svirsky@ttidca.TTI.COM (Bill Svirsky) (02/28/89)
The motherboard in my XT clone is acting flakey. I've tried to find the
problem and can't. So I'm using this as my excuse to upgrade to an AT.
My main priorities are price, reliability, and compatibility. If I
can't do it for $200-$250 for everything, I can't do it. However, I've
got to be able to use all of my old hardware and software. I currently
have an XT clone with 256K (64K chips, 150ns) on the motherboard, AST
6-pack plus with 384K (64K chips, 150ns), 2400 baud internal modem,
floppy controller card, Western Digital hard disk controller, Paradise
VGA+ card, a game port, and a 150W power supply.
The motherboard I'm thinking of getting is the Tiger 286-8. I've been
told it's about as fast as an 8MHz IBM AT. It comes with the Award
BIOS. The best news is that it supposed to be *100%* software and
hardware compatible with the XT. I can use all of my existing cards and
my 64K 150ns memory. The bad news is that it achieves this 100%
compatibility by using 8 8-bit slots and no 16-bit slots. I'm not too
concerned about the decrease in I/O performance due to the lack of a
16-bit bus. What I am concerned about is future expansion and any
unspoken gotchas. Are there any cards being manufactured today for the
AT (ie. 16-bit) for which there are no XT equivalents? Can anyone see
any other problems with this architecture? Anyone have any experience
with this board? I'll summarize if I get enough response. Thanks.
--
Bill Svirsky, Citicorp+TTI, 3100 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Work phone: 213-450-9111 x2597
svirsky@ttidca.tti.com | ...!{csun,psivax,rdlvax,retix}!ttidca!svirskyjborza%burgundy@Sun.COM (Jim_Borza) (03/01/89)
In article <3961@ttidca.TTI.COM>, svirsky@ttidca.TTI.COM (Bill Svirsky) writes: > The motherboard in my XT clone is acting flakey. I've tried to find the > problem and can't. So I'm using this as my excuse to upgrade to an AT. > My main priorities are price, reliability, and compatibility. [...] > > The motherboard I'm thinking of getting is the Tiger 286-8. I've been > told it's about as fast as an 8MHz IBM AT. It comes with the Award > BIOS. The best news is that it supposed to be *100%* software and > hardware compatible with the XT. I can use all of my existing cards and > my 64K 150ns memory. The bad news is that it achieves this 100% > compatibility by using 8 8-bit slots and no 16-bit slots.[...] > [...] Are there any cards being manufactured today for the > AT (ie. 16-bit) for which there are no XT equivalents? Can anyone see > any other problems with this architecture? Anyone have any experience > with this board? I'll summarize if I get enough response. Thanks. > -- > Bill Svirsky, Citicorp+TTI, 3100 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405 > Work phone: 213-450-9111 x2597 > svirsky@ttidca.tti.com | ...!{csun,psivax,rdlvax,retix}!ttidca!svirsky I've installed this board in place of an XT/8MHz Turbo board and it is NOTICEABLY faster. I've encountered NO software or hardware which gave me any trouble. It's best set up with 256K chips (if you have them) and get the RAM on the mother board. I should point out that, despite the presence of an 80286 CPU, it does NOT become an AT but a fast XT with 16- bit memory access to motherboard RAM. These boards are generally avail- able for less than $200 - a good buy. One more point: my 8MHz XT ran the bus at 8Mhz but the Tiger, to maintain compatibility, runs the bus at 4.77 MHz. Most times this is not a problem but, in my case, I had to up the interleave on my Adaptec/Micropolis disk system to 4:1 (from 3:1) other- wise the disk system will suffer. After adjusting the interleave, appar- ent disk I/O is significantly more efficient than before (I suppose from the CPU's efficiency). Also, all 8 slots are identical (no funny-stuff with slot-8) and will take any 8-bit board which will fit. I recommend the board as a good investment BUT, if you want a "true" AT, you might want to look into one of the "Baby-AT" boards - they're more expensive but have 16-bit slots and all the other AT characteristics. Jim Borza - Sun Microsystems Disclaimer? Sure, why not?