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286 USIT Athena PC

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Reply 20 of 47, by VileR

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perezx wrote on 2023-01-15, 10:36:

Yes, looks like it is a "proprietary" USIT font. Should I make images of BIOS ROMs?

Yes please. If you can dump both the system BIOS and VGA BIOS it'd be great (could be in either).
Thanks!

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Reply 21 of 47, by perezx

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VileR wrote on 2023-01-16, 09:20:
perezx wrote on 2023-01-15, 10:36:

Yes, looks like it is a "proprietary" USIT font. Should I make images of BIOS ROMs?

Yes please. If you can dump both the system BIOS and VGA BIOS it'd be great (could be in either).
Thanks!

Sorry, I was a bit busy 🙁 Can you advice any convenient tool to get the image? I am not very happy with getting chips out of the board and not sure just grabbing RAM at C8000 will do the job right.

Reply 22 of 47, by VileR

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perezx wrote on 2023-01-31, 06:56:

Sorry, I was a bit busy 🙁 Can you advice any convenient tool to get the image? I am not very happy with getting chips out of the board and not sure just grabbing RAM at C8000 will do the job right.

No worries - sure, a utility like NSSI could do it easily (free at https://www.navsoft.cz/products.htm): 'Tools' -> 'Save BIOS' and 'Save Video BIOS'.

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Reply 23 of 47, by perezx

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Oh, I finally got images of BIOSes!
And a fun message from NSSI tool 😀
download/file.php?mode=view&id=156895

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Reply 24 of 47, by VileR

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Nice! Thanks, snagged the fonts. Seems like they actually put some effort into their in-house bitmap charsets, which is more than I can say for most similar cases.

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And bonus logo art, for the discerning USIT connoisseur's hawt avatar action:

__USITlogo.png
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Reply 25 of 47, by perezx

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Thank you for the job done! Really interesting 'e' and some other characters which I didn't notice at first.
Shoud I really put this logo on avatar? 😀

BTW, I was surprised how smooth does Wolf3D run on this machine... I knew its a realmode game but thought it is mainly for 386

Reply 26 of 47, by Jo22

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Seems to be more myth than true. Most of 8080-based "home PCs" used TV sets as a display. 8088/8086 which were "professional" an […]
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Jo22 wrote on 2023-01-07, 08:04:

Another thing I read online was, that Hercules Monochrome graphics
was apparently very popular in the early-mid 90s, not VGA.

Seems to be more myth than true. Most of 8080-based "home PCs" used TV sets as a display.
8088/8086 which were "professional" and "industrial" almost totally relied on CGA and included a bunch of remarked US chips.Check this one for example 😀
269-odo5yvPq0L8.jpg

Hi again, I've just found the source that I remembered this from. It was in the comments of that "Super CGA" video..

I was born and grew up in ex soviet union. And it's super funny how the timeline was all skewed for us. Here even in the early 9 […]
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I was born and grew up in ex soviet union. And it's super funny how the timeline was all skewed for us.
Here even in the early 90s computers with VGA were super rare. When the soviet union collapsed they began popping up.
But then again Hercules graphics were super popular. Most all 'home brew' I remember ran either hercules monochrome mode or CGA colour mode.
When I was used to hercules graphics CGA looked a bit like a step backwards because of the lower resolution.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNsK_F4JlG4

The CGA thing is something that I remembered independently of this Hercules-related comment..
- I can't judge about the comment, however. I wasn't there, after all. I just re-watched this video a few minutes ago by accident. 😅

However, in an 1980s issue of German CHIP magazine, there were photos of eastern PCs in school/university running Norton Commander and Tetris.
These PCs looked both very futuristic and low-tec, simultanously. The text resolution on the screens were blocky, CGA-like, if my memory serves me right.
So it made sense to me that Hercules was a logical upgrade. Hercules could even emulate CGA, due to its second video page being in CGA space (Page 1).

CGA was also compatible with conventional TV technology (15KHz, 50/60 Hz),
so in theory it could work with primitive video monitors and modded TVs.

An NTSC video signal can be displayed on a PAL/SECAM screen in monochrome,
if the the V-HOLD knbow is as adjusted accordingly.

By-passing the TV-tuner to make yourself your own video monitor wasn't exactly new,
it was even mentioned in the manual of the Robot Model 400 SSTV Converter from the 1970s.
It warned about the problem with the hot chassis, if I remember correctly.. 🤔

The German Nixdorf PC (-made in 1985, afaik-) that I have here has CGA on-board, too.
The RCA / Cinch connector does display a monochrome video signal only, no color-bust signal.
Sadly, I have no manual. Would be cool for checking the hidden dip switches. Could be that the PC secretly has Hercules mode, too. 😁

VileR wrote on 2023-01-10, 18:44:

I don't know, seems like there were plenty of USSR/Eastern Bloc CGA clones with Cyrillic text, which isn't less readable than English/Latin (examples: https://github.com/viler-int10h/vga-text-mode … UGENC1D.F16.png, https://github.com/viler-int10h/vga-text-mode … AT-RMCD.F16.png)

Same for stuff like Greek or Hebrew; even Arabic can be quite readable. Of course logographic CJK scripts are a whole other story.

You're thinking of RGBI monitors likely. But 80x25 is hardly readable even on a composite monitor or colour TV, even for Latin characters..
Someone who still can decipher Greek or Hebrew on such a CGA display must be a trained native speaker, I suppose. 😁

However, I admit, a true green/amber monitor with a single tube ray gun is kind of okay for CGA (via RCA/Cinch output) .
- Pure VBS without any color information (CCIR instead of PAL, RS-170 instead of NTSC) was something akin to the RGB of the monochrome era.

In fact, there are analogue monochrome video monitors with over 1000 lines.
They use BNC connector instead of RCA, however. The main application is or was video surveillance, I think.

Edit: A few edits (at home on PC).
Edit: Pictures added.

Edit: I'm sorry for this little off-topic small-talk here, but I felt I should mention it, so I did.
I hope you don't mind - I seriously didn't think of posting in this thread until I watched that "Super CGA" video again.

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"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 27 of 47, by Jo22

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perezx wrote on 2023-02-10, 11:15:

BTW, I was surprised how smooth does Wolf3D run on this machine... I knew its a realmode game but thought it is mainly for 386

The 286 can be quite a powerful processor, especially if it's running without bottlenecks.

While I don't have an USIT PC at hand, I do have another quick 286 PC with 10 MHz and no waitstates.

This PC is amazingly quick; I noticed because it can nicely run an old Mig-29 flight simulator that I used to play as kid.
-> It' this one, if you like to check it out: https://mobygames.com/game/dos/mig-29-fulcrum_

Edit: Just noticed.. I didn't meant to bring up a stereotype here, sorry. I really had the game back then.
It was on a deciated CD-ROM that was part of a multimedia bundle that I got in the 90s, along with a PAS16+CD-ROM drive kit.
The version I had was the 16 colour version with a German manual in the form of a MS Write document (Windows 3.1 *.WRI file).
Must have been a beta version or something. It wasn't until years later that I found out that our army got old MIG-29s from GDR, actually.. 🤯

However, back in the day, this one game ran more like a slide-show on my 286-12 for some reason. 😕
I had to use my father's 386DX-40 PC with Trident 8900 VGA. But that way I could play on a 20" monitor, at least! 😁

Old 286: 12 MHz, Phoenix BIOS (OEM), AT VGA Wonder 16, 4MB RAM
New 286: 10 Mhz, Phoenix BIOS, OAK VGA, 1 MB RAM

Edit: Speaking of performance.. Did you have had time to check some of the Paradise utilities yet ?
There's an utility that copies the VGA BIOS into RAM, which could improve performance a lot.
It's essentially for those people who don't have a Shadow Memory option in CMOS Setup ("Video BIOS cacheable"in newer Setups).

Edit: If this thread was essentially finished/solved alreay, then my apologies for interrupting here.
I can delete these two posts no problem, if you like. It was essentially just me thinking out loud. 😅

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 28 of 47, by VileR

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Jo22 wrote on 2023-02-14, 16:23:

You're thinking of RGBI monitors likely. But 80x25 is hardly readable even on a composite monitor or colour TV, even for Latin characters..
Someone who still can decipher Greek or Hebrew on such a CGA display must be a trained native speaker, I suppose. 😁

However, I admit, a true green/amber monitor with a single tube ray gun is kind of okay for CGA (via RCA/Cinch output) .

Yeah, naturally I wasn't talking about color composite monitors/TVs, because 80-column text was never meant to be shown on these types of display. IBM clearly stated as much in the CGA specs (https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_ibmpcca … ge/n47/mode/2up):

- "The low-resolution alphanumeric mode" (40x25) supports "home color televisions or low-resolution monitors."
- "The high-resolution alphanumeric mode" (80x25) supports "the IBM Color Display or other color monitor with direct-drive capability." It also supports "a black-and-white composite-video monitor."

And that's not limited to CGA or IBM... other contemporary machines were either meant for use with TVs (without 80-column capability at all), *or* if higher-resolution text was supported, they provided TTL or B&W composite output for it. For historical perspective, it should be stressed that 80-col text was never a relevant use-case on home TVs, and that conventional wisdom was always aware of it.

On the other hand, a B&W composite monitor is perfectly adequate for 80-column text (e.g. Apple III, IBM 5155, and so on). In fact, if you're comparing monochrome displays only, I don't think there was much of a difference between composite and TTL/'direct-drive' monitors at CGA resolutions.

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Reply 29 of 47, by perezx

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Jo22 wrote on 2023-02-14, 17:23:

it can nicely run an old Mig-29 flight simulator that I used to play as kid.
-> It' this one, if you like to check it out: https://mobygames.com/game/dos/mig-29-fulcrum_

No-no, this should be an "office PC" with text processor and database, no gaming! 😀

Jo22 wrote on 2023-02-14, 17:23:
Edit: Speaking of performance.. Did you have had time to check some of the Paradise utilities yet ? There's an utility that copi […]
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Edit: Speaking of performance.. Did you have had time to check some of the Paradise utilities yet ?
There's an utility that copies the VGA BIOS into RAM, which could improve performance a lot.
It's essentially for those people who don't have a Shadow Memory option in CMOS Setup ("Video BIOS cacheable"in newer Setups).

Edit: If this thread was essentially finished/solved alreay, then my apologies for interrupting here.
I can delete these two posts no problem, if you like. It was essentially just me thinking out loud. 😅

Nice idea about VGA BIOS Shadowing. I am thinking of 4Mb RAM and DesqView for true "workhorse", eh?
And well, this thread isn't finished, it is just at the very beginning 😀

Reply 30 of 47, by ramon

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I came across this post and while I have been “lurking” around here at vogons; this is my very first post.

I got a Tandon 286/n (not mine eBay listing by the way) and it has the same mainboard as your USIT Athena PC!
It’s a:
U.S. INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES, INC. ATHENA SMT-216LP
Or a:
Western Digital WD286-LPM

But I think they are basically the same mainboard with a Faraday Chipset (I have to spin up my Win98 machine to look it up in my Micro House Encyclopedia for the exact chipset).

If you have any questions, let me know, I’ve been playing a lot with this PC 😀

If I may, I got a question for you:
Mine has an AMD 286 @ 12MHz CPU, I ordered a NOS 16MHz one on eBay and I was wondering what the jumper settings are that your board is using.
According to the jumper settings in the manual, the settings for Jumper W9 are the same for 12 and 16MHz CPU’s (pins 1 & 2 closed), but I suspect that one of the “ Factory configured - do not alter” jumpers, W5, W15 or W17, need to change for a 16MHz CPU.

Tandon 286/n 286-12 | 4MB | PVGA1A-JK | ES1869F
Highscreen Pentium 233 MMX | 64MB | S3 ViRGE/DX | Voodoo I | AWE64
AOpen K6-2+ 450 | 512MB | GF MX2 400 64MB | SB Live!

Reply 31 of 47, by ramon

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Found the answer (I think) on my question thanks to this phot from perezx:

perezx wrote on 2022-12-14, 07:58:
https://www.vogons.org/download/file.php?id=152648&mode=view%5D […]
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file.php?id=152648&mode=view%5D

Zoomed in:

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My board has a 25MHz Crystal there:

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So it seems that I need to find me a 32MHz crystal and replace it 😀

Tandon 286/n 286-12 | 4MB | PVGA1A-JK | ES1869F
Highscreen Pentium 233 MMX | 64MB | S3 ViRGE/DX | Voodoo I | AWE64
AOpen K6-2+ 450 | 512MB | GF MX2 400 64MB | SB Live!

Reply 32 of 47, by ramon

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Maybe a bit talking to myself here, but if anyone is searching or interested:

Filename
MM.ZIP
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10.73 KiB
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43 downloads
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EMS driver for the WDC FE3021 memory controller
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Fair use/fair dealing exception

Not that I get any expended memory on my Tandon 286/n (probably it needs to be set in the bios, but there isn't an option for it), but maybe it is useful for someone with the same board, it supports LIM 4.0.

Filename
external setup for Phoenix BIOS.zip
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External setup for Phoenix BIOS
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D341FC6D-BE7A-420B-B14B-BF5553AE9C4C.jpeg
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external setup for Phoenix BIOS
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BIOS
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EDIT: added pictures.

Tandon 286/n 286-12 | 4MB | PVGA1A-JK | ES1869F
Highscreen Pentium 233 MMX | 64MB | S3 ViRGE/DX | Voodoo I | AWE64
AOpen K6-2+ 450 | 512MB | GF MX2 400 64MB | SB Live!

Reply 33 of 47, by perezx

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I think, nice idea would be to insert 4Mb (4x1Mb) RAM, engage EMS and DesQView, running simultaneously dBase and ChiWriter, for example.
But now I am too busy with radiation biology 🙁

ramon wrote on 2023-03-16, 01:36:

I got a Tandon 286/n (not mine eBay listing by the way) and it has the same mainboard as your USIT Athena PC!

Greetings 😀
Does your PC have and HDD? What type is it and how is it mounted?

Reply 34 of 47, by ramon

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perezx wrote on 2023-04-18, 07:03:

I think, nice idea would be to insert 4Mb (4x1Mb) RAM, engage EMS and DesQView, running simultaneously dBase and ChiWriter, for example.

I do have 4MB RAM in it, I haven’t got EMS to work, except for with EMM286, if you do find out to get it natively to work , please let me know!

perezx wrote on 2023-04-18, 07:03:

Does your PC have and HDD? What type is it and how is it mounted?

It had a harddrive, although not the original one, it was an IDE drive of 540MB, the bios is confusing as the bios states MFM or RLL, IDE is not listed.

I replaced it with a Compact Flash and used EZ-Drive to make it work (which also worked with the real IDE drive). The settings you see in my bios screenshot (MFM type 9) is what I’m actually using with the CF and which EZ-Drive want you to configure, you can get it here:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/western-digital.html

Tandon 286/n 286-12 | 4MB | PVGA1A-JK | ES1869F
Highscreen Pentium 233 MMX | 64MB | S3 ViRGE/DX | Voodoo I | AWE64
AOpen K6-2+ 450 | 512MB | GF MX2 400 64MB | SB Live!

Reply 35 of 47, by ramon

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By the way, here is my Tandon 286/n with the same motherboard as your PC:
Tandon 286/n

Tandon 286/n 286-12 | 4MB | PVGA1A-JK | ES1869F
Highscreen Pentium 233 MMX | 64MB | S3 ViRGE/DX | Voodoo I | AWE64
AOpen K6-2+ 450 | 512MB | GF MX2 400 64MB | SB Live!

Reply 36 of 47, by perezx

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ramon wrote on 2023-04-18, 07:53:

I do have 4MB RAM in it, I haven’t got EMS to work, except for with EMM286, if you do find out to get it natively to work , please let me know!

Bad news... I expected this relatively modernboard to support EMS 4.0. At least, it is said to support up to 8Mb (perhaps, just 4Mb, Iam not sure). Right now I dont have 1Mb or 2 Mb SIMMs.

ramon wrote on 2023-04-18, 07:53:

It had a harddrive, although not the original one, it was an IDE drive of 540MB, the bios is confusing as the bios states MFM or RLL, IDE is not listed.

I am very surprised and put in doubt by the short IDE cable which was in my Athena (photos on 1st page). Assuming these days HDDs were at least 3.5" full height - I cant imagine how it was mounted. Now it runs with CF, of course, but I dont like this "incorrect" solution.

Reply 37 of 47, by ramon

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perezx wrote on 2023-04-19, 16:57:

Bad news... I expected this relatively modernboard to support EMS 4.0.

It does support EMS, well at least the WDC FE3021-LR supports it: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/components … e/04_FE3021.pdf

LIM standard EMS expanded memory hardware (supports EMS 4.0 multi-tasking)

The drivers can be found in this topic:
Re: EMS driver needed for Dell 210/FE3021; mm.sys

But I haven’t got them to work.. yet… the right driver doesn’t give an error that it doesn’t support the hardware (the wrong one does), but it says that there is no EMS available.
file.php?id=160083&mode=view

perezx wrote on 2023-04-19, 16:57:

I am very surprised and put in doubt by the short IDE cable which was in my Athena (photos on 1st page). Assuming these days HDDs were at least 3.5" full height - I cant imagine how it was mounted. Now it runs with CF, of course, but I dont like this "incorrect" solution.

Maybe there should be a harddrive carry to the side then the short cable would make sense, but yes it is very short 😅

Tandon 286/n 286-12 | 4MB | PVGA1A-JK | ES1869F
Highscreen Pentium 233 MMX | 64MB | S3 ViRGE/DX | Voodoo I | AWE64
AOpen K6-2+ 450 | 512MB | GF MX2 400 64MB | SB Live!

Reply 38 of 47, by Surrat

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The Dell System 210 uses this same motherboard.
Dell bios of course, and they set theirs to only run at 12mhz with 6mhz bus.
The white paper on this Faraday chipset says it supports up to 20mhz 286 cpu's, and runs the ram at 0.7 wait states.
My Dell 210 has a dead board, but the Athena you have here should be a very fast 286.
USIT also made a 25mhz 286 system, would love to find one of those!

Faraday was bought by western digital, so to find the info on this chipset, search for the WD FE3600 chipset technical manual.

OK, after verifying pics, the Dell 210 version of the motherboard is a little different, but its obviously based on the same board.

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Reply 39 of 47, by Surrat

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Woohoo!

I scored a USIT Athena too 😁

This one has the hard drive carrier so you can see how its arranged.
We both have the same BIOS revision.
The Dallas battery is dead, but I have a new one ready from Glitchworks, just not with me at the moment.
For the EMS memory, just go to the second bios screen (press PageUP) and set it to enabled, then how much extended ram you want to use for EMS.

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