XT "Accelerator" Boards

[Chuck(G)]

FWIW, there's a US Patent on the Orchid PC turbo 186 that describes its operation.

 

[Trixter]

I never would have thought of that! Thanks.

 

[Trixter]

This card allows one to have almost the equivalent of 2 PC's in one box
since the 80186 has its own dedicated memory. I can switch between the
TURBO card and the regular PC's 8088 from the command line.

That is AWESOME.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

I decided to pull a PC Tech Journal product guide for 1987 off the shelf and take a peek and a refresher.

Anyone have a Microsoft Mach 20? 8MHz 286 ISA plugin (with a special bus-mouse socket) with optional daughterboards for 3.5MB memory and floppy controller (supports 1.44 and 1.2MB media)? Guaranteed to run MS-OS/2.

How about the AST FlashPak? 8MHz V30 ISA plugin.

How about a Cortec 64180 card with 512K of memory onboard? Run them CP/M apps!

Or the Definicon DSI-785 68020 ISA card? Or the DSI-32E NS32032 card?

Or the Diamond Trackstar with 6502 and Z80 CPUs?

And an almost endless list of 286 and 386 accelerator cards with everything from built-in EGA to SASI onboard.

One forgets how amazingly diverse offerings were back then. Of course, if you had a 5160 and were lusting after an 80286 upgrade, you could always visit Uncle Woo's House of Kung Pao Chicken and CPUs and just buy a "Baby AT" mobo to drop in, probably for less of an outlay than an Aboveboard 286.

I know the thread is 14 years old...but, an AST FlashPak has been found:

HELP figuring out DIP Switches for an old AST Flashpak 8086 processor upgrade card! \ VOGONS

www.vogons.org

The documentation is MIA. Did that article from PC Tech Journal say anything interesting about it?
It seems somewhat unique in that it can accept two 8087s...your original, plus a -1 or -2 for the V30.

 

[Chuck(G)]

No, just a few lines describing it. 14 years? Now that's what I call necro-posting!