8 Jun
2013
8 Jun
'13
9:44 a.m.
On Sat, Jun 8, 2013 at 7:19 AM, Tothwolf <tothwolf at concentric.net> wrote:
It does look like a nice board, but I can understand why you'd upgrade it.
On Sat, 8 Jun 2013, Ethan Dicks wrote:
> Going through stuff on the shelf and I've run across a couple of 486-based
> fully-integrated LCD/touchscreen machines... a Planar Systems box...
> 4x 30-pin SIMM sockets... with "double-sided SIMM" support... 32MB max
This was part of my gripe in the other thread. We just
don't have a full
fledged or embedded Linux solution that is currently maintained that will
work well with these type of embedded boards.
Agreed.
RedHat 5.2 was the last RedHat Linux distribution I
used on 486 based boards
and IIRC, 5.2 was the last of the pre-GNOME RedHat releases (this was around
the time the Pentium II came out and the ATX form factor came to market). I
later moved all the 486 based stuff I maintained that used Linux to Debian
2.1 (slink) and 2.2 (potato). I would think that most any Debian version
from 3.0 (woody) up through 5.0 (lenny) would work moderately well with a
486 based application, as long as you aren't trying to use something like
GNOME or KDE under X11.
Thanks for refreshing those bits.
A current Debian distribution such as 6.0 (squeeze) or
7.0 (wheezy) should
work on a 486, at least in console mode (I've not even considered trying to
run current X11 on one)...
I can't imagine even semi-modern X11 on a machine with less than 64MB. It
was bad enough 10 years ago with RedHat 9 at 256MB.
Your board with 4 30-pin SIMM sockets likely tops out
at 16MB. AFAIK, no one
ever made 8MB 30-pin SIMMs,,,
They did exist, but were quite rare and are still quite expensive.
http://shopper.cnet.com/ram-random-access-memory/simple-technology-8mb-dram…
The board has 4x 2MB SIMMs in it now. Yes. 2MB. Same idea
as an 8MB SIMM but with 4Mbit chips (1Mx4) instead of 16Mbit
chips.
I also have some all-in-one "keyboard Net-Stations" (sold with an
eye towards being DOS/Novell NetWare clients, AFAIK) with the
same CPU board as this Planar unit, so I occasionally consider
fabricating a run of 8MB SIMMs, but any time I get close to
starting the project, the amount of work that is intrudes and I
pick up a different task. I should at least reverse-engineer the
2MB SIMMs I have to see how they differ from 1MB SIMMs.
I've dug
up full specs on the Scantouch 3000 innards - PCM-4890 integrated
CPU board...
The PCM-4890 was made by Advantech and is a pretty good board. I'm familiar
with them and at one time used lots of them. It is a 5.25" sized "Biscuit
PC" form factor. Mostly due to the lack of a decent Linux distribution to
use with them, I swapped out all the remaining 5.25" Biscuit PC 486 boards I
was maintaining with Socket 7 boards about 8-10 years ago. A quick Google
search even turns up a pdf file of the user guide:
ftp://ftp.emacinc.com/Archive/m-4890.pdf
I'd previously found that, but thanks.
I would suggest avoiding "EDO" memory with
these and stick with a pair of
32MB 72-pin FPM Parity type SIMMs. EDO support with many of these types of
boards is problematic and was more of an afterthought and marketing ploy.
Samsung FPM SIMMs in particular work very, very well with these types of
boards.
Very good to know. There's one SIMM in it now - a 32MB EDO SIMM (based
on the part numbers on the chips). I know I have some 32MB FPM SIMMs
from when I was running maxed-out SPARC LX boxes.
despite the "Just go buy a new PC" responses
from many of the current
Linux distribution maintainers, it is cases such as this where you can't
just replace something with a cheap off-the-shelf consumer "PC".
Agreed. This is, essentially, an embedded platform that just happens to
architecturally resemble an early-to-mid-1990s desktop machine (so that
it can run DOS and Windows without too much of a stretch).
I did find a Microsoft license key sticker under a mounting bracket on the
back - Win98 SE Embedded, so it was sold for running that. They must
have upgraded the touch screen hardware or else the forum posts I was
reading about this device were inaccurate with respect to pixels/mickeys
and Win98 touchscreen drivers.
Thanks for the info!
-ethan