80286/386SX PLCC Socket Installation

[KJ7CIK]

Have any of you guys ever installed a PLCC socket in a 286 or 386SX system? I’m curious if it requires a certain type of motherboard or socket. The motherboard on my 386SX has drilled and undrilled holes in the solder mask and it got me thinking if these are provisions for a socket even though they’re everywhere. My hope is to be able to socket these two machines for testing different CPU’s without the hassle of desoldering the chip each time.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

I have thought about installing a socket on a 386SX system. The 387SX uses a PLCC socket, but the CPU itself is surface mount, and requires a special test socket for QFP100 chips

It's not that straight forward, because it seems there wasn't a standard test sockets Many of the 386SX boards I've seen that could theoretically accept test sockets all had different pinouts, so it could be challenging to find a socket that would fit your particular board. I actually have 2 or 3 QFP100 test sockets sitting in a box for such a project, but I never found a suitable board to install them in. They use a staggered pinout, and the rare boards I find that can accept a socket were really old and not worth modding.

Now, 286s are another story. If you have a board with a soldered down CPU, there should be PLCC68 sockets that can be installed on a surface mount board, and they should be easy to get.