IBM Blue Lightning desolder \ VOGONS

IBM Blue Lightning desolder

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First post, by peg

Posted on 2020-02-28, 06:36

peg Offline

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Has anyone dared to de-solder the IBM Blue Lighting (like on the Alaris Cougar) from its motherboard and transfer it to a PGA package like the AMD 386 DX uses? I'm not sure if that would even work or if they are physically the same size.

The idea is to make it portable so you can place it into another motherboard if you wanted to. It's extremely, extremely unlikely I would ever try it and probably a really dumb thing to actually attempt but I was just wondering if it was even possible and if anyone has tried it.

Last edited by Stiletto on 2020-03-02, 05:55. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 1 of 2, by Anonymous Coward

Posted on 2020-02-28, 10:10

Anonymous Coward Offline

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It's possible, but you'd need to add a VRM as it's a 3.3V chip. Blue Lightning also redefines unused pins on the 386 as cache control lines...so if your board isn't designed to accept it, there will likely be problems getting the internal cache working properly. Even upgrade kits from companies like Evergreen don't always work so well, and those have extra logic on the modules to improve compatibility.

"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 2, by 386_junkie

Posted on 2020-10-03, 22:09

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Personally, I would not attempt it.

The Alaris Cougar motherboard is actually a good fit, there are few 386 chipsets out there that will be able to match or even beat Opti both on compatibility and performance.

Even if you could remove the CPU and transfer it to another motherboard as a module... the likelihood is, it will only be an ISA only board, whereas Alaris Cougar offers VLB, 72-pin SIMMS, AND an onboard controller! If you can find a better motherboard, then let me know please. Even with ISA only boards, there are only 1 or 2 chipsets which are an improvement over Opti.

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

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks

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