burgin@ecsvax.UUCP (Robert Burgin) (05/24/86)
Has anyone had experience with the Univation PC Turbocharger system accelerator board? Univation has a special on it for $395 (with 640K). It uses an 8086 operating at 9.54 MHz. Back in September, INFOWORLD gave it four stars (or whatever those things are). Any help or advice would be appreciated. --Robert Burgin burgin@ecsvax.UUCP "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work ... I want to achieve it through not dying." - Woody Allen
roper@chinet.UUCP (roper) (05/31/86)
I used a (presumably) older version of the Univation PC Turbocharger board
about a year and a half ago. It did nothing but aggravate me.
1) It didn't always work right. (We suspect the board was defective.)
2) We were using an 8087 coprocessor with our software. At the time,
you couldn't get a 10 MHz 8087. They suggested that you could plug
in a 5 MHz 8087. Of course, then you always had to run the board at
5 MHz unless you opened up the computer and removed the 5 MHz 8087--
which was plugged in under the memory daughterboard.
3) We had taken it for evaluation, sending them a check. It took some
time (and many phone calls) to get our money back.
Far too much aggravation for my taste. Of course, things may have improved.
A board that I've used recently that has given me no trouble is the
286 Express from PC Technologies in Ann Arbor MI. We ran our standard
software calculations/disk test on it (8 MHz) and it ran faster than an
unmodified 6 MHz AT with faster disk--probably due to disk caching.
Unfortunately, it's a good bit more expensive--$795, I think. Possibly
cheaper from the right mail order house.
--
Bill Roper, ihnp4!chinet!roper