was able to locate and download a software CD image for the later G3 versions, the 604e XLR8 version I don't have jumper settings for nor any software it may have come with.
3. The Mactell (pretty sure) card is fairly distinctive because it features rotary switches instead of DIP switches. I have another virtually identical card with a completely different heatsink that I HAVE been able to figure out and get working. The MACh Speed software was still installed at the time and was able to read its speed setting. I don't have any Mactell software or reference material. The closure statement from that company is the only remnant page I could find in the Wayback Machine online. (Thanks, Apple, for completely ruining them - that was real classy.)
It is entirely possible that these three cards are defective but I would like to test them fully before concluding that and junking them. If any of you can help with information or software for these cards it would be greatly appreciated!