Support for Unsupported Mac Hardware

The internet has become a great resource for getting the most out of an old Macintosh. Software developers and hardware manufacturers alike provide patches, updates, demos and tech support articles on their corporate web sites. Discontinued products seldom receive the same attention. One commendable exception is Apple Computer's Apple Spec database.

A few people have created web sites supporting various obsolete technologies. Gamba is a great repository of older Mac System Software. The 68k Mac Liberation Army hosts forums where users of old Macintoshes can have open discussions. System 7 Today hosts a wealth of information about how to get the most out of a Mac running System 7.

Some of the old Mac hardware companies have since gone out of business. Support for their products has usually vanished right along with their web sites. Here, I've kept some of that support alive.

MicroNet

MicroNet used to make high-performance SCSI disk arrays and expansion cards. They have since moved on to newer technology and network storage.

One of the MicroNet cards I have is a NuPort II Nubus card. The NuPort cards were designed to be used in the Mac II series computers and later in the Centris & Quadra series Macs. NuPort II offered 10 MB/sec Fast SCSI, which was much quicker than the built-in SCSI of the Mac II series.

I also have a MicroNet Raven Pro Nubus card, which is Fast & Wide, topping off at 20 MB/sec throughput. My Raven Pro has always performed slightly better than my ATTO SiliconExpress IV card.

Most of the NuPort and Raven software looks as though it is stuck in the System 7 era. I doubt that any of it has been updated for Mac OS 8.

> MicroNet Utility v7.2.7 (308 KB) - utility for NuPort SCSI cards

> Raven 678 Utility v2.4.3 (160 KB) - utility for creating a RAID between a NuPort card and a Quadra's built-in SCSI bus

> Power Raven 4.3 v1.1.3 (272 KB) - utility for creating a RAID on a PowerMac or Quadra 840av.

> Raven 950 Utility v1.2.9 (124 KB) - utility for creating a RAID across the two SCSI busses of a Quadra 950.

> Raven Pro Manager v1.1.1 (240 KB) - utility for setting up a RAID on a Raven Pro Nubus or PDS card. This is used for dual-channel Raven Pro cards

It appears that MicroNet has discontinued support for these products. These items had previously been freely available from their web site. I will cease hosting these files if requested to do so by MicroNet.

MPEG Audio Coder

In the mid '90s George Warner created MPEG Audio Coder for Mac. This software allows audio to be encoded as MPEG Layer-2 (MP2) and also decoded from MP2 to AIFF. Many MP3 players can use MP2 files too, and with MPEGAud, you can create MP2 files with an old Mac II or Quadra.

> MPEGAud v1.0.1a2 (268 KB)

> MPEGAud v1.0 (384 KB)

George Warner no longer develops MPEG Audio Coder. Please do not complain to him if you have trouble with it.

MPEG audio files can be played back on a 68k Mac using Mark White's MpegDec software.

This article was last edited January 23, 2007.

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