Bell & Howell Apple II update

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Sat Jan 26 11:38:21 2002

You're thinking about a PC-CHIPS mobo, which came out a little later than the
first "fast" '286 I got. The one I kept, however, was a later PC-CHIPS NEAT
mobo, which used the IIT '287, which was designed from the gound up to run at
the higher rates compatible with the CMOS parts produced by vendors like
Harris. It was a mite tricky to operate, but once you had the tools and read
the data sheets, it was quite impressive and quite solid.

I found (and still find) the NEAT mobo to be VERY useful, having worked for a
company that produced a software set that enabled one to load drivers in the
adapter space and produced boards that mapped a modest amount of memory into
that space, on 512K or 640K PC/AT's.

One thing I did determine back then was that Win3.0 and later, v3.1x, ran
faster on the '286 at a given clock rate than did a '386 at the same rate. I
suppose this was at least in part because the first thing the software did was
lie to the CPU and tell it, "OK ... you're a '286 now ..."

By '91, folks were playing with their '486's.

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: <jpero_at_sympatico.ca>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2002 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: Bell & Howell Apple II update


> > From: "Richard Erlacher" <edick_at_idcomm.com>
> > To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
> > Subject: Re: Bell & Howell Apple II update
> > Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 20:58:06 -0700
> > Reply-to: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
>
> > My 25 MHz '286 w/IIT '287 and 8 MB of RAM cost about $400 including the
box,
> > <snip>
> > cost $2375, IIRC.
> >
> > They never did build a microVAX that would outrun that 25 MHz '286.
>
> Lucky to u on that 1.2GB monsters. About right for that time, GASP!
>
> That 286 25MHz motherboard is certainly pcchips. what a POS and had
> few 286-20 also. Having 287XL in it doesn't work too well!
>
> That was back in 1991 or so.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Wizard Had homebuilt of POS cacheless 386-25 shitbox when I was
> new to the PC w/ whopping 80MB IDE. :-D I learned better after few
> problems w/ 486 boards then went w/ Asus and quality parts.
>
>
> > Dick
>
>
Received on Sat Jan 26 2002 - 11:38:21 GMT