Tandy 1000 and an NEC V20.

[Tupin]

How much would the speed of programs running on my 640k Tandy 1000 be improved by replacing the 8088 with an NEC V20? The chip is socketed, so I assume all I have to do is pull it out with a screwdriver and put it in?

I'm running programs like Alien Syndrome and Final Orbit, both of which load up very fast, but the game is very slow. Would an NEC V20 help this?

 

[Raven]

Depends on the program - if they happen to execute instructions in the right patterns then yes, a V20 can help. If they happen to support 286 instructions to speed certain things up, then yes it can help. If neither of these is true, then no.

I have a 10mhz V20 btw, that I don't really need (I have no 10mhz boards, and it doesn't get along with my 8087 in the 5160 at 4.77mhz anyway.. plus it didn't help), if you're looking to get one. Tandy 1000 series machines run at 10mhz iirc so the model I have would be the right one..

Look around for the post I made on sticking it in my 5160 a few weeks ago, lots of people commented about what it can do for speed and such.

 

[Tupin]

Nope, the Tandy 1000 has 4.77 mhz. Later models run at 10. However, I thought that chip ran anywhere from 8-18mhz.

 

[Raven]

Any chip rated for higher speeds can run at anything lower than them - it's a maximum (recommended) rating. The 10mhz chip can run UP to 10mhz, it will also work in a 4.77mhz system. The only Tandy I had experience with is the RL/HD I recently sold, which was a ~10mhz machine, didn't realize the old 1000s weren't. Anyway if you're interested in this chip it will work at 4.77mhz just fine too.

 

[vwestlife]

I believe all the 8088 chips used in the older Tandy 1000s are socketed and can be replaced by a NEC V20 of the appropriate speed. In fact, I had one in my original 1000 and it showed a 10 to 30 percent improvement in CPU performance, depending on which benchmark you believed.

The 8086 chip used in the later 1000s is soldered into place -- or at least the one in my 1000RL is -- and cannot be replaced by a NEC V30, at least not without the tools and skills to do surface-mount soldering.