Vast majority of early clones were 8088
Some were 8086
Faster came later

rmay635703 wrote:

Vast majority of early clones were 8088
Some were 8086
Faster came later

So the ones I see with NEC V20s are rarer? Better/worse/the same?

Most clones ran at something faster than the stock 4.77MHz. 7.16, 8, 9.54 and 10MHz were all pretty common speeds. Some even overclocked to 12MHz.

walterg74 wrote:

rmay635703 wrote:

Vast majority of early clones were 8088
Some were 8086
Faster came later

So the ones I see with NEC V20s are rarer? Better/worse/the same?

The NEC V20 is a 8088 clone. It is a bit faster than a real 8088, and very compatible. IMO I think real 8088 is a safer bet. You can still buy them on ebay for about 20$, in a variety of speed ratings.

When it comes to old games from the early 80's, you want a 4.77mhz processor like the original XT. Lots of faster PCs are clock switchable to that speed.

Is it a clone, or a clean room design?

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Is it a clone, or a clean room design?

It's not a clone, as in: it is a different architecture.
Whether or not it is clean room, I don't know.
NEC was also a second-source for the original 8088 and other CPUs, so they had access to Intel's designs.
The V20 is more or less an 80188 stripped to work as an 8088 replacement. It has the extended instructionset, and also has some performance improvements.

In my experience the V20 is reasonably rare. Most clones will have a regular 8088.

mothergoose729 wrote:

walterg74 wrote:

rmay635703 wrote:

Vast majority of early clones were 8088
Some were 8086
Faster came later

So the ones I see with NEC V20s are rarer? Better/worse/the same?

The NEC V20 is a 8088 clone. It is a bit faster than a real 8088, and very compatible. IMO I think real 8088 is a safer bet. You can still buy them on ebay for about 20$, in a variety of speed ratings.

When it comes to old games from the early 80's, you want a 4.77mhz processor like the original XT. Lots of faster PCs are clock switchable to that speed.

Are you talking about just the cpu for $20?

walterg74 wrote:

Are you talking about just the cpu for $20?

New (NOS) 8088s, 8088-2s both intel and other brands cost like 1,5 USD.
https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/439126.html
V20s are a bit more expensive - around 11 USD.
https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/1869159.html

UT Source is just one place where they are available - I can source them locally in Poland for the same price.

So I doubt he is talking about CPUs

Most common are 8088 and Nec V20, 80186/80188 and 80286 XT Builds were also avaible and not to forget 80186 and Nec V30 and V40 CPU, and the Soviet Equivalent K1810VM86 and K1810VM88.

A K1810VM88 is fully 8088 compatible as far as i know.
So you could swap them.

there were also heaps of legit second source 8088's (siemens, commodore/mostek, amd etc)

HanJammer wrote:

New (NOS) 8088s, 8088-2s both intel and other brands cost like 1,5 USD. https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/439126.html V20s are a bi […]
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walterg74 wrote:

Are you talking about just the cpu for $20?

New (NOS) 8088s, 8088-2s both intel and other brands cost like 1,5 USD.
https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/439126.html
V20s are a bit more expensive - around 11 USD.
https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/1869159.html

UT Source is just one place where they are available - I can source them locally in Poland for the same price.

So I doubt he is talking about CPUs

Nice, I had only looked on ebay. I was referring to CPU, but clearly that is a better place to get them.

mothergoose729 wrote:

HanJammer wrote:

New (NOS) 8088s, 8088-2s both intel and other brands cost like 1,5 USD. https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/439126.html V20s are a bi […]
Show full quote

walterg74 wrote:

Are you talking about just the cpu for $20?

New (NOS) 8088s, 8088-2s both intel and other brands cost like 1,5 USD.
https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/439126.html
V20s are a bit more expensive - around 11 USD.
https://www.utsource.net/itm/p/1869159.html

UT Source is just one place where they are available - I can source them locally in Poland for the same price.

So I doubt he is talking about CPUs

Nice, I had only looked on ebay. I was referring to CPU, but clearly that is a better place to get them.

Yes, that is better.

In any case, the ones I can get here are about $35 but for the whole motherboard/cpu/RAM. And another one for $40-$45 but also including floppy controller, floppy, compatible vga and keyboard

walterg74 wrote:

In any case, the ones I can get here are about $35 but for the whole motherboard/cpu/RAM. And another one for $40-$45 but also including floppy controller, floppy, compatible vga and keyboard

Nice! I had no idea you could by new XT parts for so cheap. Is that with 640k of RAM or 1mb?

Another essential upgrade IMO is the XT-IDE for a CF card. Those usually run another 50$.

I bought an NuXT board personally. It is not cheap, but it has so many great features and I really like it.

mothergoose729 wrote:

Nice! I had no idea you could by new XT parts for so cheap. Is that with 640k of RAM or 1mb? […]
Show full quote

walterg74 wrote:

In any case, the ones I can get here are about $35 but for the whole motherboard/cpu/RAM. And another one for $40-$45 but also including floppy controller, floppy, compatible vga and keyboard

Nice! I had no idea you could by new XT parts for so cheap. Is that with 640k of RAM or 1mb?

Another essential upgrade IMO is the XT-IDE for a CF card. Those usually run another 50$.

I bought an NuXT board personally. It is not cheap, but it has so many great features and I really like it.

Well it’s only the occasional one or two that appears in our version of “ebay”. It’s a weird place... sometimes things that in the US are dirt cheap are way expensive, and the other way around too...

Just purchased a pair of 286 cpu/motherboard/ram combos, one with a 20 MHz cpu the other with a 25 MHz cpu, one with 1MB ram the other with 2MB, and one with multi-io comtroller the other woth that plus an ISA VGA card, and paid rouhly $24 each.

I remember seeing a lot of those last gasp tiny XT boards coming witth V20s. V30s (and 8086 based boards to put them in) were rarer. Anyone have a V40? I don't think I every saw a desktop board with one, just a couple of laptops.