thomas@ux3.lbl.gov (Mark Thomas) (02/04/90)
I'm looking for advice concerning 386 (20-25 MHz) motherboards. I want to purchase a reliable non-cached motherboard, but it appears that the big-name boards such as AMI and MYLEX aren't making them. I've seen that MICRONICS makes one, but I've noticed a number of complaints about incompatabilities on the net. Also, some discussion concerning cached systems and multitasking might be interesting. Saul Lubkin in the Computer Shopper has been professing that most cached systems don't work optimally under an intensive multitasking environment. Anyone have any comments? or info?
larry@nstar.UUCP (Larry Snyder) (02/05/90)
> I'm looking for advice concerning 386 (20-25 MHz) motherboards. I > want to purchase a reliable non-cached motherboard, but it appears that the > big-name boards such as AMI and MYLEX aren't making them. I've seen that I'm running with a 25 mhz 386 non-cached MB from AMI with 72 DRAM sockets for up to 8 megabytes of 80ns RAM right on the motherboard. The board works perfect and the AMI BIOS allows me to configure the system to run at the fastest possible configuration. -- Larry Snyder, Northern Star Communications, Notre Dame, IN USA uucp: larry@nstar -or- ...!iuvax!ndmath!nstar!larry 4 inbound dialup high speed line public access system
davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) (02/06/90)
In article <4761@helios.ee.lbl.gov> thomas@ux3.lbl.gov (Mark Thomas) writes: | Also, some discussion concerning cached systems and multitasking | might be interesting. Saul Lubkin in the Computer Shopper has been | professing that most cached systems don't work optimally under an | intensive multitasking environment. Anyone have any comments? or info? If running four users on 2.5MB under UNIX counts as intensive, there's no problem. The results are the same with or without the cache, just a LOT slower without. I have run Xenix and V.3 on AMI, Dell, and Compaq without problems. I believe that there are some disk controllers which have problems with a cached M.B. under some conditions, but I've never seen it with WD, Adaptek, or Perstor. -- bill davidsen - sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX davidsen@sixhub.uucp ...!uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen "Getting old is bad, but it beats the hell out of the alternative" -anon
dcling@athena.mit.edu (Douglas C Ling) (02/06/90)
In article <4761@helios.ee.lbl.gov>, thomas@ux3.lbl.gov (Mark Thomas) writes: > > I'm looking for advice concerning 386 (20-25 MHz) motherboards. I > want to purchase a reliable non-cached motherboard, but it appears that the > big-name boards such as AMI and MYLEX aren't making them. I've seen that > MICRONICS makes one, but I've noticed a number of complaints about > incompatabilities on the net. > > Also, some discussion concerning cached systems and multitasking > might be interesting. Saul Lubkin in the Computer Shopper has been > professing that most cached systems don't work optimally under an > intensive multitasking environment. Anyone have any comments? or info? In article <4761@helios.ee.lbl.gov>, thomas@ux3.lbl.gov (Mark Thomas) writes: > > I'm looking for advice concerning 386 (20-25 MHz) motherboards. I > want to purchase a reliable non-cached motherboard, but it appears that the > big-name boards such as AMI and MYLEX aren't making them. I've seen that > MICRONICS makes one, but I've noticed a number of complaints about > incompatabilities on the net. > > Also, some discussion concerning cached systems and multitasking > might be interesting. Saul Lubkin in the Computer Shopper has been > professing that most cached systems don't work optimally under an > intensive multitasking environment. Anyone have any comments? or info? I am considering a 386-20 motherboard made by Novas/Computrade in California. It uses C&T chip set and has 16Meg Simm capacity. Full size board cost about $615 (university pricing) with a 25Mhz version at $100 extra. From the brochures it looks very neatly laid out with AMI(ooops!) Bios and multi-layer construction. Of course I would few more confident if someone will tell me that he/she had good experience with their product! They will also come out with a 33Mhz-cache board in about a month. I don't have their address with me now but if someone is interested, let me know. With memory so cheap these days ($74 for 1 Meg of 80ns SIMM here in Boston), I wonder if some of the caching advantage can not be realized by simple Ram-disking (I call it dumb-caching, as opposed to 'intelligent' caching). The problem with Multi-tasking on some of the Cache-boards is that everytime a different task is call to the foreground (or even worse, just active), the cache is refreshed and Pop goes the data! Anyway, someone can probably enlighten me on the technical details of caching....