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I finally figured what that IDE-like card was

P

per

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My dad mannaged to take a look at the card, and it turns out to not be an IDE Hard drive controller as I expected, but it's an full-blown:

ORCHID PCTURBO 286e

This card got one of two possible memory expansions, but no 80287 Numerical coprocessor. This card does not, unlike their tiny-turbo, got a cable to connect to the 8088 CPU, and I don't really know how to operate it. The good news is that it most possibly got two headers for IDE hard drives :D . There is 512Kb of RAM on the expansion board, so I assume total memory is 1M.

I doesn't have any idea how rare it is or what it is worth.
 
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Would have been great if anybody got the software disk(s) for this card.

It's NOT the Tiny-Turbo thing. The difference between this and the Tiny-Turbo is, the Tiny-Turbo only turns your computer into a fast XT with 286-compability, while this card actually turns your XT into an AT clone.
 
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There's no external switch on the card, so I agree finding the software/drivers is a must. It might not activate unless set to, for example.

Those IDE headers are very interesting; I wonder if they are XT-IDE or if they are something more functional.
 
Trixter said:
There's no external switch on the card, so I agree finding the software/drivers is a must. It might not activate unless set to, for example.
Click to expand...
There might be some on the harddrive, but I really don't think I'll get it to work. Chances are like 1 of 73 that the drive heads was parked last time it was used.

I found a user in a newsgroup (message nr5) claming he got software for it, and I sendt him an email some hours ago.

Trixter said:
Those IDE headers are very interesting; I wonder if they are XT-IDE or if they are something more functional.
Click to expand...

I think it is the 16-bit ones, since the card is actually a small AT-Clone, and that a 286 is 16-bit externally.
 
Ì found some other comment that the card will lock up under DOS 5.0, just fyi.
 
I have done some more research and I found some more information on how the card works.

The card is, as I said earlier, actually an entire AT-Clone-on-a-card. It shares a 64Kb window of RAM (usually at E0000) with the host PC/XT, and it require a driver to run.

It is default set to I/O address 300h, but I/O address 208h is also a valid option (there is many more of course). It can be set to various IRQs. I think it also got a "turbo.sys" serving as a "config.sys" for the 286 card.
 
Can you please forward me a copy of any software you have for the
PCTurbo card ?

per said:
I have done some more research and I found some more information on how the card works.

The card is, as I said earlier, actually an entire AT-Clone-on-a-card. It shares a 64Kb window of RAM (usually at E0000) with the host PC/XT, and it require a driver to run.

It is default set to I/O address 300h, but I/O address 208h is also a valid option (there is many more of course). It can be set to various IRQs. I think it also got a "turbo.sys" serving as a "config.sys" for the 286 card.
Click to expand...
 
mikey99 said:
Can you please forward me a copy of any software you have for the
PCTurbo card ?
Click to expand...

I've sendt a mail to seven or eigth people. Of therse, about four of the mail adresses couldn't be found (problably outdated), one didn't have the software, two hasn't replied yet, and the last one says he think he got it and he'd look.

I'll let everybody know if I get something.
 
per said:
I've sendt a mail to seven or eigth people. Of therse, about four of the mail adresses couldn't be found (problably outdated), one didn't have the software, two hasn't replied yet, and the last one says he think he got it and he'd look.

I'll let everybody know if I get something.
Click to expand...

Looks like one of the people I contacted got the software, however, it's patched to work on the TI Professional PC. In order to get it to work, it'll need unpatcing, but that shouldn't be too mutch trouble because the only difference is the BIOS calls, and that hardware interrupts (IRQ) vectors got the base of 0x40h instead of 0x08h.

See below for differences between the IBM PC and the TI Pro PC:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/TI-Pro.html
 
Do you know what the actual filename of the driver is ? Are there any
additional files , docs, or a README ?
 
mikey99 said:
Do you know what the actual filename of the driver is ? Are there any
additional files , docs, or a README ?
Click to expand...

Not yet, the one I am in contact with only checks his mailbox once daily, and I sent the request if he can send me a copy of the disk just earlier today (I assume TI Pro. PC disks are readable with IBM PCs).
 
Orchid pcTurbo 286 for TIPC

Orchid pcTurbo 286 for TIPC

per said:
Looks like one of the people I contacted got the software, however, it's patched to work on the TI Professional PC. In order to get it to work, it'll need unpatcing, but that shouldn't be too mutch trouble because the only difference is the BIOS calls, and that hardware interrupts (IRQ) vectors got the base of 0x40h instead of 0x08h.

See below for differences between the IBM PC and the TI Pro PC:
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~af380/TI-Pro.html
Click to expand...

Pretty big gap in time here, but I'd like a copy of the patched software if it is still available.

Regards,

Ernst
 
Added this to other threads on this card but a member shared the manual and software for the later revision card, this is the full installer not the copy of the software from user per’s disk back up:


I believe it to be a later revision of software but if anyone who owns this card still has it and gets it working with this then ping me to let me know.
 
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