First post, by BitWrangler
- Rank
- l33t++
Hi folks,
Been turning up some parts lately that lead me to ideas about putting together a super XT... AT BX board, tualatin, slotket, done! ... just kidding... no an XT class system with all the goodies I can cram into it.
What I've found for it so far...
ATi Mach8 Graphics Ultra, with the 8514 emulation mode.
Seagate ST-05 8 bit SCSI card.
NEC V20
SB Pro
What I'm fairly sure I've got somewhere...
Clone 5160 motherboard... very similar to the eye to a late 5160, high density RAM i think, very socketed.
101 key XT/AT switchable keyboard
floppy card.
serial card
mono card with parallel
300MB SCSI drive
Floppy drives... everything but 2.88
8 bit NIC
SCSI CDROM... which I had a hate on, not sure if it was just because it wouldn't read linux CDs or boot from, it sorta worked, just not what I wanted it to work for last time I played with it, might be fine for a DOS system.
What I saw once upon a time, but so long ago I don't know if I kept it, or was just something I was looking at I don't own...
Multi function RAM floppy serial card.
High density floppy card.
EMS card
Microsoft Bus Mouse.
Stuff I might have to build or buy
https://github.com/reesclissold/pc-sprint
Mouse protocol converter
Memory expansion
ESP8266 wifi serial modem
You'll notice some duplication there, and probably too many cards, I'll be seeing what can be found, what plays nice, where features can be doubled up or rationalised. If I find the bus mouse for example, the ATi has a port for it, and I'll only want one serial port. Want a comms port as well as a tether for the mouses leash. So mainly expecting to run off the spinning rust. Might have bigger SCSI somewhere, but 300MB seems acres for an XT, most progs worth running you can get half a dozen to a floppy. Also think that SCSI will be plenty fast for it. Another thing with the SCSI I think I saw a 16 bit card that had settable IRQ, maybe for 8 bit mode, so it might get that one, because it also had floppy. Case... got a clone XT case that looks like a clone XT case, 5160 style from the front but actually has a flip up hinged lid... at least maybe, might be getting my cAsEs confused... Then also I say I think it's HD RAM on the board, but that designation has lodged in my brain without remembering whether that meant 384kB 512kB or a whole 640kB on the board... so relative essentialness of RAM boards may vary. I am kind of hoping to go dual monitor, VGA and mono. Because I'm a monster, I pulled some of the cards out of a 5155 years back, and tossed them in the same boxes I expect to find the other 8 bit stuff, so it might be kind of a dual build, making sure I'm not robbing the 5155 of bits that belong to it, and doing a semi-rebuild of that.
What's going on it, a classic DOS or a useful DOS? Wellll I'd prefer useful I think, I like 6.22, wondering if I should take a risk with PC DOS 2000 or something on this one, or whether that would break windows 3 or other things. Games... some of those... games are fun... mind always goes blank.. shovel load all the games. CP/M... maybe not "on" it, that might be bootable floppies.. not sure yet.
So this is what's simmering on the back burner so far, probably going to be a later in the year build rather than very soon...
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.