First post, by megatron-uk
(This thread was originally titled: "286 dead, long live the 286! Peaktron PA286-SMT / Micro Systems PA286-SA1", but it has since turned in to a more general quest to find and build a hotrod 286 system)
So, my no-name Headland HT12 board (clone of an Octek Fox 2) has decided to keel over and die. I removed thr battery about 2011 and cleaned up the minor corrosion present.
I can only think that there must be some non-visible corrosion somewhere, maybe under some sockets or something, but I get either CMOS ROM checksum errors, or keyboard errors which stop me from continuing (escape works to skip the ram test, but then the keyboard does nothing more; meaning I'm stuck at the "CMOS checksum error, set defaults, press F1" POST message).
I had it in storage from about 2014, which was the last time I used it. I posted about it here and recorded a few YouTube clips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lBHxfsCqWw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4gBgUyVuY0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eesSmqsfXGU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZPX1jtk3-M
Now, this was a speedy 286, as you can tell. What I want to do now is build a speed-demon 286.
I have just ordered a Peaktron PA286 board, which according to the specs on https://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/P/P … 6-20-PA286.html support up to 16mb ram, 0 wait states, async fpu and 12/16/20 MHz. I have both a 20 and a 25mhz Harris to try.
I used to have a cirrus logic gd5428 in the old machine which I suspect contributed hugely to the speed. I've lost that card in the last 7 years of storage and can only find a basic 512kb Trident 9000B.
What I want to know is what is the absolute fastest Dos ISA card available? Tseng ET4000? GD5429?
Other kit going in will be:
3c509b with xtide bios
SB16 (ct2290)
Midiman mm401
Acer m5105 multi Io
3.5" 1.44
CF drive
I also have an i287xl that has been sitting unused for the last 6 years or so, so it may as well go in, even if it does nothing most of the time.
That leaves one free 16bit slot, any thoughts?
My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net