Hi,
No, I think that's not quite correct. With the Intel Inboard/PC you can run a special patched version of Windows 3.0 in 386 enhanced mode. However, there is no such software patch for Windows 3.1.
...as far as I am aware though, you can still run windows 3.1 on an Inboard using "standard mode". "Real mode" of the 8088 only allows use of 640kb, but "standard mode" makes use of 286 protected mode which allows up to 16mb of physical memory and up to 1GB of virtual memory. As it turns out a lot of Windows 3.1 software can be run in standard mode anyway.
I am not exactly sure why the Inboard PC has problems running 32-bit code. Some people have claimed it is because of the 8-bit expansion bus. But I suspect the real reason may be because Intel used a batch of buggy 386 CPUs it had lying around. If you recall, the first 808386 CPUs suffered from a serious error while running 32-bit code. The 386 CPU on my inboard is one of these CPUs and thus marked "16bit S/W Only". I have heard that all Inboard PCs uses defective 386 chips like this. It is possible that replacing the CPU with a newer one could resolve this problem, but I have never had the time to try it myself.
Your SOTA 386 board is probably a different story. Most of those cards do not come with any extra memory (unlike the inboard which has 1MB standard). Therefore you would be limited to the 640k on the motherboard. Even though you have a real 386 CPU, without more than 640kb of RAM you cannot run anything higher than "real mode".
"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