First post, by mastercylinder
Newbie here, but long time lurker in the shadows. Hello everyone!
In clearing out old computers from a lab, my brother and I came across a system (MB picture attached) with an ADC card. We wanted to do a bit of PC archeology and see if it would boot and how and what it was used for. I pulled off the leaking battery and rang out the traces, most seem good. Then it occurred to me - there is no processor on this board.
The weird thing is, the board was secured properly in the case that obviously hadn't been opened in decades. It doesn't make sense that someone would do that to me as the PC would be scrap. As far as I can tell, the CX83S87 doesn't replace the 386SX, so the computer would have been non-functional, but if so, why put it back together neatly and carefully? A prank by a student?
Does anyone know if I'm wrong about the CX83S87?