Re: [N8VEM-S100:1545] An 80386 CPU and RAM board for tthe S-100 Bus

[lynchaj <lyn...@yahoo.com>]

Hi Bob

 

The S-100 80386 CPU & SRAM boards should really be considered a set.  While the S-100 80386 CPU board could in theory be used by itself on the S-100 bus the need for a lot of fast local memory is going to pretty much force a local memory board solution of some kind.  Otherwise the memory access times will be painfully slow.

 

The 8MB SRAM board is a start in the right direction but realistically it is going to have to get larger to be practical.  There was quite a bit of discussion about a DRAM based board a while back.  I am guessing we'll make an PSRAM board next or soon as an intermediate step to a full up DRAM or SDRAM board.  Memory size has to increase and we are taking incremental steps to get there.

 

Local DRAM and/or SDRAM add a lot of complexity due to the multiple bus master nature of IEEE-696.  It is not a simple problem that much we know for certain.  Most likely it is going to involve some here-to-fore unheard of changes like SMT parts, programmable logic, etc.

 

As John pointed out earlier, we really need a VGA solution to make this work.

 

Thanks!

Andrew Lynch

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013 2:11:17 PM UTC-4, bob wrote:

> Hi Andrew, 
>
> Just to help with a rough demand count, please add me to your list of people wanting: 
>
> 1) The 386 board. 
>
> 2) The daughter board to the above board. 
>
> I would like 1 of each of them (2 boards total). 
>
> I'll keep watching to see when the official order request comes out. 
>
> Kudos for the excellent work you guys are doing! 
>
> Thank you, 
> Robert Greenstreet