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286 addon cards for XT

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First post, by mothergoose729

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I ran into a video on youtube of someone using an Orchid tiny turbo 286 on an IBM XT. It uses an 8 bit ISA slot, and then it has a cable with the pinout of an 8088 that goes into the chip socket. With a toggle switch on the I/0 shield, you can toggle between an onboard AMD 8088 and a 286. It benchmarked at roughly 91% of the speed of an AT, which is blazing fast for an XT class machine.

https://youtu.be/NXVWLBO905s?t=1868

On my particular board I can toggle between 4.77, 7.16, and 9.55mhz on the processor. If I had one of these 286 cards, would I be able to multiply the base 8mhz by 1.5 and 2x if the CPU is capable?

I did an ebay search for one of these cards and came up empty. I guess they are rare. I was wondering if similar addon cards like this exist? Specifically cards like the Orchid that can toggle between an 8088 and a much faster processor.

Also, does anyone have any idea how much these cards are worth these days? It would help to know a ball park number when shopping or bidding on ebay.

Reply 1 of 5, by BinaryDemon

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I think the CPU would run at the speed determined by its ISA card and changing the motherboard cpu speed would only effect the speed it communicates with other peripherals.

I’ve seen them on eBay priced >$200

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Reply 3 of 5, by Anonymous Coward

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I really like CPU upgrades, but these cards are borderline SBCs. I once owned an Inboard PC 386, but I got rid of it because I felt it was stinking up my XT. Also, not all of these upgrades will work in fast XTs. I think the Inboard for example was only good for a 4.77MHz 8088. Some of the others can work at up to 10MHz in either an 8088 or 8086 socket. I think the SOTA ones were the most flexible, but you'd have to read the manuals. In my opinion the 386 upgrades aren't really worth it, because they normally don't come with extra memory, and if there is the option it's always on an impossible to find proprietary expansion module. Without extra memory the upgrade is essentially just acting as a fast 8088 or V20 (because you can use 286 instructions).

I think the most interesting of all these upgrades are the ones based on the 80186. I think Micro$hit made one.

"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 4 of 5, by cyclone3d

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There were a few SOTA ones on eBay that sold a few days ago for $50 each.

I saw another one the other day by a different company but can't seem to find it now.

There is a Microsoft MACH 20 on eBay right now for $225
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Working-Microsoft-Ma … de/292649718036

Here is some psyco wanting over $4,300 for one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/80286-Accelerator-Ca … 87/323807632065

Here is a page with a list of a bunch of the different ones available back in the day:
https://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue1 … RATOR_CARDS.php

Last edited by cyclone3d on 2019-10-03, 05:35. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 5 of 5, by mothergoose729

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cyclone3d wrote:
There were a few SOTA ones on eBay that sold a few days ago for $50 each. […]
Show full quote

There were a few SOTA ones on eBay that sold a few days ago for $50 each.

I saw another pone the other day by a different company but can't seem to find it now.

There is a Microsoft MACH 20 on eBay right now for $225
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Working-Microsoft-Ma … de/292649718036

Here is some psyco wanting over $4,300 for one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/80286-Accelerator-Ca … 87/323807632065

Here is a page with a list of a bunch of the different ones available back in the day:
https://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue1 … RATOR_CARDS.php

You're a good person

Anonymous Coward wrote:

I really like CPU upgrades, but these cards are borderline SBCs. I once owned an Inboard PC 386, but I got rid of it because I felt it was stinking up my XT. Also, not all of these upgrades will work in fast XTs. I think the Inboard for example was only good for a 4.77MHz 8088. Some of the others can work at up to 10MHz in either an 8088 or 8086 socket. I think the SOTA ones were the most flexible, but you'd have to read the manuals. In my opinion the 386 upgrades aren't really worth it, because they normally don't come with extra memory, and if there is the option it's always on an impossible to find proprietary expansion module. Without extra memory the upgrade is essentially just acting as a fast 8088 or V20 (because you can use 286 instructions).

I think the most interesting of all these upgrades are the ones based on the 80186. I think Micro$hit made one.

Nice, thanks! I have a different opinion about it... trying to conserve space.

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