OT: "Skyrocket" the AT that never was...
Tony Ingenoso
history -- the machine that had the internal codename "Skyrocket". Looks
just like a normal AT with the primary difference being there is 640K on the
planar rather than 512K as shipped in all the retail models.
How did I happen across this rather unique piece of history? Well, I was in
the right place at the right time when the Boca Raton site was being
shutdown and thrown to the wind. IBM was firesaleing off all sorts of gear
to the employees and I'd bought a stack of AT's for $10/each. On closer
examination, one of the stack turned out to be the rare Skyrocket...
Anyone know of any other existing Skyrocket examples? Could this be the
only one left on the planet?
Peterwendt
>Anyone know of any other existing Skyrocket examples? Could this be the
>only one left on the planet?
The 5170 (AT)as well as the 5162 (XT286) had been produced in France long after
IBM USA stopped making them - due to existing customer orders. The "final days"
of these machines were a bit chaotic. The last of them were bundled with the
IBM ISA VGA card (featuring the exact chipset that can be found on Mod. 50, 60,
70 and 80 with the Inmos Ramdac) and an IBM 8512 screen.
The last ATs came with the XT286-mainboard, running the 80286 at 6 MHz, being
physically much smaller than the original AT "toilet seat sized" board - and
having 128K soldered plus 2 x 256K 30-pin SIMMs removeable.
Was that what you named "Skyrocket Board" - or was the skyrocket based on the
18-DIL RAM chips board ?
I know
- the 6 MHz AT01/02 board with the silly 128K RAMs created by soldering 2 x 64K
chips over each others. Board has 640KB. (4 rows with 9 "doubledeckers")
- the 6 MHz AT02 board with 18 256K x 1 RAMs (totalling 512KB)
- the 8 MHz AT03 board with 18 256K x 1 RAMs (also 512KB)
- the 6 MHz XT286 board with 128K soldered and 2 x 256K Simms (640KB)
Rumours talked about an 8 MHz version of the XT286 board, but I haven't seen
any - or haven't taken notice of. Some sources talk about a 10MHz board - but I
think they interchange it with a) either a clone board or b) the PS/2 Mod.
30-286 board.
Very friendly greetings from Peter in Germany
http://members.aol.com/mcapage0/mcaindex.htm
Tony Ingenoso
XT-286 style), but uses normal DIP's not the old Mostek/TI DIL's (positioned
on the usual place the double deckers would be on the planar though). It's
got a two rows of 41256 and two of 4164 type DIP.
I believe Skyrocket probably predates XT-286, and may have been concurrent
with 339 at some point. When the project was shelved, some number of
advanced prototype had been produced and were distributed about the site on
an IUO basis - I had one on my desk in 86' during OS/2 1.0 development (real
339's were rare and all being shipped out to customers<g>). Where the "AT"
badge would be is a metalic emblem shooting star logo, which leads me to
believe it was fairly well along when it was shot down...the real raw early
stuff came into the software labs in the electronic equivalent of a "plain
brown paper wrapper" ;->
I'll have to fire it up someday and see what it reports as machine
ID/type -- that may help finger it in the development time line more
precisely. ID/type could all be a pack of lies too ;->
"Peterwendt" <peter...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010213014102...@nso-bk.aol.com...
David L. Beem
> Sorting through the piles a bit I've (re)discovered a bit of
> ancient AT history -- the machine that had the internal
> codename "Skyrocket". Looks just like a normal AT with
> the primary difference being there is 640K on the planar
> rather than 512K as shipped in all the retail models.
case? Both model of the AT motherboard did just have the two banks (I have
an original with the strange "double-stacked" DRAM chips.), but the XT 286
was able to have a full 640Kb with four banks of memory. 6 or 8MHz 286? The
AT came in both, with a penalty of one wait state. Though later the XT 286
was only released as 6MHz, but with no wait states roughly on par with the
8MHz AT. The BIOS date for an XT 286 should be 04/21/86. A 6MHz AT will be
01/10/84 (where the CPU clock crystal can be changed) or 11/15/85 (IBM
installed the 'governer' BIOS code so the crystal can't be changed.). An
8MHz AT is 11/15/85.
> How did I happen across this rather unique piece of history?
> Well, I was in the right place at the right time when the Boca
> Raton site was being shutdown and thrown to the wind. IBM
> was firesaleing off all sorts of gear to the employees and I'd
> bought a stack of AT's for $10/each. On closer examination,
> one of the stack turned out to be the rare Skyrocket...
With the right marketing a plain AT is an investment to sell on eBay.
What happened to all the 95s from the Boca Raton Server Farm? I have seen
pictures of yards & yards of 'em (195s & RS6000 too).
> Anyone know of any other existing Skyrocket examples?
> Could this be the only one left on the planet?
Based on your response above we might be able to make more. With a
couple of AST memory boards you can take it up to 16Mb no matter what you
started with. If it is solitary it would have some value. Where did you hear
of the moniker?
David
Da...@gilanet.com
Tony Ingenoso
term Skyrocket because this is what they were called - remember, I was there
in Boca at the time this was going on ;->
My sense is that the Skyrocket machine was tanked because the 339 planar was
ready, cost less to manufacture, and with PS/2 ready to be unveiled, it just
wasn't worth the bother to get the extra 128K onto the planar for a machine
that would have a distinctly limited lifespan.
The question that has always bugged me is why XT-286 got built at all -- and
at that, with a planar all its own.
"David L. Beem" <Da...@gilanet.com> wrote in message
news:3a8a1...@oracle.zianet.com...
Brad Parker
> The question that has always bugged me is why XT-286 got built at all -- and
> at that, with a planar all its own.
IMHO it was to compete with the glut of 10 Mhz "Baby" AT clones just
hitting the market. I think that IBM may not have been sure when the
new PS/2s would actually be ready to ship, so they wanted a fall back
plan in case of delays. Let's face it, the XT was incredibly successful
for IBM.
I had a XT-286 and always liked it. I got it surplus with a Kurzweil OCR
reader and some early sound audio card (really early, way before ad-lib
or soundblaster). It was used to scan text and then "read" the text to
visually impaired (read "blind") people. Pretty cutting edge for the
time....
Brad
--
Bradley M. Parker Systems Programmer
Center for Computer-Aided Design Computing/Simulation Services
The University of Iowa E-Mail: b_pa...@ccad.uiowa.edu
234 ERF http://www.ccad.uiowa.edu
Iowa City, IA 52242 Phone: (319) 335-5723
Tony Ingenoso
than the 8mhz 339's when you kept within its 0-wait state planar memory. Go
off planar, then you got zapped of course ;->
Maybe that was part of the reason? 6mhz 286 at that point was probably
considerably cheaper to buy than 8mhz.
I liked the PC/XT form factor (still do) -- AT was a rather large thing, ate
up a lot of desktop space, and had a distinct shortage of externally
accessable bays.
"Brad Parker" <b_pa...@ccad.uiowa.edu> wrote in message
news:Pine.HPP.4.05.10102...@monet.ccad.uiowa.edu...