wait, do you mean that guy got fastdoom running on a 286?

It's impossible to run FastDoom on 16-bit x86 machines. It uses instructions the 286 nor 8088/8086 have, and requires 32-bit protected mode.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-09-13, 14:48:

Blue Lightning BL3, got one in a system, I'll get round to it over winter maybe. It's got some 486 instructions and a 16kb cache too, so does about 1.5x 386 IPC or 2/3 to 3/4 486 IPC, so at 100Mhz is about equivalent to 486DX2/66

edit: for integer only that is. Has to rely on best 387s you can pair with it at FSB speed of 33 Mhz

I would be really interested in hearing more about this CPU, what boards it can run on and how it really compares to a 486/66 in real world use..

appiah4 wrote on 2024-10-01, 09:07:

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-09-13, 14:48:

Blue Lightning BL3, got one in a system, I'll get round to it over winter maybe. It's got some 486 instructions and a 16kb cache too, so does about 1.5x 386 IPC or 2/3 to 3/4 486 IPC, so at 100Mhz is about equivalent to 486DX2/66

edit: for integer only that is. Has to rely on best 387s you can pair with it at FSB speed of 33 Mhz

I would be really interested in hearing more about this CPU, what boards it can run on and how it really compares to a 486/66 in real world use..

Well that's a real rabbithole, it's the Cyrix 5x86-120 of 386 class, in rarity and expense, may even be double the $$$. Information is sparse and scattered, overview of the range here... https://ardent-tool.com/CPU/386_upgrade.html# … SLC2/SLC3%20and
A lot of work done on finding boards that run it here, 3 (+3 more) retro battle stations in the 386 section of in thread links. There are other threads with some info too, maybe SLC3 threads relevant.

Thanks for all the info I really appreciate it and look forward to your tinkering with it. It's one of those rare times when I learn about something new (old?) that I never heard of before and get excited about. Out of curiosity, which IBM computers do I need to look out for in order to come across one of these unicorns? Aptiva, Valuepoint and PS/1s?

appiah4 wrote on 2024-10-02, 08:59:

Thanks for all the info I really appreciate it and look forward to your tinkering with it. It's one of those rare times when I learn about something new (old?) that I never heard of before and get excited about. Out of curiosity, which IBM computers do I need to look out for in order to come across one of these unicorns? Aptiva, Valuepoint and PS/1s?

Yes or Ambra if you ever happen to see any, which was more of an arms length IBM division, kinda like Saturn was to General Motors. However, they all also later sold IBM made Cyrix DX2 regular 486 as Blue Lightning in the same lines. Some people also seemed to think they got a DX4-100 when it was running at 100, and maybe seemed fast enough in 1994 that the difference wasn't obvious. So they can also fly under the radar as "DX4" systems or get hidden in crowd of 486 DX2s. But usually if you see a Blue Lightning 100 mhz, or 75Mhz that's always going to be the actual real deal BL3, but a 66 could be BL2 or DX2

What was the last version that had EGA 640x200x16 mode? I liked the visual dithering.

The last version with native EGA 640x200x16 mode was 0.9.4. I also liked the visual dithering, but the performance was far from good. To be fair, the actual EGA 320x200 mode runs at the native 640x200 resolution 😅.

Thanx. I'll put it in my personal retroarchive.

PS. It runs buttersmooth with a Pentium and a PCI videocard. Love the retro/matrix look. Nerdly pleasures, as one of our friend said and did.

And by the way, dark corners are more scarier and darker. It is like silent 8bit sounds.

ViTi95 wrote on 2024-10-03, 13:16:

The last version with native EGA 640x200x16 mode was 0.9.4. I also liked the visual dithering, but the performance was far from good. To be fair, the actual EGA 320x200 mode runs at the native 640x200 resolution 😅.