Name that Ware, June 2020

The Ware for June 2020 is shown below.

Thanks to Bob Parker for contributing this ware.

And thanks to everyone who has been submitting guest wares. Since March I literally have not moved outside a circle with a 3-km (2-mi) radius, and there’s currently no end in sight to that trend. I appreciate the interesting diversity of wares being sent my way, please keep them coming!

On that note, if you have a travel bag of gadgets that has been collecting dust for the past few months, don’t forget to check the condition of their batteries; deeply discharged lithium batteries are never a good thing.

13 Responses to “Name that Ware, June 2020”

  1. George Styles says:

    I see a z80 cpu, a max serial chip, and what looks like a serial cable. Im going for a VT type terminal device.

  2. M Stedman says:

    The “Rates” silkscreen keeps throwing me off. Parking meter?

  3. willmore says:

    It’s a Z180, not a Z80. The Z180 incorporates a lot of glue the Z80 would have needed–including DMA controllers and two UARTS–which I think are being used here.

    Interesting is the memory layout. It’s got a large 32 pin EPROM labeled V5 UNIVERSAL, a smaller 28 pin EPROM labeled PRGRM (on the board). There’s also a 64K bit (8Kx8) EEPROM soldered on the board and labeled RATES. As well as a 128Kx8 SRAM. That’s a lot of memory for something from that time frame. Manufacture dates are all in mid ’96.

    So, whatever this is, it needs a lot of temporary storage and a small amount of programmable non-volatile memory (RATES).

    There’s what really looks like a phone answering circuit–the CM8870 is a DTMF decoder.

    I don’t see any kind of D/A converter. If there was, I would suspect that this thing can play back voice prompts to someone who calls in. There’s a lot of the lower circuit board we can’t see because the CPU board is covering it. A full shot of the lower board would be really nice. :)

    What really throws me is that the CPU board has a beeper on it–so clearly it’s meant to be somewhat close to a user–wether it’s part of some kind of UI or just a ‘I need help’ kind of alert.

    There’s also a lot of other pretty rugged looking I/O on there with some very diverse connectors. The odd one below the area for J14 is probably a dead giveaway for what this board does as it looks very unusual.

    Good luck!

  4. jackw01 says:

    Going to guess that it’s a payphone just by the shape of the PCB and the phone-related circuitry alone.

  5. rdoc says:

    I was going to guess an ATM control/COMMS board.

  6. LW says:

    I’m curious, what sort of connector is that on the bottom left?

  7. Digital answering machine?