Re: Benchmark SCSI vs IDE @ 386SX

Posted on 2024-03-30, 01:40

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Also ~3-4 MB/s is close to the real-world maximum that an ISA SCSI card can do (16-bit ISA bus IS the limitation here). Up to 8 MB/s might be possible with 0ws everywhere and a fast CPU. Some good discussion and commentary here.

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Re: Benchmark SCSI vs IDE @ 386SX

Posted on 2024-03-30, 01:27

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I've got a 386sx-40 . Getting ~3.3 MB/s on a AHA-1542CF and ZuluSCSI v1.1. https://i.imgur.com/sGJV9iI.png Some things to check are - Setting the max possible ISA speed in the AHA bios (keep increasing and running the test in the AHA bios until you get errors). I have mine set to 6.7 MB/s. - Setting …

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Re: Childhood 386sx turned up to 11

Posted on 2024-03-09, 20:26

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Added the final(?) piece to this build. I finally was able to locate a reasonably priced, good condition, Teac FD-55GFR. Also added some more pics. Power supply is a Delta 300W SFX form factor.

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Re: Childhood 386sx turned up to 11

Posted on 2024-03-06, 00:02

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Haha, that's awesome. Had no idea there was a tower version. Main differences are 2 vs 3 digit display, and keylock. I have the feeling my particular example was later in the 90s when MHz were higher and keylocks were falling out of fashion. Build quality on mine I would characterize as slightly …

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Re: Childhood 386sx turned up to 11

Posted on 2024-03-05, 04:18

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

badmojo wrote on 2024-03-05, 04:00: Most excellent! I thought I was a reasonably good father but now I see that I'm failing miserably 😂 I love that case - the tower version is my AT case of choice. Would love to see a pic. Cool that there was a tower version.

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Re: Childhood 386sx turned up to 11

Posted on 2024-03-03, 16:46

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Uploaded the drive bay to Thingiverse. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6512785

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Re: TSR to mute PC Speaker

Posted on 2024-03-03, 14:43

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Good point reenigne. Looks like this is a similar application for TANDY sound I/O port redirects. The README echos a lot of your points on the limitations of using protected mode for this. Should be easier/cleaner to go down the runtime patcher route.

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TSR to mute PC Speaker

Posted on 2024-03-02, 22:20

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I've been searching around, but can't seem to find a TSR that reroutes or otherwise mutes the PC Speaker from DOS. Wouldn't it be as simple as intercepting calls to 0x61 and sending them into the void?

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Childhood 386sx turned up to 11

Posted on 2024-03-01, 23:45

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

My first computer as a child was a 386sx-33 that my father built for me around 1993. My Dad kept pretty good records, these are the specs he listed for my machine (as of 1995). This was right before he built us new P100 machines. https://i.imgur.com/r8sN82j.png I already have a P233-MMX machine that …

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Re: PicoGUS: ISA sound card emulator with Raspberry Pi Pico (Gravis Ultrasound, AdLib, MPU-401, Tandy, CMS)

Posted on 2024-02-19, 02:21

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Just wanted to say, I'm loving my PicoGUS 2.0! Working with everything I've thrown at it on the GUS side (FDOOM/Jazz/Trackers). Also the WP32 McCake mounted on the PicoGUS wavetable header works great too (Monkey Island/LSL3 Intelligent Mode/DOOM GM/etc). System is a 386SX-40 ALi M1217-40 ( https:// …

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Re: PicoGUS: ISA sound card emulator with Raspberry Pi Pico (Gravis Ultrasound, AdLib, MPU-401, Tandy, CMS)

Posted on 2024-01-03, 02:11

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Yea, I'm not trying to use GUS and MIDI at the exact same time, but would like to switch between for various games. If the 2/9 IRQ doesn't need to be set, even for intelligent mode, should be good to go with a single PicoGUS configured on IRQ 5 (for GUS). If 2/9 does need to be set for proper MPU …

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Re: PicoGUS: ISA sound card emulator with Raspberry Pi Pico (Gravis Ultrasound, AdLib, MPU-401, Tandy, CMS)

Posted on 2024-01-02, 16:02

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I finally had time to install and play with my v2.0 from the first run. It's working well and pairs nicely with my WP32 McCake. With a USB4VC handling inputs devices, I'm up to three Pis recreating hardware on this machine. I'm hoping to make it four if that Pi IDE device ever makes it out. …

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Re: Switching and Controlling Audio on a Retro Desk

Posted on 2023-11-23, 01:19

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Do you find there's any issue of hum or static with the mini-mixers? My speaker setup is plenty loud I find, but I want clarity. ...or at least no further degradation of the sometimes questionable audio we got from old sound cards. It's only as good as its inputs. I had one particular 3.5mm to RCA …

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Re: Switching and Controlling Audio on a Retro Desk

Posted on 2023-11-20, 23:16

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

These stereo line mixers are great. https://www.rolls.com/product/MX51s ~$70 on amazon, but high quality made in the USA. I've got two daisy chained together to mix all of my retro stuff and my modern workstation.

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Re: CD Audio with a SCSI Emulator

Posted on 2023-11-11, 00:04

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I noticed that ZuluSCSI has a couple of new board types in the latest firmware update. Fingers crossed they design a board with the CDROM audio jumper and an OLED screen/encoder for selecting CDROM images. Would snag one in a second.

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Re: Native PS/2 mouse implementation for 386/486 boards using the keyboard controller

Posted on 2023-10-30, 23:54

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It is difficult for me to gauge if your reply was meant only as snappy rhetoric, or if you really want me to answer why. The objective of my question was to see if you, or anyone, had found some thinner headers, to save myself some effort, regardless of the reasons. The short of it is: no. Nothing …

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Re: AMI Color BIOS (1993 and earlier) modification in hex editor

Posted on 2023-10-29, 20:27

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks @jakethompson1 for this great guide. I used it to successfully add PS2 mouse support to my 386sx board. I decided to nerd out today and create a AMIBIOS checksum calculator in python based on your find. It can also calculate the 2-byte addition required to make the checksum equal to zero so …

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Re: Native PS/2 mouse implementation for 386/486 boards using the keyboard controller

Posted on 2023-10-29, 13:42

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

From the drawing, I see you are using machine pins for the connection to the KBC socket. Did you ever look for something with thinner leads? The only other choice I've found is something like this. http://oshchip.org/products/Flip-Pins_Product.html They are pricey though. Another option is to …

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Re: Native PS/2 mouse implementation for 386/486 boards using the keyboard controller

Posted on 2023-10-28, 14:57

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

maxtherabbit wrote on 2023-10-28, 01:33: That microid branded KBC is very aesthetic Haha, it does look pretty cool. But, so does the super slick interposer you designed! I have parts/boards to make 9 more. Trying to figure out what to do with them. I probably don't have time to build all of them, …

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Re: Native PS/2 mouse implementation for 386/486 boards using the keyboard controller

Posted on 2023-10-27, 20:20

by

by ahyeadude

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

To close this loop. I gave up on this particular 386sx motherboard and am using another. The interposer works fine, but just have problems with using ps2suppc.com and the 5434 as referenced above. I am building a GD5434 ISA and will report back if I have this issue with my 386. I flashed it to Mr. …

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