Cubix LCS Resource SubSystem Rackmount 8x FDD DigiBoard 30000644 SMC 8013EWC

Cubix LCS Resource SubSystem Rackmount 8x FDD DigiBoard 30000644 SMC 8013EWC

The Cubix LCS Resource SubSystem is a 19" rackmount peripheral expansion chassis designed to provide networked or locally-connected computers with shared floppy disk drive access and multi-port I/O resources. Built by Cubix Corporation in the early 1990s, this unit houses eight 3.5" floppy disk drives in a single rack-mount enclosure, making it a central floppy resource server for multi-user computing environments. A right-side control panel provides individual RESET switches for drives 1–7 plus a master POWER button.

Specifications & What's Included

• Manufacturer: Cubix Corporation
• Model: LCS Resource SubSystem
• Form Factor: 19" rackmount chassis (approximately 4U)
• Power Input: 115V AC (IEC inlet, rear panel)
• Drive Bays: 8 total (Drive 1 through Drive 8), all populated
• Floppy Drives: TEAC FD-235HF 3.5" 1.44MB floppy disk drives — P/N 19307344-29, Made in Thailand
• Controller Board: Cubix Corp A3030 / BC3030 — dated 1991/1992
• Network Card: SMC 8013EWC 10MHz Signal Rate board — P/N PCA EPC1002PS, chip 83C960LJ
• Additional board P/Ns: F9224, FL70899-6, F100 D 3792, 61-600406-001
• Serial/Multi-Port Card: DigiBoard 30000644 REV A — board label C3PA3-XP, FCC ID FJS46W70346
• Rear connectors (visible across expansion card brackets): DB25 female (parallel), DB9 male (serial), BNC, RJ45, mini-DIN PS/2-style ports
• Front panel: individual per-drive reset buttons (RESET 1–7) and master POWER button with red indicator
• Cooling: two rear-mounted chassis fans (one large, one smaller on power section)
• Interior: ribbon cables connect all 8 floppy drives to the controller backplane; boards and cabling intact

Applications

The Cubix LCS (Local Computing System) Resource SubSystem was developed in the early 1990s to address a specific challenge in multi-user DOS and early Windows environments: giving multiple workstations shared access to floppy disk drives without requiring a dedicated drive at each desk. In a typical deployment, this chassis connected to a Cubix or compatible server backplane, allowing network-connected PCs or terminals to access any of the eight floppy drives as if they were local. This was particularly useful in corporate, educational, and government environments running Novell NetWare or similar LAN operating systems, where software distribution, diskette duplication, and secure media handling all benefited from centralized floppy resources. The DigiBoard multi-port serial card enabled simultaneous serial connections to multiple users or devices, while the SMC Ethernet card provided the network uplink. Systems like this were largely superseded by CD-ROM servers and later network file sharing in the mid-to-late 1990s, making surviving units rare today. They remain of interest to vintage computing enthusiasts, legacy system administrators maintaining period-correct setups, and collectors of early-1990s LAN hardware.