Can a 386sx with PCI boot DOS? \ VOGONS

Can a 386sx with PCI boot DOS?

Topic actions

First post, by douglar

Posted on 2022-02-28, 02:46

douglar Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2769
Joined: 2019-11-04, 15:37
Location: Ohio, USA

I see a number of IBM 03F0330 motherboard 5494 for sale that come with a 386sx and PCI bus.

The attachment IBM 03F0330 MOTHERBOARD 5494 I386 SX16.jpg is no longer available

The connector at the top looks like a floppy connector. The 40 pin block at the bottom looks like IDE. The edge connectors on the side might provide power.

Any chance this this board might boot DOS? How could you do a keyboard?

Reply 1 of 4, by pentiumspeed

Posted on 2022-02-28, 02:54

pentiumspeed Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 3233
Joined: 2017-05-17, 23:17
Location: Great Northern: Canada.

MCA bus. Not PCI. Sorry.

Second, this came out of special made device.

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 2 of 4, by darry

Posted on 2022-02-28, 03:02

darry Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 6682
Joined: 2014-01-20, 06:27
Location: Canada

pentiumspeed wrote on 2022-02-28, 02:54:

MCA bus. Not PCI. Sorry.

Second, this came out of special made device.

Cheers,

Yup, likely an IBM 5494 control unit or something similar . (EDIT as 5494 reference in photo filename suggests) .

Reply 3 of 4, by Horun

Posted on 2022-02-28, 03:08

Horun Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 6922
Joined: 2019-09-19, 02:19
Location: USA

Yeah am late as usual...Good question ! Am wondering if those are really that part number or if IBM recycles part numbers. www.servers4less.com and walmart show a completely different board (dual CPU)
looking here: https://ardent-tool.com/5494/Planar.html it does have a floppy header (the blue one) but does not list a IDE. The top connector is "unknown". P5-8 16-bit MCA slots not PCI slots...
Wonder what the Transmit Data/Receive Data on p13 means...

Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun

Reply 4 of 4, by BitWrangler

Posted on 2022-02-28, 03:34

BitWrangler Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 8649
Joined: 2017-10-11, 00:55
Location: Ontario

I guess you could pop the ROMs out, dump them with a programmer, and then see what they do with an emulator, or otherwise inspect them for signs of being PC-ish.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware