30 Aug
2006
30 Aug
'06
12:39 p.m.
Am 30 Aug 2006 13:41 meinte Roy J. Tellason:
On Tuesday 29 August 2006 08:42 pm, Tony Duell wrote:
> A serious question : Was the Pentium ever used in a non-PC compatible? I
> know the 386 was -- there was a least one Sun that used it, and those
> interesting Sequent multi-processor 386 machines. Anything similar with
> the Pentium? If so, (and if they're more than 10 years old or whatever),
> I think I could easily consider those to be classic computers.
Interesting question. I know that the last time I was
paying attention to
that area, embedded systems were starting to use 386 chips. And my Tek
scope has an 8088 in it...
Now, the question is how to define 'Non-PC compatible'. After all,
the PC itself isn't that hard defined. If you look on what machines
DOS was running, including highly complex applications like Word,
Autocad or even Windows, you'll find that the common denominator
often just the use of a x86 CPU is.
Thus every Pentium based computer would be PC-Compatible by definition.
Over the year basicly all components have been moved in and out
without damaging the PC definition - only one or the other application
wasn't working anymore.
As minimum we could go with asuming that if the Machine wasn't ment
to run DOS/Windows it is Non-PC-Compatible. But that would includes
of the shelf PCs sold with a different OS - like lots of PC Based
Unix Workstations.
As said before, we can start to remove BIOS, 8 Bit DMA, A20 Gate, and
whatever, there will still be a way to load and run quite some if not
all Software made for '100% PC-Compatible' computers.
For the sake of the argument we can use a definition that the boot
ROM does not contain a PC-alike BIOS and does not boot from DOS-like
boot sectors - but now we are eleminateing lots of machines that never
seen any DOS or Windows but where the developers used easy to buy BIOS
code for bootstrap.
Well ... in fact, not even a non x86 CPU can give us a Machine not
able to boot DOS or Windows - if the loader gets first some loadable
BIOS that includes an emulator, we'll boot into a perfectly PC-compatible
system... Technology is a great thing - isn't it :)
Leaving all the arguments beside, yes, I think there have been plenty
of Non-PC-compatible Pentium Machines. Starting from standard x86
workstation boards that had different BIOS code to boot into some
x86 Unix (like the Siemens WS 200) up to machines where specific
boards have been made, which where using standard components, but
not using features like floppy controlers or ISA-Bus interfaces.
Just think, if you are supposed to design a Pentium class machine,
would you waste all the money and build several custom chipsets,
or would you rather use stuff that's available on the market?
A nice example are the Pentium based Unix systems from SNI. The
machines had up to 32 Pentuim 60 CPUs (later Pentium 100). A custom
card/bus system was used, that was somewhat based on Multibus II.
From the whole design it was never ment as a PC nor I
have seen
Windows (except X-Window :) running on one, but the chipset used
on the CPU boards was an Intel 430FX - all you need for a compatible
PC design.
Oh, and don'T forget the Pentium Pro based 'Supercomputers' :)
So, I guess we have a dual answer:
Yes, there have been Non-PC-Compatible system made and sold in large numbers.
No, there is no such thing as a Non-PC-Compatible x86 computer
Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 8.0 am 28/29.April 2007 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/