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VL/EISA SMP Pentium (turbocharged)

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Reply 40 of 81, by 386_junkie

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Did you find what the extra PSU socket was for?

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Reply 41 of 81, by Anonymous Coward

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Nope. I would assume it's for providing extra current. The board seems to work in dual configuration without it. I would assume that extra plug only needs to be filled if you're running a lot of full length EISA expansion cards.

I believe I one time I used a multimeter on the plug to see where the pins go. I think it was just 12V/5V and GND.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 42 of 81, by Anonymous Coward

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I recently bought an Acer M5 backplane + Single P54C Acer chipset CPU card. In 1994, Acer was selling systems based on both of these boards. J3 is VL + EISA, and the M5 is PCI + EISA. They both look similar, but they they each take their own CPU cards (different connectors).

I found a partial manual for a computer that uses the M5 board. I think it may have been from NCR. Anyway, the M5 board has the extra power connector just like the J3 board, and in the manual it mentions that there are two power supplies available. The basic one is 200W and just uses the two standard power connectors. The higher end offering is 350W, and has the extra plug that goes into the mystery socket. Still don't know what exactly the extra plug is for, butI think the 350W power supply was for servers that ran a lot of SCSI hard drives.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 43 of 81, by Intel486dx33

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Nice, What do you need to get one of these EISA motheboard to work ?

What type of CPU works best ?
What type of ram ?
What wattage PSU and what type of connector ?
What cards do you need ?
Video ?
Sound ?
Network ?
Do you need a SCSI card if so which one ?

What type of EISA motherboards should you stay away from ?

Reply 44 of 81, by Anonymous Coward

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There's nothing too special about getting these boards going. They are OEM, but they will fit into standard AT case provided yours has holes for dual PS/2 headers. Or you can just use an ATX case and a custom back plate. The power connector is standard except for the auxiliary one for the 350W power supply. I've been using standard AT or ATX power supplies with an adapter and it seems to work fine.

The only card that is needed is the proprietary CPU card, which I have. RAM is standard 72-pin FPM. IF you want to use the EISA slots, you need the EISA config file for Acer M5 boards, which is still available. Any standard video, sound or nic will work fine. SCSI is already integrated into the motherboard, so you don't need to use a separate card. Strangely the M5 model supports wide SCSI too, but requires an adapter which I don't have.

The only EISA boards you should stay away from are those that are missing EISA config files, or proprietary ones if you lack the matching chassis. Don't bother with HiNT chipset boards because they don't support the full EISA specification. I've also been told some of the early EISA boards with intel chipset might be buggy.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 45 of 81, by Intel486dx33

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I was looking at this one. I think it is an HP or Digital. and I think it has an onboard Pentium 150mhz CPU.

What do I need to get it working ?

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Reply 46 of 81, by Anonymous Coward

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I don't think this board is even x86. I think it uses an Alpha CPU.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 47 of 81, by GL1zdA

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Intel486dx33 wrote:

I was looking at this one. I think it is an HP or Digital. and I think it has an onboard Pentium 150mhz CPU.

What do I need to get it working ?

This is a DECpc AXP/150 board:
http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/alf/axp150/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECpc_AXP_150

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Reply 48 of 81, by Intel486dx33

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GL1zdA wrote:
This is a DECpc AXP/150 board: http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/alf/axp150/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECpc_AXP_150 […]
Show full quote
Intel486dx33 wrote:

I was looking at this one. I think it is an HP or Digital. and I think it has an onboard Pentium 150mhz CPU.

What do I need to get it working ?

This is a DECpc AXP/150 board:
http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/alf/axp150/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECpc_AXP_150

Oh, That is even better. More rare. I always wanted to have a DEC-Alpha.
What do you think I need in order to get this working and what OS has built in drivers that works best with this motherboard ?

Reply 49 of 81, by GL1zdA

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Intel486dx33 wrote:
GL1zdA wrote:
This is a DECpc AXP/150 board: http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/alf/axp150/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECpc_AXP_150 […]
Show full quote
Intel486dx33 wrote:

I was looking at this one. I think it is an HP or Digital. and I think it has an onboard Pentium 150mhz CPU.

What do I need to get it working ?

This is a DECpc AXP/150 board:
http://john.ccac.rwth-aachen.de:8000/alf/axp150/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DECpc_AXP_150

Oh, That is even better. More rare. I always wanted to have a DEC-Alpha.
What do you think I need in order to get this working and what OS has built in drivers that works best with this motherboard ?

If you want Windows NT 3.1, 3.5, 3.51 and 4.0 will work. OpenVMS and Digital Unix might work, but I'm not sure. You probably have to start with the PSU. I also think only few VGAs are supported.

Last edited by GL1zdA on 2019-08-28, 19:36. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 51 of 81, by GL1zdA

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Intel486dx33 wrote:

Do you need a special boot disk for this to work or will it boot off a NT 4.0 cdrom ?

It will boot from an NT 4.0 CD-ROM. You will have to boot the CD-ROM via the ARC console (the Alpha counterpart of the BIOS). Please, start a new topic for discussing this board, since we are derailing this thread.

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Reply 52 of 81, by Caluser2000

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Exellent AC.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 53 of 81, by AndrewK2685

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Hey, have you tried the onboard connectors of the J3 Motherboard?
I have one with the 486 CPU board and trying to get it working.
For some reason only the floppy connector seems to be working - no IDE, Serial, Parallel [Unfortunatelly mine is without the SCSI 🙁 ]
I searched on BIOS and the Configuration Utility but couldn't find a way to enable them anywhere.
I'll probably try to flash the BIOS with the one here later on.
Also the motherboard is very picky with RAM modules (I tried several working ones and it accepts just one I have - but at least its working]

By the way if you are interested there is a guy selling the 486 CPU board on eBay

Reply 54 of 81, by Anonymous Coward

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Actually, I don't think I've ever used the onboard drive controllers on the J3. My board actually has dual 50 pin SCSI connectors, but I already have an Adaptec AHA 2742W wide SCSI controller which provides twice the bandwidth, therefore I was never curious to test the onboard options. I recommend just using an external controller if you are having problems.

I haven't had any issues with memory module compatibility, but I didn't test many types. I normally use Kingston 32MB 60ns FPM parity modules, which are double sided. But I have also tested 64MB 6ons FPM parity modules which were made by either HP or Compaq. You should try to avoid EDO modules without parity, and avoid the ones that have unusual memory IC configurations (like the two chip variety).

I've seen that 486 module many times. It's probably been up for sale on eBay for almost a decade. I already have two 486 boards with EISA slots, so I don't really need another one. Thanks for the heads up though.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 55 of 81, by AndrewK2685

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Thanks for the reply
Yes, I was thinking about an IO/EIDE card, but I'd like to use the second VLB.
The fact that neither the ports are showing up is curious.
If you happen to test them please let me know.
-You also have the IDE connector on the board apart from the SCSI ones, right?
-Also, have you seen any relevant option either on BIOS or CU?

Yes, for the RAM I tried only parity FPM modules (most were 60ns) and just one worked (16MB).

Reply 56 of 81, by Anonymous Coward

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The onboard SCSI is wired up to the EISA bus, so it does infact appear in the ECU. Not sure how the IDE connector is hooked up, but I would guess VLB in which case it should just work like on a normal 486 board. There should definitely be a screen in the BIOS for setting up the harddrive...and most BIOSes of that vintage have an auto-detect feature. If I have time I can have a look.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 57 of 81, by AndrewK2685

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Thanks
Also, I came across this post today about another board
that has the same IO as the J3 (Acer V10) - and also
same connectors.
It seems it might use different pinouts for the IO.
I wonder if this is the case for the J3 as well (and the IDE).

http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?450 … da02a6de3bf3ec4

also, checking a post from this board here, it also reports zero serials (but finds the parallel - though it has bios checksum errors)
https://www.greenwaxb.com/index.php?main_page … ducts_id=106311

I wonder if I can find the pinouts of the IO chip anywhere.

Reply 59 of 81, by AndrewK2685

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fry35 wrote on 2020-05-01, 19:57:

I have also a Acer J3 board with the original serial and parallel cables. I can check them and post here the 3 pinouts.

That would be awesome thank you!!
Does your board reports the ports?
Also is the IDE interface working?