Recently, I saw something quite peculiar: a Pippin motherboard that apparently comes from a prototype.
Between the time of writing and publication, I won the auction, so we’ll talk about it one day when the packages from Japan arrive.
The motherboard has a few differences compared to the standard version. You can see a standard version on Wikipedia. The first thing is the reference: 820-0971-92 (1996) on the one from Wikipedia, AP2705-02 (1995) on the one for sale.
The Wikipedia version
The one for sale
On the rest of the board, there are a few differences: the Zilog serial controller is not present (top right), and there is apparently no RAM on the motherboard, which is more surprising. I suppose it starts with an external RAM extension. There is also a small chip missing towards the middle, which must be the console’s flash memory chip.
Some chips are missing
The connectors are present
Standard connectors
