22 Sep
2008
22 Sep
'08
11:58 p.m.
Hi all --
Picked up an AST Hot Shot/286 over the weekend thinking it'd be a way to
trick out my already tricked out(*) PC XT. (Yeah, like I don't have
enough other projects going at the moment...)
No manuals or cabling, just the card w/10Mhz 286. It has a row of dip
switches on the "front" of the card, a 40-pin connector on the top and a
40-pin socket. I assume the socket is for an 8088 (or maybe a cable
from the motherboard socket to the card?) and I'm
guessing the 40-pin
connector might have been for a RAM expansion.
Anyone have any docs/info on this? All I can find on the 'net is a
driver and a README that's about 4 lines long :).
Thanks once again!
Josh
(*) NEC V20 CPU, 640K RAM, SVGA graphics (1MB vram!), a single 360K
floppy (classic!), a 1.2gb Maxtor SCSI connected to a T128 controller,
3Com Etherlink II-TP, SoundBlaster 2, AST sixpakplus.
24 Sep
24 Sep
10:41 a.m.
Hi all --
Picked up an AST Hot Shot/286 over the weekend thinking it'd be a way to
trick out my already tricked out(*) PC XT. (Yeah, like I don't have
enough other projects going at the moment...)
No manuals or cabling, just the card w/10Mhz 286. It has a row of dip
switches on the "front" of the card, a 40-pin connector on the top and a
40-pin socket. I assume the socket is for an 8088 (or maybe a cable
Or maybe an 80287 floating point chip?
from the motherboard socket to the card?) and I'm
guessing the 40-pin
connector might have been for a RAM expansion.
My first guess would be that it's for a ribbon cable to the 8088 socket.
It might be just a plain header plug on the motherboard end, or it might
be a little daughetboard that takes the 8088 after removing it from said
motherboard socket, the daughterboard also having pins that go into the
socket.
But I don't know...
-tony
12:30 p.m.
I'm with Tony on the 40-pin socket as an 80287 spot.
Here are the switch settings:
Cached area (base)
1 2 3
Off Off Off disabled
On Off Off 0-256K
Off On Off disabled
On On Off disabled
Off Off On disabled
On Off On 0-512K
Off On On 0-576K
On On On 0-640K
4 to 7
Cached area (extended)
4 5 6 7
Off Off Off Off disabled
On Off Off Off C0000-CFFFF
On On Off Off C4000-D3FFF
Off On On Off CC000-DBFFF
Off Off On Off D0000?DFFFF
On Off On Off D4000-E3FFF
On On On Off D8000-E7FFF
On On On On DC000-EBFFF
Off On On On E0000-EFFFF
Off Off On On CC000-EFFFF
You're probably safe in leaving them all off to start with.
The 40-pin header as a plugin for the 8088 on the planar can be
verified by checking where the reset, data lines, and power wind up.
Some 286 add-ins don't require removal of the 8088; others do. And,
as Tony stated, it might go to a small daughterboard.
I suppose the header might be a memory add on, but with 24 address
lines and 16 data lines, that's not very likely.
Cheers,
Chuck
12:45 p.m.
OR, . . .
the 40 pin connector could be for the cable to the 8088 socket on the
motherboard, and the 40 pin socket could be for the 8088.
1:03 p.m.
On 24 Sep 2008 at 12:45, Fred Cisin wrote:
OR, . . .
the 40 pin connector could be for the cable to the 8088 socket on the
motherboard, and the 40 pin socket could be for the 8088.
I don't think so--there are a couple of technical bulletins still
running around that say "if you have a driver that requires an 8088
to do two I/O instructions in a row, the HotShot won't work". See,
for example:
http://www.textfiles.com/computers/ASTRESEARCH/0297.tb
Besides, how many 80286 add-in cards didn't have a NDP socket, seeing
as how most purchasers bought them to run 1-2-3?
Cheers,
Chuck
3:41 p.m.
On Sep 24, 2008, at 1:03 PM, "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
On 24 Sep 2008 at 12:45, Fred Cisin wrote:
I thought so, too (I think I found the same tech bulletin) but the
driver software provides a hot-key to switch between 286 and 8088
mode. The (very brief) README that accompanies it mentions this
switch being necessary for some software. So it's possible that the
socket's for the 8088.
It's also possible that I'm missing some components (a daughtercard or
something extra that plugs into the motherboard's CPU socket) as has
been pointed out.
Wish I could find a manual :). Oh well, at least I didn't spend much
on this thing...
Josh
OR, . . .
the 40 pin connector could be for the cable to the 8088 socket on the
motherboard, and the 40 pin socket could be for the 8088.
I don't think so--there are a couple of technical bulletins still
running around that say "if you have a driver that requires an 8088
to do two I/O instructions in a row, the HotShot won't work". See,
for example:
http://www.textfiles.com/computers/ASTRESEARCH/0297.tb
Besides, how many 80286 add-in cards didn't have a NDP socket, seeing
as how most purchasers bought them to run 1-2-3?
Cheers,
Chuck
4:52 p.m.
On 24 Sep 2008 at 15:41, Josh Dersch wrote:
It's also possible that I'm missing some
components (a daughtercard or
something extra that plugs into the motherboard's CPU socket) as has
been pointed out.
Hmmm, probably. I can't imagine that running an 8088 at the end of a
length of 40-conductor ribbon cable with the crosstalk and ringing
that would accompany it would be very reliable. Most likely a
subassembly that plugs into the 8088 socket, with the 8088 plugging
into that.
Cheers,
Chuck
5:02 p.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
Hmmm, probably. I can't imagine that running an
8088 at the end of a
length of 40-conductor ribbon cable with the crosstalk and ringing
that would accompany it would be very reliable. Most likely a
subassembly that plugs into the 8088 socket, with the 8088 plugging
into that.
I have a SOTA board with the following setup:
- Socket for the original 8088
- 40-pin ribbon cable that ends in a 40-pin "cpu" interface that goes
from the add-in board (40-pin linear) to the
motherboard (40-pin "plug")
- Socket for an 8087
Hopefully this helps the OP.
--
Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/
Help our electronic games project: http://www.mobygames.com/
Or check out some trippy MindCandy at http://www.mindcandydvd.com/
A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/
7:11 p.m.
On 24 Sep 2008 at 19:02, Jim Leonard wrote:
I have a SOTA board with the following setup:
- Socket for the original 8088
- 40-pin ribbon cable that ends in a 40-pin "cpu" interface that goes
from the add-in board (40-pin linear) to the motherboard (40-pin "plug")
- Socket for an 8087
Your SOTA is the "Mothercard 286", right? That's a big brother to
the AST Hotshot, if my old product guides are any indication. The
Hotshot is a half-length card, much like the little Orchid mini-286
accelerator card.
Fortunately, the era of 286 accelerator cards didn't last all that
long--roughly mid-1986 to mid-1987. By 1988, 386 accelerators had
made their appearance. I checked my back issues of Byte and PC Tech
Journal for 1986-mid 1987 and didn't find a mention of the Hotshot,
though I did see several mentions of the SOTA mothercard. There was
a point where it was getting cheaper to buy a Far East 286 "baby"
motherboard and hard disk controller and swap them for the original
8088 mobo. Fewer compatibility headaches, too.
AST seemed to be mostly interested in pushing their 3G "kitchen sink"
graphics card in early 1986, then the Rampage cards, then Adavantage
cards, then complete systems, with modems and network cards sprinkled
in during late 1987. Around April, 1986, there was a product
annoucement of an add-in AST 8086 accelerator, but no Hotshot
subsequent to that.
Given that the HS is a half-length card, Fred could be right--the
8088 plugs into the empty socket and the header plugs into the 8088
socket on the planar.
For whatever it's worth,
Chuck
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