Christoffer
Experienced Member
Hey, so I've been concidering a diy 8088 system for a while now, looking for projects for inspiration and so on.
I want to build an 8088-based machine. Hopefully getting it kinda ibm-compatible. Ideally, it'd be able to accept ISA cards and run DOS.. that might be high hopes, though.
There's a few general strategies I've concidered, and the predominant ones are:
- Either build it from existing designs
- Or design it myself from scratch.
Now, I may be able to design the thing from (partial scratch), I'm not certain, though. But with my digital electronics/programming skills, it'd take 10 years.
Building on existing designs is my way to go. Ideally, a kit. Problem is: there are only two "kits" like that in existence, afaik: Sergey's ISA xt board, and that IBM PC motherboard kit.
The IBM one is pretty pricey, And since I'm in Europe, Sergey's board will be pretty expensive as well.
A third DIY IBM-ish pc I've found is the MPX-16, a project featured in Byte magazine. That is almost double the complexity and chip-count as the IBM PC!- pretty much out of the question.
Unless something completely different comes up, I might go with the Sergey design, and build it on protoboard with Verowire.
Or maybe just go from the textbook design of an 8088 computer. Should be pretty easy to get ISA working - but then I can't really reuse any code for it..
Has anyone attempted something similar? Gotten any results? Anyone has any suggestions?
Sorry for the lack of pictures, I hate reading text-only threads. Here's a Siemens cerdip 8086 from my collection:
BTW If you don't know that book (J. Uffenbeck: The 8086/8088 Family: Design, Programming, and Interfacing), you should! Practically the best x86 design book I've read.
Thanks!
-Christoffer
I want to build an 8088-based machine. Hopefully getting it kinda ibm-compatible. Ideally, it'd be able to accept ISA cards and run DOS.. that might be high hopes, though.
There's a few general strategies I've concidered, and the predominant ones are:
- Either build it from existing designs
- Or design it myself from scratch.
Now, I may be able to design the thing from (partial scratch), I'm not certain, though. But with my digital electronics/programming skills, it'd take 10 years.
Building on existing designs is my way to go. Ideally, a kit. Problem is: there are only two "kits" like that in existence, afaik: Sergey's ISA xt board, and that IBM PC motherboard kit.
The IBM one is pretty pricey, And since I'm in Europe, Sergey's board will be pretty expensive as well.
A third DIY IBM-ish pc I've found is the MPX-16, a project featured in Byte magazine. That is almost double the complexity and chip-count as the IBM PC!- pretty much out of the question.
Unless something completely different comes up, I might go with the Sergey design, and build it on protoboard with Verowire.
Or maybe just go from the textbook design of an 8088 computer. Should be pretty easy to get ISA working - but then I can't really reuse any code for it..
Has anyone attempted something similar? Gotten any results? Anyone has any suggestions?
Sorry for the lack of pictures, I hate reading text-only threads. Here's a Siemens cerdip 8086 from my collection:
BTW If you don't know that book (J. Uffenbeck: The 8086/8088 Family: Design, Programming, and Interfacing), you should! Practically the best x86 design book I've read.
Thanks!
-Christoffer
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