First post, by BitWrangler
- Rank
- l33t++
Hi folks,
I have this ECS 386L ver 1.1 that resurfaced again recently. I had been rather discounting it, not regarding it as board worth bothering with, due to no cache.... then two things happened, I read something about 386 zero wait state memory access modes, realising that for certain CPU it might be fairly decent then. Then secondly, I realised I had two "Full AT" desktop cases in 5170 style, clone not IBM, and that I only had a plan to fill one of them, which is with 286 parts, but nothing assigned to the other. I already have a similar style but not quite so wide case assigned to an "early-ish" 486DX build which most of the parts are original to, so didn't want another 486 in one of that era. I might then give this board a checking out and do something with the flavour of an 88-90 386.. Though maybe this board got itself built inconveniently late in 1992, but it's not that dissimilar from very late 80s boards.
Retroweb page for board https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/ecs-386l
I don't wanna say this is a pure "Wing Commander" build, but it's certainly a consideration that it is of that time. The cusp when PC went from business appliance type aesthetics to more home office friendly, and became a family PC. This having then one foot in the past with it's case style and one foot in the future with the game(s) that made everyone notice VGA/386 as a gaming/entertainment platform. Anyway, it will go where it goes, but WC might swing a decision or two.
CPU? It has not got one, nor you may notice, a clock oscillator. All the other pics show 50Mhz for clock halved 25Mhz operation. I might reasonably therefore just put a 25Mhz i386 in it... yawn. I was going to install a clock socket anyway rather than directly mount one. Some examination of the Topcat specifics will be required, my intent is to get it running at 0ws, if that can be done at 33Mhz, I want 33Mhz...Then there's a little voice in my head with a fascination for the 386/486 upgrade CPUs and wants me to stick one of those in it, and represent it as an upgraded 386 trying to take on the 1990s... hmmm. I have no PGA132 chip at all to try in that hole though, so I've gotta hope it will get going if I buy something.
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.