Re: Best HDD Controller for PC/XT?

Posted on 2020-11-29, 02:57

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I believe the WD MFM controller I liked best was the WD 1002A-WX1. The (A) designation is important, because it supports a much wider array of drive types. https://slomkowski.eu/retrocomputing/reading-data-from-old-miniscribe-hard-disk/WD1002A-WX1.pdf With older drives however, it may not be …

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Re: 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations

Posted on 2020-11-28, 04:50

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

DTK PKM-5031Y with Symphony SL82C461, SL82C362, SL82C405 chipset. This motherboard caught my attention with its performance characteristics. It came crispy clean. I can tell that it was never used - a new old stock. Plus a real looker. There was AMD 486DX 40MHz CPU, 8Mb 70ns RAM and 256Kb 20ns SRAM …

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Re: sony cdu33a-81 - interface?

Posted on 2020-11-27, 14:07

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Maybe the eject button on the drive can be fixed. My friend and I both owned these drives new in 1994. I remember his only lasted a few months before the eject button stopped working, but his father was able to disassemble and repair it. Sadly I didn't inspect it very closely when it was on the …

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Re: Repair Old Opti bus motherboard - G486PLB-3

Posted on 2020-11-27, 06:09

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, ATi begs to differ, considering they released Mach32 cards in ISA, VLB, PCI, EISA and MCA all at the same time. MCA came out in 1987, and lasted until about 1994 I guess. OPTi local bus came out slightly before VLB, and they were actually competitors for a short time.

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Re: Need help identifying 386/40 motherboard

Posted on 2020-11-26, 16:10

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

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

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Re: VGA VRAM size and performance discussion

Posted on 2020-11-26, 15:53

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Only when accelerated graphics is in use (in Windows).

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Re: Crooked text on a cpu.

Posted on 2020-11-26, 04:37

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

hard to know without pictures, and tests. Thanks. I just thought to ask if just the fact that the text is not straight would automatically mean that the cpu is fake. Like if nobody had ever seen real cpu being like that it would mean it being fake. That is why I thought picture was not necessary …

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Re: Crooked text on a cpu.

Posted on 2020-11-25, 15:06

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's probably nothing to worry about. I've seen this problem for as long as they've been using silk screens on CPUs.

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Re: VGA VRAM size and performance discussion

Posted on 2020-11-23, 13:08

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

It's likely not the size of the RAM, but by while upgrading the memory you were likely also widening the datapath of the RAM to the VGA controller (probably from 16-bit to 32-bit). Many 32-bit VGA controllers allowed the RAM to operate in 16-bit mode as a cost cutting measure.

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Re: AMD DX4 100MHz build

Posted on 2020-11-22, 15:39

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Nice build. I didn't know you had an account here. Your youtube videos are pretty good...one of the only things I still watch on youtube.

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Re: Custom interposer module for TI486SXL2-66 PGA168 to PGA132 - HELP!

Posted on 2020-11-21, 04:47

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think the /E might have some power saving features. It should be listed in the databook.

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Re: History of ATi Graphics cards Vol. 1

Posted on 2020-11-21, 02:24

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

That's pretty cool that you were able to locate the die shots of these. To be honest, from these pictures alone, Rage IIC doesn't really look like either of them. Though, I can see a few structures that are identical between the Pro and the IIC. I'm surprised that ATi bothered to create unique …

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Re: History of ATi Graphics cards Vol. 1

Posted on 2020-11-20, 23:53

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Rage I, II and II+ all carry the 'GT' moniker, but IIC is an 'R'? Do those part numbers really show a relationship?

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Re: ATi Mach32 VLB VGA card, quick test

Posted on 2020-11-20, 16:16

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Aren't the landmark graphics scores just based on text modes? Since when was landmark a reliable measure of anything anyway?

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Re: Problems with Trident 8900c chipset ISA VGA card and Win 3.11

Posted on 2020-11-20, 07:20

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Even if your screen supported interlaced mode, you wouldn't want to use it unless you like going blind. It would also be painfully slow since there is no graphics acceleration. If you're getting 800x600x256 on your 8900C, then you should be a happy camper. Although I have never owned or used a …

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Re: Can we figure out Rage XL?

Posted on 2020-11-20, 03:46

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by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Everything from 3D Rage to 3D Rage Pro. That makes the designation almost meaningless. I've never heard of Rage Pro referred to as a "Mach64 GT". What is the earliest ATi literature that refers to it as such? The original Rage was the Mach64 GT. The Rage II was the Mach64 GT'B'. Maybe Rage Pro is …

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Re: History of ATi Graphics cards Vol. 1

Posted on 2020-11-20, 03:40

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Rage II+DVD AGP? Really? I thought only the IIC had an AGP interface. Maybe another infamous case of ATi rebadging? I'm still not totally clear on the Rage IIC. I have seen conflicting reports on whether or not it's an enhanced Rage II or a gimped Rage Pro (including ATi's own literature). I think a …

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Re: Made in USA 386.

Posted on 2020-11-19, 15:54

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Poulton wrote on 2020-11-19, 15:28: . And the only "Made in USA" they see, are the sausage finger of the people who use them. 😁

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Re: Custom interposer module for TI486SXL2-66 PGA168 to PGA132 - HELP!

Posted on 2020-11-19, 15:52

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I could possibly see 40MHz parts burning out at 50MHz if they were from an earlier batch. I don't think the -40 was available on release....it came later. The Blue Lightning has multiple names for whatever reason. BL3 and DLC3 are the same chip. Then you have the 168-pin blue lightning chips that …

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Re: History of ATi Graphics cards Vol. 1

Posted on 2020-11-19, 06:27

by

by Anonymous Coward

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

What I want to know is why the EGA Wonders are not included in the "wonder years". VIP is a hard card to classify. It's technically a souped up EGA Wonder, so I'd probably classify it as a Wonder card (enhanced EGA Wonder or proto-VGA Wonder).

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