Summary: Questions about INTEL 386/PC Inboard
Errol Casey
Below is the collection of letters I received. I'm now a proud owner of a
IBM PC which runs with a Norton SI rating of 16.6 in fast mode with the INTEL
Inboard.
=============================================================================
Messages Following:
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 90 20:24:29 AST
From: 870646c%Acadi...@ncsuvm.ncsu.edu
I had one of these boards, it was great. You must disable the
motherboard's ram down to 256k for some reason. There is one
meg of ram on the board when you get it(also uses shadow ram).
I think you will enjoy the board, it also works with Xenix.
later
Barry
From: lar...@nprdc.navy.mil (Orvin Larson)
Date: 18 March 1990 1803-PST (Sunday)
To: g...@cscosl.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: lar...@nprdc.navy.mil
I have an Intel Inboard386/PC in a 1983 IBM PC-2. I have the board plus the
four megabyte daughter-board. It works fine and gives me a Norton SI of 18.7.
As to your questions,
1. No
1. No, you cannot use your existing 640K. You remove everything except what
is on the motherboard (256K). The intel provides its own 32 bit memory from
the One Meg that comes standard on the board.
2. Yes and no. They provide a modified version of Windows fairly cheaply if
you buy the standard board and its free if you get the big memory board -- but
those options change over time. It does run QEMM with no changes and usually
comes with a coupon for low cost ordering.
3. OOPS! I have two and three out of order. the board comes with 1 Meg, you
can add a daughter board with 2 additional Megs, or, a daughter board with 4
Megs on it. You CANNOT upgrade the 2 meg board to 4Megs. I have the 4 Megs.
4. There are only a few things incompatible with the intel-386. They will
provide a list of potential problems, or, a list of what things to be wary of.
So far I have found only 1 item and that is the new Mace utilities install
program -- and that is probably a setup problem that should be solved shortly.
OS/2 and the unmodified version of Windows are incompatible.
5. I got mine from PC Connection in Vermont -- from their add in PC World.
They ahve been very good for over two years in my personal experience.
6. I think the answer is yes, the memory can be used as EMS 4.0, or LIM 4.0.
They have a setup program that asks what you want and it sets the memory into
extended and expanded combinations for your applications. I was using EEMS 3.0
with 2 Megs of expanded from an AST 6-pak Premium board. This is better by far
as Intel is setup to use extended for the same purposes. I run Carousel from
Softlogic and have a 1 Meg disc cache, and 3.5 Megs of extended I use to
switch among loaded applications including WP 5.0, Dbase III+, 123, ProComm +,
and various graphic programs as well as backup programs.
7. You didn't ask, but I will volunteer that the extra memory is rather
expensive --considering current chip prices. the board at 579 plus 4 Megs at
1249 gives you the price of a basic clone 386SX machine these days. But the
basic board beats the heck our of any accelerator cards for a PC.
8. If you have access to Compuserve, Intel has a very active support group for
their products and will answer your questions "specifically" before you even
buy. They are very good! They are in the PCEO Forum, Al Kinney is the SysOp
and his ID is 76702,371.
9. I also needed more speed for large files -- it did the job! I do not
multitask because Carousel works so well for so little effort. My processing
times are fairly short but my need to change among programs during the day are
frequent --this saves loading and unloading. I just leave my telecom in a
partition and check it every 20-30 minutes for mail --it does not drop out when
not active. But I cannot leave a long upload running while I move to another
partition and if you need that windows or DQView is necessary. As I said
earlier, I run a 1 meg disc cache that is provided by Intel. I t works well
with my Plus Hardcard 40 --really makes a 7 year old PC as good as the new 386
machines --well not perfect but certainly faster than any of the 286 machines
Iooked at. I am well pleased, but prices of new 386SX machines are now lower
than when I ordered mine.
10. Good Luck
Orv
From: ngh...@ut-emx.UUCP (Alex Nghiem)
Date: 19 Mar 90 01:35:02 GMT
Reply-To: ngh...@emx.UUCP (Alex Nghiem)
In article <1990Mar18.0...@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> g...@cscosl.ncsu.edu (Errol Casey) writes:
I have an Intel 386/PC and am pleased with it.
>Preliminary Questions:
>
>(1) Can I use my existing 640K of memory, along with the memory that
>comes on the Intel 386/PC board.
Yes and No. You need the PC's main memory for intial dos boot only. After the
initial boot, a device driver is loaded and all of the PC's conventional
memory is bypassed. The amount of memory for the intial memory needed
for boot varies from motherboard to motherboard. My clone with Phoenix
BIOS only needs 16k to boot dos. I put all of my extra memory on an
additional expanded memory board.
>(2) How much memory can the Intel 386/PC board have installed on it? I
>have heard that their are daughter boards that will allow up to 4
>megabytes to be installed on the board. Any users have this
>configuratioN?
Intel 386/PC comes standard with one meg of memory: 640 is used for
main memory, 128K is used for bios shadowing, and the remaining 256k
is available as extended memory. You can add three more megs of memory
on a daughter board, however, very few places sell the daughter card.
I believe it is cheaper to add expanded memory than buy the
Intel daughter card.
>(3) Is the board compatible with such 386 programs as Microsoft
>Windows/386 and Desqview with the QEMM/386 memory manager program?
Microsoft Windows/386 has drivers for the Intel 386/PC. UltraScript
PC also has drivers for the 386/PC. I can't say for the QEMM program.
I don't have access to it.
>(4) I have been told that some software is not compatible with this
>board. Does anybody have any know software that is NOT compatible with
>it?
Software that conforms to Lotus Intel Microsoft 4.0 extended/expanded
memory specifications should work with this board. If it does not
conform, it may not work. OS/2 does not work with the
Intel 386/PC.
>(5) Any sources to reliable mail-order firms that sale this product
>will also be helpful. I have seen an add for it by PC Connection in
>the latest issue of BYTE.
I bought mine from CompuAdd. The going mail order price is about 560.00
with one meg of memory.
>(6) Can the memory on the INTEL/386 PC board be used as EMS 4.0
>memory?
Yes. The 386/PC comes with a device driver to convert extended to
expanded memory, however it will not work with 80386 specific programs
such as Windows/386. Intel also provides a BBS where you can download
the latest drivers.
>Reasons for upgrading:
>
>(1) Increase speed. For compiling and editing large files.
Yes, however disk I/O will be limited by the standard 4.77 Mhz 8 bit
bus.
>(2) Increased memory. For multitasking and disk caching.
Yes, Windows multitasking is nice. Intel's disk cache works
well to.
>(3) Multitasking. Background telecommunications.
Yes. I can run MS-Kermit 3.0 in a window and play with my downloads
in another window.
>Looking forward to the replies.
>
>Granville Errol Casey, Jr.
>NCSU Computer Science Department
>Email Addresses: g...@cscosl.ncsu.edu
> gec%csc...@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
__________________________________________________________________________
This article is posted for factual information only. Any misrepresentation,
if any, is purely unintentional. Any opinion expressed or implicit in
these remarks are solely my own.
ngh...@emx.utexas.edu
!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!nghiem
ngh...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf!nghiem
From s...@wimsey.bc.ca Tue Mar 20 09:21:22 1990
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 90 06:19 PST
To: g...@cscosl.ncsu.edu
From: Samuel Lam <s...@wimsey.bc.ca>
Reply-To: Samuel Lam <s...@wimsey.bc.ca>
Status: OR
In article <1990Mar18.0...@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>, you wrote:
>(3) Is the board compatible with such 386 programs as Microsoft
>Windows/386 and Desqview with the QEMM/386 memory manager program?
A friend of mine runs both DesqView and QEMM on his InBoard 386/PC
and has no problem with them. In fact, he prefers that over Windows/386
because he would need more extended memory for that and that would mean
he has to buy the rather expensive daughter board from Intel.
...Sam
---
Internet: <s...@wimsey.bc.ca> UUCP: {van-bc,ubc-cs,uunet}!wimsey.bc.ca!skl
From STRA...@acfcluster.nyu.edu Tue Mar 20 09:23:23 1990
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 1990 19:54:47 EST
From: STRA...@ACF1.NYU.EDU (Rosemary Strauss)
To: g...@cscosl.ncsu.edu
X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%"g...@cscosl.ncsu.edu"
In article <1990Mar18.0...@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>, you write...
>I am presently looking into purchasing an INTEL 386/PC board for my IBM
>PC. But before purchasing, I would like to collect as much information
>as possible about this upgrade product.
I had an Intel 386 board in my AT, along with 3 meg of RAM and
I had very bad problems running Windows/386. Windows frequently
crashed when I tried to run Excel, or if I ran a Command window
and tried to run other programs at the same time (or even if
I tried to exit the Command Window. In addition, it ran
very slowly most of the time. I was not impressed. I upgraded
to a Compaq 386/20e. A very good decision.
From: pa...@hp-ptp.HP.COM (Paul_Taira)
Date: 19 Mar 90 18:28:13 GMT
>/ hp-ptp:comp.sys.ibm.pc / ngh...@ut-emx.UUCP (Alex Nghiem) / 5:35 pm Mar 18, 1990 /
>In article <1990Mar18.0...@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> g...@cscosl.ncsu.edu (Errol Casey) writes:
>
>I have an Intel 386/PC and am pleased with it.
I would agree :) I have had my 386/PC card for ~one year and it was worth
the dollars spent.
I believe the maximum memory via a piggyback board is 5 meg: 1 meg on the
386/PC card and a 4 meg daughterboard. But I purchased a AboveBoard and
added ram because you save many $$$. Granted, this memory is accessed
through the 8-bit bus, the cost savings was substatial.
BTW, I have *NEVER* run into any software problems with the 386 board :)
Paul Taira
Granville Errol Casey, Jr.
NCSU Computer Science Department
Email Addresses: g...@cscosl.ncsu.edu
gec%csc...@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
Alex Nghiem
1. I stated that the Intel 386/PC needs only 16k to boot
DOS intially on my clone. Actually, it needs Bank 0, which is
64K
2. I stated that you can add three megs of memory. Actually,
my manual states you can add an optional daughter board for
a total of three megs of memory. The four meg daughterboard
is not documented in my manual
Chris Bradley
>I have two corrections to add:
>
>1. I stated that the Intel 386/PC needs only 16k to boot
>DOS intially on my clone. Actually, it needs Bank 0, which is
>64K
It should boot up with no memory at all.
>2. I stated that you can add three megs of memory. Actually,
>my manual states you can add an optional daughter board for
>a total of three megs of memory. The four meg daughterboard
>is not documented in my manual
In the later manual (at least the most current one) it states that there is
both a 2 meg and 4 meg piggyback board available. Feel free to direct any
questions about the Inboard to me; I work at Intel PCEO as a support person.
-->Chris
UUCP: ..tektronix!tessi!escargot!chrisb "I didn't like the Mercury Sable,
Phone: (503) 644-3585 (Call anytime!) So I bought a Ford Taurus instead!"