need a help to identify strange expansion slots on 386DX mainboard \ VOGONS

need a help to identify strange expansion slots on 386DX mainboard

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First post, by DmytroR

Posted on 2025-01-12, 19:29

DmytroR Offline

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Posts: 6
Joined: 2024-06-05, 11:31

Ladies and gentlemen,

recently I've got an interesting working Intel board on E-bay. It has a bunch of programmable DIP logic instead of chipset. After going into BIOS codes I have found that it has switchable 64KB cache and optional shadowing of main and video BIOS.
But what is the strange extensions for ISA slots? (next to slots #2,#3) I believe these are not used for memory expansion cards, memory expansion usually has another sizing.

The attachment intel_386dxs.jpg is no longer available

Reply 1 of 3, by mkarcher

Posted on 2025-01-12, 19:57

mkarcher Offline

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Location: Germany

Your board is https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … 02-system-board

The extended slots are called "Intel AT-32 bus slots". It seems those slots are somehow a combination of a 32-bit local bus (with addressing range limited to 28 bit) and 32-bit memory slots (technologically comparable to PS/2 SIMMs).

Reply 2 of 3, by DmytroR

Posted on 2025-01-12, 20:08

DmytroR Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: 2024-06-05, 11:31

oh, thanks!!!!!
It boots using XT-IDE, a nice old hardware!

Reply 3 of 3, by DmytroR

Posted on 2025-01-12, 20:11

DmytroR Offline

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Rank: Newbie
Posts: 6
Joined: 2024-06-05, 11:31

The most amazing thing it can load (by BIOS) a Unix kernel via COM1 port 😀 Absolutely amazing.

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