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Book 8088 discovery and modification thread

sorphin said:
Actually, not sure it's the same people... there's schematics, the bios source, everything else http://8086cpu.com/lm1/102.html I think it's a "rival" based on mentions I saw on the vogons book8088 thread or maybe just going back and fixing the book a bit based on changes from the 386 version? I dunno.. Has - 768KB RAM which the book8088 does not, so that's a plus, so UMB capability.. and for @sergey and @n0p a schematic of the CPLD! Also there appears to be the schematics for the pocket386.
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Pocket 8086 and Book8088 were designed by the same person. Now the factory has stopped producing Book8088 and switched to Pocket 8086.
Quickly verify and iterate. This is a good example of agile development and lean entrepreneurship.
 
pengan said:
Pocket 8086 and Book8088 were designed by the same person. Now the factory has stopped producing Book8088 and switched to Pocket 8086.
Quickly verify and iterate. This is a good example of agile development and lean entrepreneurship.
Click to expand...
I was hoping you'd come over here too. :)

So far I've only seen 1 seller with the Pocket8086/386 (both).. If I'm right? they're interchangeable since (based on the posts you shared of Shan's) the CPU board is its own little daugtherboard?
 
Betamax80 said:
@sergey I'm getting a type of boostrap from the picomem - it basically confirms the build of the ROM, then on the same line it goes "init... end" - kind of like its unpacking its main interface but then not displaying it. There is supposed to be an interactive mode which goes to a whole settings menu, basically looking like a machine BIOS, but this does not load (or is getting immediately overwritten by XUB which loads in the next ROM address space).

I'll try to get some screenshots of the behaviour.

There are 2 builds of the PicoMEM ROM - with start addresses of C8 or D0 - I've tried both and only the C8 variant displays the bootstrap.
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Hi,

The next PicoMEM firmware will support the Book8088, even at 8MHz.
They had the bad idea to x2 the speed of the full ISA with the 8MHz, having it out of ISA Spec (250ns for IO/mem cycles)
 
sorphin said:
I was hoping you'd come over here too. :)

So far I've only seen 1 seller with the Pocket8086/386 (both).. If I'm right? they're interchangeable since (based on the posts you shared of Shan's) the CPU board is its own little daugtherboard?
Click to expand...
Hardcore Expert on Taobao should be directly managed by Shan, the designer of Book8088.
8086Store on Aliexpress should be the export department of Shan's company.
DZT's Store belongs to another company, but have close cooperation with them and can also seem as the first-hand supplier.
I'm not sure how interchangeable the Pocket 386/8086 are. Shan was originally going to give me a sample unit, but I currently live in Canada, so that has been postponed.
 
pengan said:
Hardcore Expert on Taobao should be directly managed by Shan, the designer of Book8088.
8086Store on Aliexpress should be the export department of Shan's company.
DZT's Store belongs to another company, but have close cooperation with them and can also seem as the first-hand supplier.
I'm not sure how interchangeable the Pocket 386/8086 are. Shan was originally going to give me a sample unit, but I currently live in Canada, so that has been postponed.
Click to expand...
There's also Hardcore Expert (along with DZT (whom I bought from both times)) on aliexpress, possibly the same as the one on taobao, I dunno. aliexpress is the easiest for me in the US tbh. The 8086 does seem to slowly be showing other sellers (less obvious). I couldn't find Shan's "store". Any interest for me for the pocket 8086 will be because the already extra ram, a bit more modular (schematics being back again, which i'm thankful for), and, well, any other improvements.
 
Hi guys,

I wonder if anyone tried replacing widescreen that book 8088 comes with with a different panel that has a proper 4:3 aspect ratio?
I found a gorgeous 8" 4:3 800x600 panel in a viewsonic vfm820 photo frame that I got from a thrift store for only 5 bucks. It might be fitted into book 8088 shell with some modification (of the shell), but I don't quite know how to extend 40 pin flex cable it's using and if it's even possible to use some kind of an adapter to change the pinout that will work with book V2's video controller/board. Sadly, the sticker with a model number on the panel got badly damaged during panel removal from photoframe (tons of glue), so I cannot use it to find for an actual pinout and/or characteristics. Still, any suggestions/thoughts about converting 40 pin EDP(?) to 50 would be appreciated. Maybe, it'll be easier to replace the video controller - I don't know.

Thank you.
 
@FreddyV I'm thrilled to say that following the instructions on your Wiki, with the May 28th Firmware (and the config.txt file on uSD) I've got the PicoMEM card working brilliantly on my Book8088!
It feels so strange having a "modern feel BIOS" and 4Mb of EMS on an XT class!
I haven't tried a lot but PMEMM and PMMOUSE are working just fine so far. I'm hearing the EMS memory count (cute!) - haven't set up networking as I'm in a dorm and need to set up a private network first.
But THANK YOU for your work to get this running on the Book8088!
I should add I'm still using @n0p BIOS v1.0.6 and this supports the PicoMEM well.
 
Based on the source files I grabbed for the Pocket8086, it appears they are not using @sergey 's bios for it. So there's another change. I'll see for myself when mine arrives (yes, I'm grabbing one... stuff's on sale right now)
 
sorphin said:
Based on the source files I grabbed for the Pocket8086, it appears they are not using @sergey 's bios for it. So there's another change. I'll see for myself when mine arrives (yes, I'm grabbing one... stuff's on sale right now)
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I wonder what they are using now.... I do guess a BIOS for XT class machines is a very niche piece of development.
 
Betamax80 said:
I wonder what they are using now.... I do guess a BIOS for XT class machines is a very niche piece of development.
Click to expand...
Based on the files... the string in the POST.ASM file says:
DB '62X0890 COPR. IBM 1986' ; COPYRIGHT NOTICE

;msg_cpu db 'Main Processor: ', 00h
msg_SoftVer db 0dh,0ah,'PC-XT System BIOS:'
Bios_Old_Compile_Date
msg_NewSoftVer DB ' -> Rev.1.0(05/05/2024)',0dh,0ah,00h ;New Soft Ver
;------------------------------------------------

So I dunno.. The source files are all there.
 
Seems DZT has an image of the motherboard of the Pocket8086 on their listing... which is identical to the schematic/pcb files I grabbed. (Too bad they didn't do this with the book8088v2 (and made it hard to get on the book8088v1)) @Betamax80 Actually they say... "Pocket8086 uses the slightly modified IBM PC-XT 05/08/86 version BIOS and provides source code. The BIOS is compiled based on the MASM" Uses a V30 by default.
 

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So, received my Pocket8086. It does have 768k of ram (UMB @ D000), an 8Mhz V30 and Trident 9000 VGA.. no centering issues, windows is nice and colorful. Has all the 'attachments' (vga - ps/2 keyboard hookups, serial, parallel) via 'dongles'. Comes in the usual black or... clear.. I got clear, because why not? They switched from a ROM to an actual flash chip that is easily accessable/removeable (not sure if flashable in system, but maybe)... Pics...
 

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Because someone asked for it on vogons... book8088 v20 vs pocket8086 v30...
 

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jhhoward said:
Yes, I included a binary in the releases section of the Github page

Interesting that you had different results with a V20 vs 8088. My approach was to set a single pixel in the top left / bottom right for graphics mode, and a white cell in text mode. So far it has worked on my machine. I'm interested to hear if the TSR works for you.

I wonder if there are different variations of driver boards used. My VGA machine will center correctly on boot but will consistently be offset when switching to graphics modes for certain games. For example, Space Quest 1 will switch between text and graphics modes during the starting sequence. The text mode for entering your name is always way off to one side, which seems to be because the screen is mostly black. There is also an issue in Commander Keen as the border / background colour is changed from black to cyan and the display locks on to the edge of the overscan region, cutting off the bottom right of the screen. Prince of Persia is hit and miss with centering correctly. When starting, it shows a 'loading' message centered in an otherwise black screen which appears to be the issue. (Prince of Persia has a problem with the VGA palette routines but that appears to be a different issue entirely)

My TSR fixes the issues for these games, at least on my machine. :)
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I was haveing the exact same issue you described in Commander Keen, and also in any other game (screen shifted to the left). Your TSR solved the issue on my machine as well. Big thank you for your effort!
 
I purchased the Pocket8086. I have a 512mb, FAT formatted, USB drive, and I plugged it into my Pocket 8086. When I turn the computer on, it seems to recognize there is the USB drive there as drive D. However, after I type D: it always fails to go there, and I always get a "Not ready reading drive D" error message. I've tried several USB drives, and they all have the same result. Does anyone have suggestions? Thank you.
 
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