186 (was: CompuGraphics Question) - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

4 Aug 1999

I've been persuaded (by a couple of the guys who worked on the Boca-Raton
development of the PC) that Intel provided them with a prototype board used
in the development of the '188 and that it became the hardware model for the
PC motherboard.

It's hard to dispute, considering that the timers, DMAC's, etc would have
been prototyped using "real" hardware.  That would also explain some of the
stupidity surrounding interrupts on the PC.  Not even IBM would have done
something so silly as to use positive-going interrupts, except perhaps out
of fear that fixing it would break something.  They were on a tight
schedule, you know.

Dick
-----Original Message-----
From: allisonp(a)world.std.com &lt;allisonp(a)world.std.com&gt;
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
Date: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 10:55 AM
Subject: RE: 186 (was: CompuGraphics Question)

...

> > 186 ? Interesting ... it seams that there are way more 186 beaste
> > than I have asumed... This could be a collecting theme on their own.
>
> Every DEC TQK50/TUK50 (Q/U-bus TK50 tape drive interface) has an 80186 on it.
...
   I've also
seen them as drive controllers on several different brands
 of SCSI drives.  They seem to be rather common in the device/embedded
 market. 
Since it was aimed specifically at the embedded controller market, that's
no surprize.  It didn't do well as an 8088/8086 upgrade as the peripherals
on chip were not PC compatable though they are better than the PC
implmentations.

Allison