Computers with x86 add-on cards.

[Caluser2000]

There's a good thread going about various systems that had customised versions of MS-Dos so I thought I'd start one about about non-IBM compatable systems that had x86 add-on cards that in combination with some software to interact with it's native OS and add-on card interact with that systems hardware using suitable drivers where needed. I know there where quite a few over the years.

I'll start with the Acorn RiscPC. A number of so called x86 co-processor boards where made available to run on these with 486 class processors on them. There is a connector on the planar specifically designed to take these behind the ARM(Acorn Risc Machine) processor card and shares the system bus for i/o, video etc. The ones I have are: TI486SLX-40, TI 486DX4/100 and IBM 5x86c. The second two can have their processors swapped out. The software run in RiscOS is called called !PC Pro by Alpha 1 Ltd, with different version shipped with the different processors. This software got more feature richer with each new version. This software creates a file of the size you chose to install Dos etc. and initiates the x86 processor in RiscOS from an icon on the desktop.

I've tried PC/MS/DR Dos 5/6x along with PC Geos, Win3.1 on these myself. Others have used Windows 9x. The software can be run windowed within RiscOS or full screen, with full screen being obviously quicker. Nothing particularly special about the dos version-ie not customised for use on these systems. True 32bit OSs such as OS/2 or WinNT aren't suitable though. Nice thing with these systems is the fdd is 1.44/720k compatible and can read/write/format disks for use in RiscOS, Dos and Atari systems.

Blurry pic below of the 3 cards etc.

I'd like to hear about the systems other members had add-on x86 cards for.

[GottaLottaStuff]

I have cards to run DOS on the Epson QX10 and the AT&T 7300, if that's what you have in mind.

[Chuck(G)]

Apple Macintosh (the original). cf. MacCharlie

[Caluser2000]

MacCharlie wasn't an add-in x86 card that resided inside a system but basicly an x86 box, with it's own drive/s, attached via the serial port using the Mac as a terminal.

I have cards to run DOS on the Epson QX10 and the AT&T 7300, if that's what you have in mind.

That's the type of thing I was referring to and the likes of Amiga bridgeboards.

[Chuck(G)]

Ah, so like the Sun IPC board or the HP9000 series 300 DOS coprocessor board.

There were quite a few of those types of things.

There were also "reverse" boards--for example, the Opus Unix board that allowed a PC to run Sun's Unix.

[Caluser2000]

Yeah that type of thing Chuck. Pics of those and peoples experiences using them would be great. More interested in x86 cards for this thread though.

[HoJoPo]

The PC Transporter for the Apple II line was a good example... basically a PC/XT clone on an Apple II card. I have one in my IIgs system, the video switch is implemented nicely and CGA looks great on the IIgs RGB monitor.

With the Superdrive card I have in the system, along with a Microdrive Turbo, I have an NEC V20 based XT clone with 1.44MB floppy support and hard drive. It even uses the IIgs clock to set the XT clock, if you run a little app in autoexec.bat.

There is a lot of documentation online for the PC transporter, along with sales literature showing pics, here: http://ae.applearchives.com/all_appl...c_transporter/

Advertising here:

[HoJoPo]

I also have a couple of Macs with the DOS compatibility cards, one 486DX2/66, I'm not sure if the other is Pentium or not. I haven't done much with them yet though.

I did use the Apple IIe card in my Mac LCII... not x86 compatible, but a similar concept.

[Caluser2000]

The PC Transporter for the Apple II line was a good example...

Thanks for sharing HoJoPo. That's exactly the type of card I was referring to.

[eeguru]

It wasn't for DOS compatibility, but worth mentioning. Nearly every 3B2 series I/O card was based off the same AT&T CIO reference design which included a 80186. It was basically a x86 single board computer in every I/O slot. But the software was so poorly written, it couldn't drive simple serial ports above 2400 baud or so. I've entertained the notion of building a DOS card for it.

[NeXT]

Sun had the SunPC cards.

[Caluser2000]

Found an old reference on vcf to the Powermac 6100/66 DOS Compatible. Apparently its DOS card used a 486DX2/66, had local bus video on board, plus a mini Soundblaster 16 daughter card.

[Xanxi]

Don't forget the Commodore Amiga computers wich have several hardware options to become x86 compatible.

- The bridgeboards, full cards able to drive the inactive ISA slots of the A2000/3000/4000 such as the Commodore A2086, A2286 and A2386, with CPU from Intel 8086 to Intel 386sx 25 Mhz (upgradable by user up to 486 SLC3 75Mhz), or third-party cards made by Vortex
- some cards which plug into the 68000 socket for A500/A2000 and maybe A1000, such as the Vortex AtOnce and AtOnce plus
- some cards which take place in the memory add-on slot of the A500 such as the KCS PowerPC
- some cards which take place in a side slot expansion for the A500, such as the GVP 286 add on (connects into a special connector inside a GVP harddrive/RAM/CPU expansion)


All these cards share devices with the Amiga OS and are able to multitask. The bridgeboards can drive additional hardware connected to the ISA bus, such as VGA cards, audio cards, IDE/SCSI cards, IO cards, network cards.

[KC9UDX]

I could probably list some propietary industrial controllers with AT-clone-on-a-card solutions but I don't know that that would interest anyone.

[Timo W.]

I'll start with the Acorn RiscPC. A number of so called x86 co-processor boards where made available to run on these with 486 class processors on them.

I have an Acorn A3020 with an AGA-31 PC card. That one is running an AMD 386sx with 25/33 MHz. Not useful for anything than DOS, though, as video is slow as hell...