Artisoft PCB 2000/C Orbit 2L 16-Bit ISA Coax Network Card 10614 Rev B BNC

Artisoft PCB 2000/C Orbit 2L 16-Bit ISA Coax Network Card 10614 Rev B BNC

The Artisoft PCB 2000/C is a 16-bit ISA network interface card from Artisoft's Orbit 2L product line, designed for 10BASE2 (Thinnet) coaxial Ethernet networking. It installs in a standard ISA expansion slot and connects to a coax LAN segment via its single BNC connector on the bracket. The board is copyright-marked 1993 and was manufactured in the USA.

Specifications & What's Included

• Manufacturer: Artisoft, Inc.
• Product Line: Orbit 2L
• Part Number: 10614
• Revision: Rev B
• Bus Interface: ISA 16-bit (AT bus edge connector)
• Network Standard: 10BASE2 (Thinnet / Thin Coax Ethernet)
• Data Rate: 10 Mbps
• Connector: Single BNC on bracket (coaxial Thinnet)
• On-board transformer: Valor PM7102 (5V to 9V)
• Form Factor: Half-length ISA card with standard full-height bracket
• Country of Manufacture: USA (printed on PCB)
• Included: Card only — no software, cables, or accessories

Applications

The Artisoft PCB 2000/C Orbit 2L was designed for use with Artisoft LANtastic, a popular peer-to-peer networking operating system of the late 1980s and early 1990s that ran on DOS-based PCs. LANtastic was widely adopted in small offices as a cost-effective alternative to Novell NetWare, and Artisoft produced its own NIC hardware — including the Orbit series — to pair with it. The 10BASE2 coax standard this card uses (also called Thinnet or Cheapernet) was the dominant LAN topology of the era, connecting workstations in a daisy-chain bus using RG-58 coaxial cable terminated with BNC connectors. By the mid-1990s, 10BASE-T twisted-pair wiring began displacing coax, but 10BASE2 installations remained common through the decade. Today, cards like this are sought by collectors and administrators maintaining vintage LANtastic or early DOS-era networks, as well as enthusiasts building period-correct IBM PC/AT-class systems from the early-to-mid 1990s.