386 upgrade cpus? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

10 Apr 2000

...
 There were daughterboards that fitted in place of the
80286 processor 
chip. They normally contained an 80386SX (16 bit data bus) or sometimes a 
486SLC-type thing (that could be convinced to use a 16 bit data bus 
without too much work) and a couple of PLDs to combine bus control 
signals, etc. Some of them even had a floating point chip on the board.

Ah - the "SX/Now!" from Kingston, for example.  Installed a bunch of them.
When we had problems with them, the tended to be referred to as the "Sucks
Now!"...  Before that, it was the "Excellerator" board, which used an ISA
card with essentially a complete 286 CPU, RAM, etc. and a DIP jumper which
plugged into the 8086 socket and made your PC into a screaming 16Mhz '286.
Installed a bunch of those, too.  Many years ago, we went through a whole
upgrade cycle on all of the original PC machines our company had out in the
field; brought them into the office, installed an Excellerator and a 20MB
"Hard Card", and a <*gasp> 2400 baud modem!!

                                        Bill Richman
                                        http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r
                                        (Home of the COSMAC Elf 
                                         microcomputer simulator!)