[comp.sys.mac] Mac286

grant@philtis.UUCP (Joe Grant) (02/03/89)

Hi,
	I recently took delivery of a Mac-II and have been toying with
    the idea of bringing an MS-DOS environment up on it. I believe there
    are both software and hardware solutions available, however the only
    software solution that I have been able to find is an IBM-XT emulation.
    As the packages that I hope to run require a minimum of an AT compatible
    I've been looking into the Mac286 board from AST Research INC.

    What I hope you people can help me with is this. Do any of you have 
    experience with the Mac286 or a similar hardware solution, if so could
    you let me know what you think of the product. If anyone knows of a 
    software AT emulation could they forward the product name and their
    impressions of it to me.

    Thanks,


		Joe

-- 
Joe Grant,                       Telex     : 35000 phtc nl/nlmtfarr
Philips B.V., Building HKJ-p825  Telefax   : (31.40.7)33432
P.O. Box 218, Eindhoven,         E-mail    : uucp: ...uunet!mcvax!philtis!grant
The Netherlands,                 Telephone : (31.40.7)34382

sysop@stech.UUCP (Jan Harrington) (02/14/89)

in article <585@philtis.UUCP>, grant@philtis.UUCP (Joe Grant) says:
> Posted: Fri Feb  3 06:10:34 1989
> 
> Hi,
> 	I recently took delivery of a Mac-II and have been toying with
>     the idea of bringing an MS-DOS environment up on it. I believe there
>     are both software and hardware solutions available, however the only
>     software solution that I have been able to find is an IBM-XT emulation.
>     As the packages that I hope to run require a minimum of an AT compatible
>     I've been looking into the Mac286 board from AST Research INC.
> 
>     What I hope you people can help me with is this. Do any of you have 
>     experience with the Mac286 or a similar hardware solution, if so could
>     you let me know what you think of the product. If anyone knows of a 
>     software AT emulation could they forward the product name and their
>     impressions of it to me.
> 

I've been using the Mac286 board since August and am generally quite
pleased. I haven't found anything that won't run (I've tested most of the big
PC DBMS's and a few other application programs). It has good emulation of
both a monochrome screen and CGA. It provides a mouse driver so that the Mac
mouse can emulate a Microsoft mouse (very nice...)

It does take up two NuBus slots and require 5 meg RAM before it will run
well under multifinder. Just recently a competitor was released that
supposedly takes less RAM under multifinder and only uses one slot. How
good it is I haven't any idea. Perhaps someone has taken the plunge...

However, Mac286 seems to be a solid product. It does the job very nicely.

Jan Harrington, sysop
Scholastech Telecommunications
husc6!stech!sysop or allegra!stech!sysop

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