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80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

alexandrugroza.ro

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Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#91

Post by officeplant »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #67

Although this seems to be a 33MHz CPU, the 386DX40 was the first "decent" processor I had access to when growing up so was quite memorable for me. In my teenage years the PCs my brothers and I had access to were two 386DX40s each with 8MB of RAM and several hundred MBs of hard disk space (can't remember exactly, but pretty sure less than a GB). We really loved Blizzard's Warcraft II, which despite having a minimum re…

If you ever get the urge for playing it again the Warcraft 2 package on GoG even comes with the IPX patcher you need to play on modern windows.

WC2 is still my favorite of the bunch and it's joy to have a game with old friends from time to time. I also play WC1 in dosbox from time to time.

I still have many fond memories of playing WC2 with friends across town via modem to modem. We were lucky that our dads were gaming friends that often played WC2 together over modem so we quickly fell into the same habits.

Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#92

Post by dark-star »

This is awesome, I would totally build this next week (I have most of the components around) but the PCB alone is over 500$, and I'm not sure I could solder that large SMD chip without breaking anything.

Awesome project, but a little too expensive for me sadly :(

Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#93

Post by jonathanlydall »

officeplant wrote: post #91
jonathanlydall wrote: post #67

Although this seems to be a 33MHz CPU, the 386DX40 was the first "decent" processor I had access to when growing up so was quite memorable for me. In my teenage years the PCs my brothers and I had access to were two 386DX40s each with 8MB of RAM and several hundred MBs of hard disk space (can't remember exactly, but pretty sure less than a GB). We really loved Blizzard's Warcraft II, which despite having a minimum re…

If you ever get the urge for playing it again the Warcraft 2 package on GoG even comes with the IPX patcher you need to play on modern windows. WC2 is still my favorite of the bunch and it's joy to have a game with old friends from time to time. I also play WC1 in dosbox from time to time. I still have many fond memories of playing WC2 with friends across town via modem to modem. We were lucky that our dads were gami…

I actually bought the Battle.NET Edition when it came out, which added a few quality of life features from SC if I recall, like selection groups.

But after having played SC2, I found that I don't really have the patience any more for the the primitive control options of Warcraft II.

Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#94

Post by walrus01 »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #67

Although this seems to be a 33MHz CPU, the 386DX40 was the first "decent" processor I had access to when growing up so was quite memorable for me. In my teenage years the PCs my brothers and I had access to were two 386DX40s each with 8MB of RAM and several hundred MBs of hard disk space (can't remember exactly, but pretty sure less than a GB). We really loved Blizzard's Warcraft II, which despite having a minimum re…

If I remember correctly the AMD 386DX/40 sold for about the same price as the Intel 33 MHz part, was definitely faster in any benchmark, and in the same era when a 486DX/25 and motherboard was a very expensive system, matched or outperformed the 486 in a few benchmarks. It was very popular around 1992-1993 or so.

In terms of ratio of price/performance in the budget category, it would probably be analogous to a zen3 based $175 ryzen today installed on a $150 motherboard.

Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#95

Post by kjs3 »

jacquesm wrote: post #71
kazinator wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moreover, there was an 80387SX copro to go with the 386SX.

And, for us oldies the Weitek as well as the DSP32 board. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weitek and https://www.signalogic.com/images/Ariel_DSP32-PC.jpg

And if you're old and a bit odd, there were i486+i860[1] motherboards from (at least) Hauppauge, Microway & Olivetti.

[1] https://old.hotchips.org/wp-content/uploads/hc_archives/hc02...

Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#96

Post by kn0where »

ido wrote: post #51
unixhero wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good story! Everyone were correct about being afraid of opening CRT monitors. Repairing them is a whole other domain than PC electronics. A CRT ZAP from the cathode ray components can kill. That is not a place one should poke around trying to find solutions.

I wonder if I just got lucky in my youth trying to repair a mac classic II (at the time it was about 10 years old), or if the 9" CRT that must have not been turned on for years at that point didn't have enough of a charge? That machine eventually lived and functioned perfectly for quite a few more years (ended up just needing a new HDD) until finally dying.

The Classic II (and others newer than the earliest Macs) had bleeder resistors to discharge the CRT automatically. Older monitors and TVs did not, so manually discharging was more important. The procedure was still to manually discharge the newer machines in case the bleeder resistor failed, but whenever I discharge the CRT of anything newer than a Mac Plus it’s already discharged well before I touch the grounded screwdriver to the underside of the anode cap.

Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#97

Post by philistine »

jonathanlydall wrote: post #93
officeplant wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever get the urge for playing it again the Warcraft 2 package on GoG even comes with the IPX patcher you need to play on modern windows. WC2 is still my favorite of the bunch and it's joy to have a game with old friends from time to time. I also play WC1 in dosbox from time to time. I still have many fond memories of playing WC2 with friends across town via modem to modem. We were lucky that our dads were gami…

I actually bought the Battle.NET Edition when it came out, which added a few quality of life features from SC if I recall, like selection groups. But after having played SC2, I found that I don't really have the patience any more for the the primitive control options of Warcraft II.

Last time I played Warcraft 2, this is what stopped me from playing pretty quickly too; how primitive the controls were.

Command & Conquer 3 had spoiled me with its intricately refined control scheme.

Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#98

Post by oso2k »

agumonkey wrote: post #52
oso2k wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

386, 486 embedded chips were widely produced as SOCs but they’re embedded in places you probably wouldn’t look for them. Which is why they’re SOCs. :) 586 and semi 686 compatibles are still available in certain quantities. Today, a Pi0W could emulate anything up to a low end 486, Pi0-2W/CM3 could do about 486DX-100/low end Pentium. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_IA-32_compati... https://m.youtube.com/…

Aren't there 486 class cpus in space ? I thought they made radiation hardened designs that were sufficient for their needs.

Yes, 386 and 486. MIPS CPUs are more common.

Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#99

Post by jonsen »

vardump wrote: post #43
shoo wrote: post #29

> Finally I have installed 32 Mb RAM based on eight 4Mx9 70ns SIMM that I designed in the meantime. https://alexandrugroza.ro/microelectronics/system-design/4mx...

I was a bit confused for a second, but he really means 32 MB, not 32 Mb.

A source of confusion is that memory chips are specified in number of bits capacity, not bytes capacity. The first DRAM chips where 1-bit oriented; i.e. read and write were 1-bit at a time. Then you stacked for example 8 chips in parrallel for a byte oriented architechture, etc. 8 16Kb chips for 16KB memory.

Re: 80386DX ISA single board microcomputer

#100

Post by rasz »

caspper69 wrote: post #81
balls187 wrote: post #4

I didn't realize Intel switched the meaning of DX/SX between their 386 and 486 CPU's.

Then Intel released DX2 486s, which ran the core at twice the bus speed. No one is good at naming things in our industry.

and then they released DX4 that quite logically ran at .. triple the bus speed
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