psfales@cbnewsc.att.com (Peter Fales) (12/25/90)
Does anyone have any experience with the the SOTA 386i accelerator card, especially in the AT&T PC-6300? (The 6300 is an XT compatible 8086 based machine). I happened to see a box for one of these in a computer store, and it specifically mentioned the 6300 as a suitable system. But is there anything I need to watch out for? Are there any applications that won't run? Is there more than one version of the 386i? Will all my add-on cards like EMS still work? Thanks for any help you can provide. -- Peter Fales AT&T, Room 5B-420 N9IYJ 2000 N. Naperville Rd. UUCP: ...att!ihlpb!psfales Naperville, IL 60566 Domain: psfales@ihlpb.att.com work: (708) 979-8031
emanuele@overlf.UUCP (Mark A. Emanuele) (12/27/90)
In article <1990Dec24.230350.9161@cbnewsc.att.com>, psfales@cbnewsc.att.com (Peter Fales) writes: > > Does anyone have any experience with the the SOTA 386i accelerator card, > especially in the AT&T PC-6300? (The 6300 is an XT compatible 8086 > based machine). > > Will all my > add-on cards like EMS still work? I have had one in my 6300 for about a year now, and have had NO problems. You can use your EMS board, but ONLY in REAL (DOS) mode. The Protected mode is not yet supported. Hope this helps. -- Mark A. Emanuele V.P. Engineering Overleaf, Inc. 500 Route 10 Ledgewood, NJ 07852-9639 attmail!overlf!emanuele (201) 927-3785 Voice (201) 927-5781 fax emanuele@overlf.UUCP
cac@iear.arts.rpi.edu (Christopher A. Cox) (12/27/90)
I know the 386 works...I once was playing with an Intel 386 board and it didn't, but a dealer told me they use Sota all the time with no problems. What I would like to know is does the Sota 286i work as well? Gut feeling says yes, the dealer says 'I dunno', and I found one. BTW, how does the Sota go in? The Intel has a forty pin ribbon cable that goes out to a dummy chip to plug into the 8086 socket, but it was too sort. I had to make a longer one (and cannabalize that dummy chip...they are hard to find it seems). Does the Sota work the same way? Chris Christopher Cox | "The shortest distance between two cac@iear.arts.rpi.edu | points is always under construction." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Murphy was an optimist.
rl@cbnewsl.att.com (roger.h.levy) (12/28/90)
In article <&7P^N1*@rpi.edu>, cac@iear.arts.rpi.edu (Christopher A. Cox) writes: > What I would like to know is does the Sota 286i work as well? > Gut feeling says yes, the dealer says 'I dunno', and I found one. It has a worked fine on the small variety of packages (Wordperfect, 123, Windows 3, GEM, Harvard Graphics, C compilers, Procomm) that I use. I have only found it to fail on an astronomy game my son uses but it is relatively easy to flip to native (8086 on the 6300) mode. > BTW, how does the Sota go in? The Intel has a forty pin ribbon > cable that goes out to a dummy chip to plug into the 8086 socket, but it > was too sort. I had to make a longer one (and cannabalize that dummy > chip...they are hard to find it seems). Does the Sota work the same > way? There is a longer cable Sota makes available specifically for the 6300. I (and others) have found that the it is difficult to keep the cable properly seated in the processor socket. I think this is because the 6300 processor socket is upside down and the weight of the cable and its stiffness tend to exert a downward force on the end of the cable. Also, the cable has round pins and the processor socket seems to expel them easily. There's been some success with jury-rigged mechanical retention.
emanuele@overlf.UUCP (Mark A. Emanuele) (12/30/90)
In article <&7P^N1*@rpi.edu>, cac@iear.arts.rpi.edu (Christopher A. Cox) writes: > BTW, how does the Sota go in? The Intel has a forty pin ribbon > cable that goes out to a dummy chip to plug into the 8086 socket, but it > was too sort. I had to make a longer one (and cannabalize that dummy > chip...they are hard to find it seems). Does the Sota work the same > way? Yes, but if you tell them it is for a 6300 you get an extra long cable. Mark Emanuele emanuele@overlf.uucp -- Mark A. Emanuele V.P. Engineering Overleaf, Inc. 500 Route 10 Ledgewood, NJ 07852-9639 attmail!overlf!emanuele (201) 927-3785 Voice (201) 927-5781 fax emanuele@overlf.UUCP