Am I the only one who owns one of these? If you have one, could you at least share a photo of yours so I can see what the DIP switch settings are?

feipoa wrote on 2021-01-16, 21:43:

Am I the only one who owns one of these? If you have one, could you at least share a photo of yours so I can see what the DIP switch settings are?

You might be the only one here with one. Here is a picture of one with CX486slc + 87slc-25, you can see the switch positions...probably already saw it...
https://wiki.preterhuman.net/Evergreen_Techno … 6superchip1.jpg

here is another picture of the 486 superchip with 87slc-33 and it's DIP settings

Horun wrote on 2021-01-16, 22:55:

You might be the only one here with one.

Oh? I guess I can pay off my mortgage sooner than I thought!

Thank you. I hadn't seen that second photo. It is very helpful. The second photo has the same PAL revision stickers that my unit has.

So from the 3 photos shown in this thread, DIP 6 & 2 are likely related to the FPU as, both your 1st and 2nd photo agree on these, that is 2:ON, 6:OFF. The uncertainly is with DIP 4 and 5. Your 2nd photo shows 4:ON, 5:OFF; while your first photo shows 4:OFF, 5:ON. On my unit without FPU, 4 and 5 are both OFF.

Why would these two units be in disagreement? Is it because the revision numbers on the PALs are different, or is there more than one way to turn on the FPU with different requirements?

Iam not playing with such devices. Iam just a regular guy who only owns cpus and motherboards.. And building a working system out of it. (and have a lot of spares left, for repair or replacement)
But can image that the 486 super chip, is a very rare device these days.. Never seen them on ebay or so.

feipoa wrote on 2021-01-17, 02:06:

Oh? I guess I can pay off my mortgage sooner than I thought! […]
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Horun wrote on 2021-01-16, 22:55:

You might be the only one here with one.

Oh? I guess I can pay off my mortgage sooner than I thought!

Thank you. I hadn't seen that second photo. It is very helpful. The second photo has the same PAL revision stickers that my unit has.

So from the 3 photos shown in this thread, DIP 6 & 2 are likely related to the FPU as, both your 1st and 2nd photo agree on these, that is 2:ON, 6:OFF. The uncertainly is with DIP 4 and 5. Your 2nd photo shows 4:ON, 5:OFF; while your first photo shows 4:OFF, 5:ON. On my unit without FPU, 4 and 5 are both OFF.

Why would these two units be in disagreement? Is it because the revision numbers on the PALs are different, or is there more than one way to turn on the FPU with different requirements?

Ok agree ! I looked over the dips too and figured that 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 are same with either FPU and same CPU. So 4 & 5 could be Sync / Async mode and/or FPU speed setting.
Possible because of diff PALS but then they would have to have made diff docs for each revision (highly possible !). Also possible 6 is for CX or TX though technically the same maybe a slight variant ???
Attached a text file with the 1992 announcement of your Evergreen from a monthly tech bulletin and my quick similarity in dip settings... nothin special but the price of $499 w/FPU on release is interesting

I was planning on desoldering the Cyrix/TI 486SLC with some Chip Quick (have had it sitting in a bit for over 25 years now and never used it!) and replacing it with a Ti 486SXLC2-50. Hence I was hoping to figure out what the rest of those DIP switches do. Perhaps some of them relate to the SXLC variant, its cache size, cache invalidation and its multiplier. Evergreen certainly made upgrade modules based on the Ti 486SXL2-50/66, so it is possible that some of the DIP switches on the 486 SuperChip were for an SXLC option.

Horun, could be, but I think the Intel i387 FPU was the only 387 FPU which could do async mode, and as both of the photos show a Cyrix FPU, I'd expect the sync/async setting to be the same. Both have the same FPU speed as well.

My best guess is that some of the switches turn are to:
a) enable L1 cache
b) enable L1 cache, but no cache for FPU
c) disable L1 cache

Horun, is that table yours, or you found it on the web?

1The DIP switch settings for 486 Superchip for 286 from pictures posted (No Guarentee they are proper or I got it right):
2All pictures included a TX486SLC-25 or CX486SLC-25, the FPU are all CX87SLC
3DIP	NO FPU		25Mhz FPU	33Mhz FPU	Common w/FPU	Common for all
41	ON		ON		ON		*		*
52	OFF		ON		ON		*
63	OFF		OFF		OFF		*		*
74	OFF		OFF		ON
85	OFF		ON		OFF
96	ON		OFF		OFF		*
107	OFF		OFF		OFF		*		*
118	ON		ON		ON		*		*

So the difference between 1st and 2nd photo you posted are for 25 MHz vs. 33 MHz FPUs? Allowing for a faster FPU, wasn't this for Intel FPUs only?

As rare as that thing is it might actually be worth several hundred, I don't know that I'd go hacking on it.

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-01-17, 03:47:

As rare as that thing is it might actually be worth several hundred, I don't know that I'd go hacking on it.

Should clone the pcb and gals and build new units using better CPUs.

I almost considered buying one of those 286-486-66mhz evergreen duhickies unit I found the high level of compatibility issues and the price.

For less money I could get all the multimedia upgrades at once in a new PC.

Unfortunate these overdrives weren’t priced more competitively in the day.

Yes I made that table from the pics, could be wrong but think it is ok.
According to ChipDB the 87slc-25 is 25mhz and 87slc-33 is 33mhz.
http://www.chipdb.org/img-cyrix-cx87slc-33-qp-6536.htm
http://www.chipdb.org/img-cyrix-cx87slc-v25qp-447.htm
The only Cyrix cx87 datasheet found (so far) is for 87slc-25

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-01-17, 03:47:

As rare as that thing is it might actually be worth several hundred, I don't know that I'd go hacking on it.

I'm not in this for the money. I'll be replacing the CPU when COVID is over. I'll also be soldering on that FPU. These may have even come with an SXLC2 -40 or -50 at some point.
I do have another 286 PGA upgrade, but it only upgrades the system to a 386SX-33. It is made by Kingson and has some cache built onto the interposer. I figured this Evergreen, having a CPU with L1 cache already, would make a better candidate for soldering on a SXLC2-50.

Unfortunately, my wife has commandeered my computer room for work-from-home space and her standing desk add-on unit makes it impossible to use my workbench.

Horun, well I'm pretty sure you couldn't run these Cyrix FPU's async, so to get 33 Mhz out of the FPU, the CPU would also be running at 33 MHz, meaning it would be upgrading a Harris 16 MHz 286? User Anonymous Coward knows a lot more about 286 upgrades than I do, perhaps he will chime in.

covid is never going away. theres already atleast 9 mutations of it. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/13/moderna-ceo-s … us-forever.html

If it never goes away, then it will have to wait for the home expansion project. Unfortunately construction is too hot here right now to even get quotes.

Question, from reading this thread it almost sounds like the settings you expect those switches to control are unlikely to damage the cpu if set wrong. If you can’t figure out a setting or just want to make sure you may be able to try them one at a time and record results shown in a cpu analizer program.

I agree about the need for interposer board gerbers for old computer processor sockets.

I personally would love to be able to order a board that I could solder a tillamook 300 to. To be able to replicate that golden chinese fake/notfake pentium 1 300

Most likely, I will trace out where each switch goes and try to make some guestimate as to what their purpose is.

feipoa wrote on 2021-01-17, 05:17:

Horun, well I'm pretty sure you couldn't run these Cyrix FPU's async, so to get 33 Mhz out of the FPU, the CPU would also be running at 33 MHz, meaning it would be upgrading a Harris 16 MHz 286? User Anonymous Coward knows a lot more about 286 upgrades than I do, perhaps he will chime in.

But the cpu on that one with 33Mhz FPU is still a 25Mhz version CPU. Another thought is that someone added the 33Mhz FPU to a non-fpu interposer because they had one.
Or maybe Evergreen just got a great price on them and said 'sure send them' 😀

Horun wrote on 2021-01-18, 01:58:

feipoa wrote on 2021-01-17, 05:17:

Horun, well I'm pretty sure you couldn't run these Cyrix FPU's async, so to get 33 Mhz out of the FPU, the CPU would also be running at 33 MHz, meaning it would be upgrading a Harris 16 MHz 286? User Anonymous Coward knows a lot more about 286 upgrades than I do, perhaps he will chime in.

But the cpu on that one with 33Mhz FPU is still a 25Mhz version CPU. Another thought is that someone added the 33Mhz FPU to a non-fpu interposer because they had one.
Or maybe Evergreen just got a great price on them and said 'sure send them' :)

I think it was a condition of availability, price, or both. I've seen 40 MHz FPUs on many 386 interposers which only run the FSB at 25 MHz. But your point is certainly valid about the DIP switch settings being different with different FPUs installed. However, the PAL versions are also different. Need more information!

feipoa wrote on 2021-01-16, 21:43:

Am I the only one who owns one of these? If you have one, could you at least share a photo of yours so I can see what the DIP switch settings are?

I received a 286 motherboard today that has one of these installed, but I'm afraid I know absolutely nothing about it. I can take a pic of the current settings, it it will help.
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Skip94 wrote on 2021-01-18, 02:48:

feipoa wrote on 2021-01-16, 21:43:

Am I the only one who owns one of these? If you have one, could you at least share a photo of yours so I can see what the DIP switch settings are?

I received a 286 motherboard today that has one of these installed, but I'm afraid I know absolutely nothing about it. I can take a pic of the current settings, it it will help.
Skip

Yes, if you could, please upload a photo of your Evergreen 486 SuperChip so we can see which FPU, CPU, PAL revisions, and DIP settings are used. Thanks a lot!

This is mine
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