Olicom OC-3129 (STP/UTP Version)

Card-ID 08A5

There also exist two variants of this card. The 08A4 variant has only a STP DB9 connector and uses "older style" construction/soldering. The 08A6 version is seemingly similar to this card, but it lacks the DB9 connector.

Caution: This card's ID is shared with the Intel TokenExpress and Pure Data MC 16/4 TR adapters! Be sure you get the right ADF. Using an improper ADF has the potential to cause hardware damage or misconfiguration.

oc3129-1.exe is the adapter setup disk. oc3129-3.exe is a drivers disk. oc3129-4.exe is the diagnostic utility
ocaiw.exe - AIW Version 4.13 (what is this?)
isadiag.exe - diagnostics for an ISA board?
isacfg.exe - configuration for an ISA board?
trmp.exe - Windows NT 3.5/4.0/9x NDIS 3.0 Miniport version 4.33
08A5.ADF - adapter definition file (STP/UTP card)
08A4.ADF - adapter defintion file (STP-only card)

Outline


Components:

UO5 - Pads for a PGA IC
UL5, UK5, UM5, 6 - NEC D41464L-10
UK6 - PAL "TR81C611"
UJ6 - 64.000MHz
UN2 - Boot ROM
R31, R32 - Resistor Networks
UE6 - Texas Instruments TMS380C16PQL
UB4 - Texas Instruments TMS38054FNL

RL1, 2, 3 - Takamisawa RA5W-K Relays

J3 - DB9 STP TR Connector
J4 - RJ45 UTP TR Connector

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Uli Link mentioned this:

You don't damage Cards by swapping adf's or drivers between the Intel
TokenExpress/MC and the Olicom 3129. It's identical hardware. I don't
know, which one is OEM and which the original.

I never had success with this card under Windows NT.
The Ring opens, and you can ping with small payload only.

The Madge cards are faster and have working drivers.

My reply: Hardware damage is a faint possibility if you use the wrong ADF. I don't know how the Pure Data card is built compared to the Intel and Olicom cards. I played with the card some under NT and it seemed to work fine on every test I tried. However, I would say that Olicom's MCA hardware may be of marginal quality. I've had some interesting experiences with the Olicom OC-2335 100Mbit MCA Ethernet board...it doesn't seem to be all that well engineered. One of the OC-2335's would not link up at 100Mbit full duplex and it eventually went bad...IIRC it would link up but not transfer any data whatsoever.

Further, Olicom is no longer making network cards...maybe quality control problems are the reason for this?

I second the recommendation on the Madge cards. They work extremely well.