VOGONS


First post, by feipoa

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Anyone know where I can find a male-to-female PGA-132 interposer board which rotates the locations PGA-132 pins for use with 386 upgrade adapter boards? It would be nice to have interposers which rotate the locations of these pins by 90, 180, and 270 degrees. I have these various 386-to-486 upgrade adapter boards which cannot be used in certain 386 motherboards because their normal orientation blocks ISA or VLB slots, e.g.

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If I had a rotated PGA-132 interposer board I'd still be able to use these upgrades in a larger selection of motherboards. Were these made? Does anyone know where I can source this or is anyone willing to create such an rotated PGA-132 interposer board? Thanks!

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 1 of 5, by Anonymous Coward

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The only company I know of that sold these was Evergreen. If you check out ETPARTS.TXT, you can find the part numbers for them. Sadly, they are even rarer than the upgrades themselves! Never seen one, much less a pictures of one.

"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

Reply 2 of 5, by feipoa

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Here's the relevent section from ETPARTS.TXT

36 Accessories for 386DX Upgrades
00 ________________________________________________________________________
00
00 151 386DX Extender - 132 pin (PGA)
00 Needed for some 386DX systems in order to raise the upgrade
00 above other components on the motherboard.
00 106 386DX Heat Sink/Cooling Fan (optional)
00 128 386DX 90 Socket Rotation Adapter*
00 129 386DX 180 Socket Rotation Adapter*
00 130 386DX 270 Socket Rotation Adapter*
00 *Socket Rotation Adapters are needed on some systems in order to
00 rotate the upgrade 90, 180, or 270 degrees in order to fit into
00 the CPU socket and avoid hitting other components.

Looks like that had all 3 possible orientations as well as some empty null sockets to lift up the upgrades. The empty null socket is easy simple enough, just stack a few sockets. I'm hoping someone will come around and create the rotator sockets.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 3 of 5, by 386_junkie

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Could be a decent DIY project... there is no additional processing or signal manipulation - just a straight pin-to-pin device, sockets are easy to find online... time really being the only critical factor.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

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Reply 4 of 5, by Anonymous Coward

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Even 1:1 mapping is going to be pretty hard, because the space you have to work with is really limited. DIY soldering maybe not even possible. I'm not even sure which parts to use. Obviously a plug at the bottom and a plug on top, but what goes in between?

Maybe just use a row or two of fine pitch pin rows on the outside of the PGA132 socket? That should allow you to built a sandwich board with two sections, allow DIY assembly, and keep a relatively compact design, maybe extending the CPU socket by 3mm on each side.

"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

Reply 5 of 5, by 386_junkie

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Nothing goes in between, it would just be a socket extension i.e. a dumb device. The only soldering would be for the sockets male and female. Female socket can be bought online... though the male (pins) would be made with wire i.e. poking lengths through a drilled hole, solder in place and then snipped to length x 132 times to make the male pins

I used to make a few DIY PCB's back in the day some crude, some not so... youtube has various methods to learn from.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks