MikeSG wrote on 2024-02-05, 14:42:

A TIGA card would be interesting but I don't think the chips are available anymore

That's true. It just came to mind, because the original TIGA chip (TMS34010) was originally meant for arcade use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMS34010

A Raspberry Pi maybe could emulate a part of it, like with that 68000 accelerator (PiStorm).

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-02-05, 14:30:

You cant speed up drawing with an FPU. CAD software uses FPU to do math, not draw.

Uh, I was thinking of coordinates and vectors, which are related to math.
I mean, the x86 doesn't draw either, it's just executing the ROM code on the VGA card which in turn is instructing the VGA CRTC to do something.

Hm. But now that I think of it, a SIMD like good old MMX would be more effective, maybe. Photoshop and video players had used it. But it's not available to anything pre-Pentium MMX.

Hm. Weren't there any x87 FPUs with extra features? Cyrix or ULSI? I vaguely remember reading they had a non-intel mode (different protocol or i/o) that was more effective and had extra functions.

The more I'm thinking about it.. A Blitter chip for DOS PCs would be neat! It used to be available on Atari ST/Amiga.

Or how about a VGA-like card with DMA capability? EMM386/QEMM API could be used to coordinate things (for Protected-Mode magic and access to 386 MMU)

The Weitek co-processor as a memory-mapped device was the closest 386/486 owners could install back then, maybe, not sure. EMM386 has a switch for it.

But then we have the math problem again and I don't know of Weiteks capabilities, exactly. 🤷‍♂️
Doom as a game isn't using a full 3D engine, but rather using 2D textures on flat objects. The rooms are 3D, though.

Anyway, these are just some ideas, of course.

Edit: Wouldn't it be possible to install a VGA card between 80386 and mainboard?
As an interposer, with a full 32-Bit connection?
If it had SRAM or dual-ported VRAM directly accessible to both VGA and 80386, read/write operations between both of them should be quicker.

Cyberdyne wrote on 2024-02-05, 06:59:

I just broke few cheap PS/2 keyboards with small controller boards. Then bought few cheap larger USB controllers. Then just removed the controller chip and USB cable. Replaced them with a PS/2 cable and inserted the keyboard controller. Then some small wiring work and soldering and voila. Just remember add Y and N keys to your controller. Arrow keys. Space Control Shift Alt Tab Enter Esc.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-02-05, 02:23:

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-02-04, 20:39:

I'm going to go on a slight tangent, but I'd like to see more PS/2 port gamepad adapters "re-done". I've seen some adapters mentioned here that translate gamepad actions into key presses. I might be mistaken, but I don't think many people are making these anymore. I have found one on Tindie that translates USB to PS/2, but it is a bit too pricey for me.

Lazy way to do that is PS/2 splitter, and pull a few keys off a numeric keypad until there's space around which ones you want.... I've done that on laptops before for some games, plugged in numpad, turned it sideways, reassigned keys.

Interesting. I'll have to look into this. I can still find cheap ps/2 keyboards at local thrift stores.

Oh, I'd go on about this subject all day.
IDE to SCSI converters (which is understandable), using a newer Macintosh floppy drive in place of an older one (manual inject in place of auto), further modifications to more obscure BIOS types like Phoenix CME and Intel BIOSes, the list goes on and on and on...

k24a1 wrote on 2024-02-05, 18:09:

IDE to SCSI converters (which is understandable),

Like the AEC-7722 & AEC-7726 ? or do you want to attach a scsi hard drive to an IDE controller ?

SAS to classic parallel SCSI would also be something to think of.

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-02-05, 01:13:

smtkr wrote on 2024-02-04, 17:24:

I think the low hanging fruit would be a new slotket that supports coppermine and tualatin CPUs.

New old stock '370 Pin PGA ZIF Socket' are $10, same money you buy whole slotket adapter:) solder two wires and you are done converting to tualatin. I guess it could be fun making one, but no economical sense.

Can you show me?

Jo22 wrote on 2024-02-05, 15:21:

Edit: Wouldn't it be possible to install a VGA card between 80386 and mainboard?
As an interposer, with a full 32-Bit connection?
If it had SRAM or dual-ported VRAM directly accessible to both VGA and 80386, read/write operations between both of them should be quicker.

It's possible but physical placement is an issue.

I don't think shared RAM is possible without creating all new drivers...

I've been looking at a "387 to VLB" interface for the last two weeks and think it's possible... needs only BE3, A16-23 from the CPU. OR-gate for RDYRET/READY. Three 34pin ribbon cables. VLB socket. ISA riser..

MikeSG wrote on 2024-02-06, 08:32:

I've been looking at a "387 to VLB" interface for the last two weeks and think it's possible... needs only BE3, A16-23 from the CPU. OR-gate for RDYRET/READY. Three 34pin ribbon cables. VLB socket. ISA riser..

Few people were looking into building universal VLB for 386 😀 Iv been posting about it couple of times.
Atheatos talked about it in "386 Motherboard Review / Optimization Guide: 367C Rev 1.0 (Unichip U4800-VLX) ." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DD7V8_SxwU
Its definitely doable and quite easy electrically because for VGA you dont need to support DMA arbitration, its just another memory mapped chip. Easiest form factor would be CPU interposer with a ribbon connecting to floating VLB slot, you would have to plug ISA riser to get the ISA part and only low profile cards would fit without going horizontal.

I dug out part of one of my old yt comments:
"CPU Galaxy 386 VLB test last year with 20MB/s write speed with ET4000 :0 and almost 1 fps gain in Doom. I was looking for VLB implementation documentation few years ago and couldnt find anything 🙁. I have tons of chipset datasheets and motherboard diagrams with fragments of knowledge all over the place tho, like card sending LDEV to the chipset to signal taking over the bus, LRDY to signal when completed, LREQ/LGNT are for bus masters so can be safely ignored for vga, BLAST/BRDY are 486 specific signals straight from the cpu so most likely can be ignored, LCLK is the FSBx2. SiS 85C460 datasheet has a good description. SiS 85C460 98134-925-009_DeskMaster_486Q_SD925E_Service_Manual_1993.pdf has a whole diagram of a computer using this chipset and gd5426 VLB card."

From my notes there is (2018) Vogons thread in "General Old Hardware | VL-Bus Specifications" with 2.0 VLB documentation (VLBUS20.PDF).

Oh I forgot to say an interesting one! Weitek 3167 / 4167 FPGA replacement (and software emulation via 86Box). I really want to create code for it.

PcBytes wrote on 2024-02-05, 18:47:

SAS to classic parallel SCSI would also be something to think of.

Ah indeed, that would be nice to see as there are tons of really fast 2.5" SAS drives around.

Edit: it actually exists to SATA which is also nice, https://www.startech.com/en-eu/cables/sas729pw18

ViTi95 wrote on 2024-02-06, 11:07:

Oh I forgot to say an interesting one! Weitek 3167 / 4167 FPGA replacement (and software emulation via 86Box). I really want to create code for it.

I could definitely use that!

Well, I mean software that uses it is rare, but I would definitely like to have it

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-02-06, 11:50:

PcBytes wrote on 2024-02-05, 18:47:

SAS to classic parallel SCSI would also be something to think of.

Ah indeed, that would be nice to see as there are tons of really fast 2.5" SAS drives around.

Edit: it actually exists to SATA which is also nice, https://www.startech.com/en-eu/cables/sas729pw18

Awwww " *Please note that the SATA controller must support SAS drives" which I guess is nearly nothing I want to abuse it on.

edit: SAS drives selling locally like "Bring your own sack and a shovel."

leileilol wrote on 2024-02-04, 03:33:

Automatic on-demand Plus! desktop theme parsing/adapting/loading for <insert Linux DE here>

Is this automatic enough?
https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95/blob/m … /Plus/README.MD

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-02-06, 15:29:

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-02-06, 11:50:

PcBytes wrote on 2024-02-05, 18:47:

SAS to classic parallel SCSI would also be something to think of.

Ah indeed, that would be nice to see as there are tons of really fast 2.5" SAS drives around.

Edit: it actually exists to SATA which is also nice, https://www.startech.com/en-eu/cables/sas729pw18

Awwww " *Please note that the SATA controller must support SAS drives" which I guess is nearly nothing I want to abuse it on.

edit: SAS drives selling locally like "Bring your own sack and a shovel."

SAS controllers support SATA drives in pretty much all cases.

However, I have never heard of a SATA controller with support for SAS drives. (Can anyone share an example of one ?)

This is not surprising, AFAIU, as SAS is a superset of SATA.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

darry wrote on 2024-02-06, 16:01:

SAS controllers support SATA drives in pretty much all cases. […]
Show full quote

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-02-06, 15:29:

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-02-06, 11:50:

Ah indeed, that would be nice to see as there are tons of really fast 2.5" SAS drives around.

Edit: it actually exists to SATA which is also nice, https://www.startech.com/en-eu/cables/sas729pw18

Awwww " *Please note that the SATA controller must support SAS drives" which I guess is nearly nothing I want to abuse it on.

edit: SAS drives selling locally like "Bring your own sack and a shovel."

SAS controllers support SATA drives in pretty much all cases.

However, I have never heard of a SATA controller with support for SAS drives. (Can anyone share an example of one ?)

This is not surprising, AFAIU, as SAS is a superset of SATA.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

I guess you would just call it a SAS controller

Oetker wrote on 2024-02-05, 07:34:

'Hardware-emulated' video cards, like the picoGUS is for sound cards. I.e. a port of pcem's Voodoo emulation that runs as an expansion card.

This is exactly what I was thinking about!

ISA + PCI video card with an FPGA that can be programmed to be any major video card, including all cards from TSENG, S3, VOODOO, GeForce, Radeon, etc.

One card = all video cards.

Don't make me dream of universal early 3D-accelerator card, which can be programmed (like PicoGUS card can be) to support CIF, MSI, Glide, etc. 😀

P.S. I don't like simulations in simulated simulation, but I increasingly dislike the prices of the old hardware parts on fleabay 😁

P.S. I don't like simulations in simulated simulation, but I increasingly dislike the prices of the old hardware parts on fleabay 😁

Did I mention that PC-Ditto runs fine in Nostalgia/Steem? 😁

Btw, that reminds me of The 13th Floor and World on a Wire (original title "Welt am Draht", US Trailer) .

Both films are about simulation within simulation and based on the book Simulacron III.

They predate Matrix and are a bit forgotten nowadays, kind of.

Dark City had been overshadowed by Matrix, too.

Jo22 wrote on 2024-02-06, 18:15:

Did I mention that PC-Ditto runs fine in Nostalgia/Steem? 😁 […]
Show full quote

Did I mention that PC-Ditto runs fine in Nostalgia/Steem? 😁

Btw, that reminds me of The 13th Floor and World on a Wire (original title "Welt am Draht", US Trailer) .

Both films are about simulation within simulation and based on the book Simulacron III.

They predate Matrix and are a bit forgotten nowadays, kind of.

Dark City had been overshadowed by Matrix, too.

Thanks for making me smile again (of course, in best sense), because of this witty comment, Jo22! 😀

When I write/say "simulation within simulation", one should be intelligent and understanding, especially when has been involved with digital technologies (computers I mean mostly) for many years, to realize that everything that is processed digitally with some limited accuracy is nothing more than simulation of the real (analog) thing.

P.S. I'm really starting to like more and mere the PicoGUS project, because of its DIY free accessibility and the price relative to just one of the original soundcards it emulates.

Sphere478 wrote on 2024-02-04, 02:57:

Diy socket 7 motherboard

Fpga cpu replacements with modern instruction sets

Yes please and yes please.

Especially interested in a FPGA or Pico-emulated cpu that can drop into something like socket 1-3. (is the Pi Pico fast enough to emulate a 486?)