Need help identifying 386/40 motherboard \ VOGONS

Need help identifying 386/40 motherboard

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-11-26, 00:53

jasa1063 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 553
Joined: 2013-01-31, 20:34
Location: Minnesota

I just got this 386/40 computer and would like to know the manufacturer of the motherboard. I suspect it is an American Megatrends 386 motherboard.

It has MB-1333/40 MKA-F Ver:2 printed on it. The BIOS ID string is 30-200-001223-00101111-111192-MXIC-F and the model shows as MB-1340MKA-F on the post screen. The closest match I get is a MB-1333/40 AEQ-K/AEG-K which is an American Megatrends 386 motherboard. Any help would be appreciated.

Attachments

Filename

IMG_0774a.jpg

File size

723.44 KiB

Views

854 views

File comment

386/40 motherboard

File license

Public domain

Reply 1 of 15, by quicknick

Posted on 2020-11-26, 01:17

quicknick Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 634
Joined: 2017-10-30, 23:53
Location: RO

Possibly Biostar, judging by the logos on the BIOS and KBC stickers.

Reply 2 of 15, by Horun

Posted on 2020-11-26, 02:32

Horun Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 5967
Joined: 2019-09-19, 02:19
Location: USA

quicknick wrote on 2020-11-26, 01:17:

Possibly Biostar, judging by the logos on the BIOS and KBC stickers.

Agree ! The AMI BIOS id is for Biostar and the board logo's/locations also suggest Biostar.

jasa1063 wrote on 2020-11-26, 00:53:

The closest match I get is a MB-1333/40 AEQ-K/AEG-K which is an American Megatrends 386 motherboard. Any help would be appreciated.

the MB-1333/40AEQ has cache where your board does not, will look deeper after work tomorrow. Yes have to work on Turkey Day but hopefully a short day.
<removed complaint

Spoiler

that Gov workers are underworked and overpaid by our tax dollars but they do not care

Using more descriptive words> 😁

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 3 of 15, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-11-26, 02:48

jasa1063 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 553
Joined: 2013-01-31, 20:34
Location: Minnesota

Thanks for the help so far and the board is working well. I just want to get a sound card and math coprocessor and I am all set.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Reply 4 of 15, by Deksor

Posted on 2020-11-26, 08:46

Deksor Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 3388
Joined: 2016-06-07, 14:37

I confirm this is a biostar.
Unfortunately it's not in our database ... http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/result/?name=1333

Would you like to help us adding it ?

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 5 of 15, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-11-26, 14:32

jasa1063 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 553
Joined: 2013-01-31, 20:34
Location: Minnesota

Deksor wrote on 2020-11-26, 08:46:

I confirm this is a biostar.
Unfortunately it's not in our database ... http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/result/?name=1333

Would you like to help us adding it ?

Sure, let me know what you need.

Reply 6 of 15, by Anonymous Coward

Posted on 2020-11-26, 16:10

Anonymous Coward Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 4821
Joined: 2008-03-20, 05:37
Location: Shandong, China

It has cache. A small one integrated into the chipset.

"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 7 of 15, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-11-26, 17:50

jasa1063 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 553
Joined: 2013-01-31, 20:34
Location: Minnesota

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-11-26, 16:10:

It has cache. A small one integrated into the chipset.

I figured as much, because when I disabled the external cache in the BIOS setup, I got a noticeable drop in performance. I was going to post that information, but thanks for confirming what I found out. My guess is it probably has 8K-32K cache built in.

Reply 8 of 15, by Deksor

Posted on 2020-11-26, 19:57

Deksor Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 3388
Joined: 2016-06-07, 14:37

You can probably measure that using speedsys 😁

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 9 of 15, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-11-26, 22:36

jasa1063 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 553
Joined: 2013-01-31, 20:34
Location: Minnesota

Deksor wrote on 2020-11-26, 19:57:

You can probably measure that using speedsys 😁

SpeedSys & CacheChk both report a cache size of 8K.

Reply 10 of 15, by jasa1063

Posted on 2020-11-27, 01:07

jasa1063 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 553
Joined: 2013-01-31, 20:34
Location: Minnesota

The more I research this board, the more interesting it becomes. I can't find much information on the MACRONIX MX83C305FC/MX83C306FC chipset it uses other than it does have an integrated 8K L1 Cache. While that is not a lot of cache memory, I am sure that is partially offset by the lower latency having the cache built right into the chipset for faster memory access. If anyone can point to sources for the datasheets or other info on the chipset, that would be interesting to look at.

Reply 11 of 15, by evasive

Posted on 2021-05-26, 04:14

evasive Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 940
Joined: 2020-04-28, 19:07
Location: Nederland

UH19 page added:
http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/show/8434

Reply 12 of 15, by bloodem

Posted on 2021-05-27, 10:31

bloodem Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1612
Joined: 2020-01-17, 08:10
Location: Romania

I also found a similar board, although (as far as I can see) there are two major differences compared to this one:
- mine has an onboard CPU, in addition to the external socket (the OP's board does have solder pads for a built-in CPU, though)
- there is no Brand/model information silkscreened anywhere on the PCB.

Other than that, the layout does look almost identical.

1 x PLCC-68 / 2 x PGA132 / 5 x Skt 3 / 9 x Skt 7 / 12 x SS7 / 1 x Skt 8 / 14 x Slot 1 / 5 x Slot A
5 x Skt 370 / 8 x Skt A / 2 x Skt 478 / 2 x Skt 754 / 3 x Skt 939 / 7 x LGA775 / 1 x LGA1155
Current PC: Ryzen 7 5800X3D
Backup PC: Core i7 7700k

Reply 13 of 15, by evasive

Posted on 2021-05-28, 06:42

evasive Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 940
Joined: 2020-04-28, 19:07
Location: Nederland

jasa1063 wrote on 2020-11-26, 14:32:

Deksor wrote on 2020-11-26, 08:46:

I confirm this is a biostar.
Unfortunately it's not in our database ... http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/result/?name=1333

Would you like to help us adding it ?

Sure, let me know what you need.

If you happen to have a different bios version from what is already listed (0200), you can make a backup of the bios with this:
http://cd.textfiles.com/microhaus/mhblackbox3 … MORY/GETROM.ZIP

Reply 14 of 15, by jasa1063

Posted on 2021-05-28, 13:23

jasa1063 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 553
Joined: 2013-01-31, 20:34
Location: Minnesota

evasive wrote on 2021-05-28, 06:42:

jasa1063 wrote on 2020-11-26, 14:32:

Deksor wrote on 2020-11-26, 08:46:

I confirm this is a biostar.
Unfortunately it's not in our database ... http://www.win3x.org/uh19/motherboard/result/?name=1333

Would you like to help us adding it ?

Sure, let me know what you need.

If you happen to have a different bios version from what is already listed (0200), you can make a backup of the bios with this:
http://cd.textfiles.com/microhaus/mhblackbox3 … MORY/GETROM.ZIP

I will check the BIOS this weekend and let you know.

Reply 15 of 15, by jasa1063

Posted on 2021-05-29, 03:31

jasa1063 Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 553
Joined: 2013-01-31, 20:34
Location: Minnesota

jasa1063 wrote on 2021-05-28, 13:23:

evasive wrote on 2021-05-28, 06:42:

jasa1063 wrote on 2020-11-26, 14:32:

Sure, let me know what you need.

If you happen to have a different bios version from what is already listed (0200), you can make a backup of the bios with this:
http://cd.textfiles.com/microhaus/mhblackbox3 … MORY/GETROM.ZIP

I will check the BIOS this weekend and let you know.

The BIOS is 0200 as indicated.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware

Main menu

Common searches