Ok... thats an odd one...

12 simm slots? that cant be right... you had 4, 8, and 16. 386sx could do 2 per bank, but they hardly ever went past 4 simms. Also a socket for a Weitek math-co. You would think this would narrow down the search a bit.

is is as close as i can find: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/unknow … opcat-386-486dx

Any chance at a better picture?

12 SIMM slots on a 386DX board was definitely not common, but also not totally unheard of. I see them from time to time. SIMMs are still installed in sets of 4, despite the arrangement of the slots on this board.

This has the same VLSI "Topcat" chipset used on the AMI Mark V Baby Screamer. As you've already noted, it doesn't have built in support for adding an external cache. In the late 80s and early 90s (1990, 1991), you would frequently find chipsets like this paired with a discrete cache controller from Austek or Intel.
Also, my Baby Screamer is rated for 40MHz operation, so I guess the later revisions of Topcat supported it.

Is the empty 40 pin DIP socket for an 80287?

About the picture.. The problem is that the forum is resize it down.. The original is bigger.

Also strange thing to notice: The board uses a 1Mbit bios chip.. -> DIP 32 .. And sticker says bios plus.. So thinking there is an extra suite (tools, or diagnostics included it seems)

Also been looking in the bios rom.

Bios ID: ASI ...............

Maybe Aquarius Systems?

I also red in the bios file like 80287? Maybe a combi board for 286 / 386? Because i dont know why there is an empty DIP40 socket between de bios and the keyboardbios.

Then the DIP 40 should be for a 80287 co-processor.. Because i dont think there are DIP 40 387 co processors?

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2024-02-21, 01:49:

12 SIMM slots on a 386DX board was definitely not common, but also not totally unheard of. I see them from time to time. SIMMs a […]
Show full quote

12 SIMM slots on a 386DX board was definitely not common, but also not totally unheard of. I see them from time to time. SIMMs are still installed in sets of 4, despite the arrangement of the slots on this board.

This has the same VLSI "Topcat" chipset used on the AMI Mark V Baby Screamer. As you've already noted, it doesn't have built in support for adding an external cache. In the late 80s and early 90s (1990, 1991), you would frequently find chipsets like this paired with a discrete cache controller from Austek or Intel.
Also, my Baby Screamer is rated for 40MHz operation, so I guess the later revisions of Topcat supported it.

Is the empty 40 pin DIP socket for an 80287?

Yes could be.

The ROM file says things like 80287.

Iam thinking its an combi 286 / 386 boards? Never have seen this.. Or perhaps 80287 could be used.

from dosdays.co.uk

VL82C330 "TOPCAT" Chipset

The VL82C330 was a 3-chip chipset designed for 386DX motherboards running from 16 MHz up to 33 MHz. It could access up to 64 MB of system memory.
The chipset consists of the following ICs:
VL82C330 or VL82C330A - System Controller
VL82C331 - ISA Bus Controller
VL82C332 - Data Buffer
VL82C335 - "Look-aside" Cache Controller [optional]

Here's the answer.
Motherboard model: IQS (QP) ASI
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/iqs-asi

shit, i was looking for over an hour. and its listed as an intel chipset... still, 12 ram slots had me confused.

I like to host images over here: https://imgur.com/

you can hot link them easy enough.

Robin4 wrote on 2024-02-21, 02:07:

Yes could be. […]
Show full quote

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2024-02-21, 01:49:

12 SIMM slots on a 386DX board was definitely not common, but also not totally unheard of. I see them from time to time. SIMMs a […]
Show full quote

12 SIMM slots on a 386DX board was definitely not common, but also not totally unheard of. I see them from time to time. SIMMs are still installed in sets of 4, despite the arrangement of the slots on this board.

This has the same VLSI "Topcat" chipset used on the AMI Mark V Baby Screamer. As you've already noted, it doesn't have built in support for adding an external cache. In the late 80s and early 90s (1990, 1991), you would frequently find chipsets like this paired with a discrete cache controller from Austek or Intel.
Also, my Baby Screamer is rated for 40MHz operation, so I guess the later revisions of Topcat supported it.

Is the empty 40 pin DIP socket for an 80287?

Yes could be.

The ROM file says things like 80287.

Iam thinking its an combi 286 / 386 boards? Never have seen this.. Or perhaps 80287 could be used.

from dosdays.co.uk

VL82C330 "TOPCAT" Chipset

The VL82C330 was a 3-chip chipset designed for 386DX motherboards running from 16 MHz up to 33 MHz. It could access up to 64 MB of system memory.
The chipset consists of the following ICs:
VL82C330 or VL82C330A - System Controller
VL82C331 - ISA Bus Controller
VL82C332 - Data Buffer
VL82C335 - "Look-aside" Cache Controller [optional]

On my AMI Baby Screamer, the identity of the cache controller is unknown because it's been covered with AMI silkscreen, but I bet there's a pretty strong possibility it's the VL82C335 mentioned in the databook. Too bad that still doesn't help me with the fact that MR-BIOS for TOPCAT only supports the i385.

Anyone know of either a 386 or 486 based Topcat motherboard that uses the VL82C335 cache controller?

zwrr wrote on 2024-02-21, 04:00:

Here's the answer.
Motherboard model: IQS (QP) ASI
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/iqs-asi

Wow this is really awesome.. Thanks for you help.

Also thanks to others who helped me.

This really make the differents, know what board it is now.

Is it possible to see, who uploaded the data of that board on theretroweb.com?

Dunno where to look for the board jumper settings. Google isnt very helpfull in anyway in 2024..

Always have hard time to write in english here. (maybe its the purple color of the forum that makes my brain fart)

Google translater did help me a lot here. Translated what i wanted to say. ->

So the manufacturer name is actually IQS?
Assume this is an abbreviation of the actual name? (International Quality Systems or something?)
Does anyone know the full name of IQS?

What does ASI mean in this case? Is this not Aquarius systems, or am I seeing this wrong? Maybe I'm confused with something else?

luckybob wrote on 2024-02-21, 04:13:

shit, i was looking for over an hour. and its listed as an intel chipset... still, 12 ram slots had me confused.

The TOPCAT chipsets were developed by VLSI and supported 4 memory banks. Intel had licensed them and enumerated them with an own number.

VLSI 82C320 = Intel 82340SX
VLSI 82C330= Intel 82340DX

Robin4 wrote on 2024-02-21, 13:53:

Wow this is really awesome.. Thanks for you help. […]
Show full quote

zwrr wrote on 2024-02-21, 04:00:

Here's the answer.
Motherboard model: IQS (QP) ASI
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/iqs-asi

Wow this is really awesome.. Thanks for you help.

Also thanks to others who helped me.

This really make the differents, know what board it is now.

Is it possible to see, who uploaded the data of that board on theretroweb.com?

Dunno where to look for the board jumper settings. Google isnt very helpfull in anyway in 2024..

Always have hard time to write in english here. (maybe its the purple color of the forum that makes my brain fart)

Google translater did help me a lot here. Translated what i wanted to say. ->

So the manufacturer name is actually IQS?
Assume this is an abbreviation of the actual name? (International Quality Systems or something?)
Does anyone know the full name of IQS?

What does ASI mean in this case? Is this not Aquarius systems, or am I seeing this wrong? Maybe I'm confused with something else?

I can't find any other information, there are so many short-lived companies and products in the history of personal computers, IQS is one of them, and all we can see now is this sticker with the IQS logo on the BIOS chip that shows its existence. Maybe there's information hidden in some corner of the web, but it's not indexed by search engines.

Robin4 wrote on 2024-02-21, 02:07:

Iam thinking its an combi 286 / 386 boards? Never have seen this.. Or perhaps 80287 could be used.

386DX can work with 80287 coprocessor, the reason is Intel was late with 387 (and they knew it) so they opted to add support for 287 to allow the early adopters to use something at least. But I would think a mobo capable of 33MHz operation would no longer have the 40-pin socket. Only Intel supported async clock mode on NPUs and none of their offerings would clock as fast, until 287XL - which was actually 387 ported to 40-pin package, so at the time of release 387 was already out and available. Curious design choice, unless the clock generator is socketed?