DayStar Digital

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Joined: May 29 2005 - 22:35
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DayStar Digital

While cleaning out the boxs of Apple/Macintosh hardware software I have I came accross a DayStar digital CPU or at least That what I think it is. It has a number on it 01-00489 turbo 040 on the backside on the back it says DayStar digital, inc copyright 1993 and it has a newbus connector. It does have a Motorola CPU on it with a heat sink. Is it a upgrade CPU for an early mac or just dumpester material??

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Last seen: 12 months 1 day ago
Joined: Aug 22 2005 - 10:32
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wow

those things are rare and dont appear on ebay to often

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Last seen: 15 years 4 months ago
Joined: May 4 2004 - 13:52
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Actually they come up fairly

Actually they come up fairly frequently.. not that rare. The rare part is the PDS adapter for the se30, otherwise you can only use it in mac II based macs. It would make a nice IIci upgrade however.

I'd be interested if you wanted to sell it tho.

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re: DayStar Digital

That's not a nubus connector, the Turbo 040 directly fits the IIci/vx/vi PDS cache slot (and other Macs, using adapters.) Available in 25MHz, 33MHz and 40MHz, with an optional FastCache Turbo 128K daughter-card, DayStar also made an FPU-less version called the 040i.

Not uncommon or particularly valuable these days, but a neat bit of top-drawer period hardware. Daystar was the premier Macintosh accelerator maker and their relatively high prices reflected their products' high quality engineering and construction. In 1994 a high-end Turbo '040 (full 68040 @40MHz w/128K cache) listed at $1700, where a base-spec Q950 cost $4000 and a Q840 $3500. Couple the T040's high cost to the $1200 or so (then!) for a used Mac IIci and accelerator economics were just as doubtful then as are current accelerators nowadays.

Keep it for the day you acquire a IIci, it really does transform the old stager.

dan k

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