The 5155 Challenge...

From: Scarletdown <SecretaryBird_at_SoftHome.net>
Date: Wed Oct 30 07:01:00 2002

...At least that it what I called the little challenge I gave myself
tonight. I had my IBM 5155 (aka the Portable PC) opened up in order
to test some MFM hard drives (a task that failed miserably because
the drive controller couldn't handle the ST-251 drives). As often
happens, I got sidetracked and started pondering the very limited
clearance that most of the slots in the 5155 have, due to the hard
drive and floppy drive taking up so much space.

I found myself thinking that it would be a shame to waste so many
otherwise useful slots; and I subsequently started plotting out what
could fit in there.

Here is a picture of the (almost) final results...


I say almost, because the one full-clearance slot that is still empty
has a card slated to go in it, a 3Com EtherLink II. I just have to
remember where I put the thing. The last slot is currently being
used up by the parallel and joystick connectors that are coming off
the IO card in the first slot. I may go ahead and remove those
connectors and use that slot for a dual joystick controller card that
I have around here somewhere.

FWIW, here is what Crysta is now equipped with...

Slot 0: - IO Card (RAM, Serial, Parallel, Joystick)
Slot 1: - Floppy Controller
Slot 2: - Sound Card - Covox SoundMaster II
Slot 3: - Reserved for NIC (3Com EtherLink II-TP)
Slot 4: - CGA Adapter - DFI 2002
Slot 5: - HDC - WD1002A-WX1
Slot 6: - SCSI - NCS-250-SC
Slot 7: - Reserved for Suncom Joystick Card

So, anyone else here ever maxed out a 5155 before? Great thing about
having SCSI capability is that being limited to a 20MB MFM hard drive
is no longer a major concern. If I need more drive space, all I have
to do now is hang an external SCSI drive or two or three off the
system.

Also, while I was working on Crysta, I was thinking that this might
actually be a good candidate for the control terminal for the
Cromemco System Two; at least until I can get an actual Cromemco
Smart Terminal...

Anyway, enough random nattering from me for tonight. Time to get the
clutter cleared up and go get some sleep.

-- Scarletdown
Received on Wed Oct 30 2002 - 07:01:00 GMT