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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Marketplace => Topic started by: motorollin on April 06, 2007, 09:17:35 AM

Title: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: motorollin on April 06, 2007, 09:17:35 AM
I'm thinking of getting a 486 Bridgeboard for my A4000, just for the Geek factor :-) Plus it would be fun for playing old DOS games on. Does anyone have one for sale? I'm in England but happy to pay international shipping if the card is the right price.

--
moto
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: keropi on April 06, 2007, 09:46:27 AM
lol
u liked my a4000 pic eh???
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: InTheSand on April 06, 2007, 09:53:40 AM
I want one too! :-)

Though I do have a KCS Powerboard inside one of my A500s that I haven't yet tried out! But that's only 8086!

 - Ali
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Xanxi on April 06, 2007, 10:26:52 AM
I have been beaten yesterday in an ebay auction for one of those. I still want to buy one too for a fair price, even a 386 :-)
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: justthatgood on April 06, 2007, 10:48:54 AM
Yummy. Being able to run uber x86 assembly demo's on your Amiga.
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: therail on April 06, 2007, 11:19:39 AM
yeah got beat too. i mean come on, £150 for a bloody 486 card.... bloody ridiculous!!!!! i am currently looking into single board computers.
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Kronos on April 06, 2007, 11:24:32 AM
Quote

Xanxi wrote:
I have been beaten yesterday in an ebay auction for one of those. I still want to buy one too for a fair price, even a 386 :-)


In reality they are all 386SX (or lower), the 486 just comes from IBM cunnigly mislabelling their turbo-386SX as 486SLC  :roll:
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Jeff on April 06, 2007, 11:51:01 AM
I was watching that one too. I'm surprised at how much these are going for these days.

The A2386 that I have suffered battery damage as I suspect a lot of them did. I may have to look in to reviving it instead of replacing it:-)
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: spirantho on April 06, 2007, 11:56:02 AM
Just a bit off-topic:

The 486SLC is indeed a 486 class chip but with the 16-bit bus of the 386. Hence it's not all that much faster!

And the KCS PowerPC board is an NEC V30- not an 8086 at all. It's not compatible with the 286, but it's clocked at 10.7MHz (a lot more than an 8086) and actually has a full
Z80 emulation mode in it, so you can run CP/M on it faster than any other CPU of its time AFAIK.

Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: keropi on April 06, 2007, 12:56:00 PM
I will clarify some things.  :-D

1. Single Board Computers DO NOT bind with the amiga. with a goldengate u use the amiga keyboard/mouse/HD/serial/parallel/floppy drive/ram etc... so if u just stick there a SBC u will neet it to have it's own HD/CD/keyboard/mouse

2. the 486slc/25mhz perfoms a little more than a 386DX/40mhz. it is a drop-in replacement for 386 chips, and it has some internal optimizing. the ideal would be a goldengate 486slc/50mhz  :-D  :-D

3. even with the gg486slc u will need to find a good sound card and vga. all soundcards work, but some are buggy with the GG486. I have found that NON-PNP ESS1868 based ones work perfect, and I have tried lots of cards.
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: spirantho on April 06, 2007, 01:07:47 PM
I can also say that the Soundblaster II works, and because it's 8-bit it fits nicely in an A1500/A2000.
I'm also using a 3Com Etherlink II I think it is (8-bit) and a CL-based SVGA card.

All plays Wolfenstein fine. :)

Incidentally a good EMS manager such as QEMM 7 will speed some things up noticeably!
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: hardlink on April 06, 2007, 03:40:48 PM
Quote

keropi wrote:
I will clarify some things.  :-D


Very good info.

BTW, "Bridgeboard" is a copyrighted name of CBM/Amiga for their line of ibm pc emulator boards - they even have a graphic of a suspension bridge on the board. They last one made was not a 486/anything, but a 386. However, there are/were clip-on accelerators available that brought it up to the 486slc described in the previous post. (I have one:)

And yes, they included a library that allowed Amiga resources to be used and data to be passed between the systems. There is even sw on Aminet to use an ISA Ethernet card from the Amiga side!
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: bloodline on April 07, 2007, 01:53:56 AM
Quote

motorollin wrote:
I'm thinking of getting a 486 Bridgeboard for my A4000, just for the Geek factor :-)


Admit it, come on... you just want to run AROS on your A4K ;-) :lol:

Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Amiduffer on April 07, 2007, 02:47:04 AM
Quote

InTheSand wrote:
I want one too! :-)

Though I do have a KCS Powerboard inside one of my A500s that I haven't yet tried out! But that's only 8086!

 - Ali


That brought this old story to mind.  :idea: :-D

NASA needs 8086 chips
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted 8:20am EST Tue May 14 2002 - submitted by Matthew
NEWS
In 1981 NASA sent up the first space shuttle, which used Intel 8086 processors for a host of diagnostic equipment. More than 20 years on these chips are still being used to make sure the shuttle's twin booster rockets are safe for blast-off, and NASA is finding it increasingly hard to replace any faulty chips.

In the future the space agency plans to create a new US$20 million dollar automated checking system, but in the meantime it has to rely on the old equipment--if something breaks it has to be replaced. Up until recently replacement chips have been found in old medical equipment that NASA buys in bulk, but even these reserves are running low now, and the Internet seems to be NASA's last resort.

It is not just the 8086 chips that are required; old circuit boards, 8-inch floppy drives, and a plethora of obsolescent parts are putting a strain on scheduled testing. Auction sites such as eBay and Yahoo! sell just about everything and have been used by NASA for some of the more hard-to-find items. This search can only get harder however, especially with the current space shuttles scheduled to be in service until at least 2010 (and maybe even 2020).

Read more at The New York Times.


Plus, googling around to see what games are out there for the old processors, was this amusing discussion in the Halflife2 forum.  :lol:

Can my ancient comp run this game? Mcky_boyz  Mar 19, 2007 10:35 pm PT
Intel 8086
64KB RAM
3 1/2 Floppy disk drive
Some crappy S3 video adapter
DOS 1.0

Can it run at like 30 FPS iN 640X480, low settings?

--------------------------------------------------------

ThePeepsPerson  Mar 20, 2007 2:12 pm PT
it'll run, its just going to take you a couple decades to install it.

 
 :lol:  :lol:  :roll:  :crazy:
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: CannonFodder on April 07, 2007, 07:20:51 AM
Quote

bloodline wrote:
Quote

motorollin wrote:
I'm thinking of getting a 486 Bridgeboard for my A4000, just for the Geek factor :-)


Admit it, come on... you just want to run AROS on your A4K ;-) :lol:



How cool would that be! :-D
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: motorollin on April 07, 2007, 09:19:41 AM
Would it run on a 486?

--
moto
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: CannonFodder on April 07, 2007, 01:11:59 PM
Quote

motorollin wrote:
Would it run on a 486?

--
moto


AROS-20070407-i386-pc-boot-floppy.zip (http://aros.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/nightly-download?20070407/Binaries/AROS-20070407-i386-pc-boot-floppy.zip) :-)
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: bloodline on April 07, 2007, 03:36:16 PM
Quote

motorollin wrote:
Would it run on a 486?

--
moto


As long as it has an fpu... though a nice word to one of the lowlevel AROS hackers would probably get you a fpuless build... :-)
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Jose on April 07, 2007, 04:26:11 PM
WTF, why don't you all just get an old PC instead, I mean, it's not even like Amiga/PC hybrid sharing files and desktop so it's just an old crappy PC really :eek:
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: keropi on April 07, 2007, 04:34:02 PM
@jose: the goldengate cards INTEGRATE to the amiga, sharing common resources and hardware... so IF anyone has a need for a 386/486 pc and has a bigbox amiga, those cards are excellent. It appears u never saw one in action...
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Jose on April 07, 2007, 05:08:36 PM
@Keropi
True, never saw one in action:) But except from being able to spare space I don't really see the point...
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: James on April 07, 2007, 05:15:13 PM
@Jose
Quote

[...] just for the Geek factor [...]


That's the point, and it's as valid as any.
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Jose on April 07, 2007, 05:21:08 PM
Ok, it's just that my geek side doesn't normally involve PC's ;)
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Plaz on April 07, 2007, 05:22:49 PM
Back when I once had hopes of getting one of those too, I saved a few old Kinston Turbochips just in case.

Quote
Kingston Technology's TurboChip 133 is a 5x86 CPU (Central Processing Unit) upgrade that upgrades a 486 DX2, DX, SX2 or SX system to a 5x86 clock-quadrupled processor technology. At 133MHZ, TurboChip 133 is rated at Pentium 75-Plus performance.


Basically it lets you pop out a 486/25 and turn it into a 486/133 with extra cache. They used to really speed up the old systems back when the Pentium 60/75 were the latest things.

If the Goldengate card is only 386 pin compatible, then I doubt this would have done what I hoped. It doesn't look like I'm ever going to use them now. Wonder what they might bring on ebay. :-)

Plaz

Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: keropi on April 07, 2007, 05:29:51 PM
the goldengate cards all have a soldered cpu...
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: cv643d on April 07, 2007, 05:49:49 PM
The GoldenGate is a great card, I had one myself in 1998 when I was going to build the ultimate Amiga tower of power in the world. Well my plan halted when it was not compatible with the Elbox 7-slot backplane I had back then.

To be running it in its full potential you should have the external monitor switch wich can turn any desk into a rats nest.
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: keropi on April 07, 2007, 06:02:44 PM
@cv643d:

why pci slots on amiga are evil???  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Plaz on April 07, 2007, 06:13:23 PM
Quote
the goldengate cards all have a soldered cpu...


That wouldn't stop me.... 22+ years of soldering thru-hole, surface mount and even mil-spec experience. :-D

If 486slc isn't pin compatible with a normal 486 though, then that *would* stop me. I never stopped to find out exactly what chip the 486 bridgeboard had. I had assumed it was a normal 486 flavor of some sort, not a 386 pin compatible crippled thing.

Plaz

Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: CannonFodder on April 08, 2007, 11:26:37 PM
Quote

Plaz wrote:
Quote
the goldengate cards all have a soldered cpu...


That wouldn't stop me.... 22+ years of soldering thru-hole, surface mount and even mil-spec experience. :-D

If 486slc isn't pin compatible with a normal 486 though, then that *would* stop me. I never stopped to find out exactly what chip the 486 bridgeboard had. I had assumed it was a normal 486 flavor of some sort, not a 386 pin compatible crippled thing.

Plaz



A bloke I went to college with had a Cyrix 486 CPU that clipped over the top of his soldered on 386 CPU.  This was in the early 90's.
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Jeff on April 09, 2007, 03:42:37 AM
I had two of those. The Evergreen model 300 "Rev to 486" clipped on to the A2386 and ran at 75 mhz. It needed a dos driver to load the clock tripler at boot up as I remember. I sold that long ago.

I still have the Cyrix 486slc clip on somewhere that runs at 50 mhz. They both worked pretty well, however are dog slow by todays standards.

I would still love to have a working bridgeboard setup for my A3000T again. It it ideal for it with lots of Zorro and ISA slots.
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: CannonFodder on April 09, 2007, 04:07:51 AM
Quote

Jeff wrote:
I had two of those. The Evergreen model 300 "Rev to 486" clipped on to the A2386 and ran at 75 mhz. It needed a dos driver to load the clock tripler at boot up as I remember. I sold that long ago.

I still have the Cyrix 486slc clip on somewhere that runs at 50 mhz. They both worked pretty well, however are dog slow by todays standards.


Try AROS on it if you can and let us know how it runs. :-)
Title: Re: WTB: 486 Bridgeboard
Post by: Zac67 on April 09, 2007, 09:38:05 AM
Quote
keropi wrote:
2. the 486slc/25mhz perfoms a little more than a 386DX/40mhz. it is a drop-in replacement for 386 chips, and it has some internal optimizing. the ideal would be a goldengate 486slc/50mhz  :-D  :-D


Do not mistake a 486slc for a 486dlc - the former interfaces to a 386SX bus (=16 bit) and can hardly compete with a 386DX25 (usually w/ L2 cache), let alone 40 MHz. read (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/486SLC) A real 486 is far beyond that.