ESDI cards and memory for AT&T 6386 Olivetti boxes

[Mike Rubin]

In article <4787 at infmx.UUCP> aland at infmx.UUCP (alan denney) writes:
] 
] Is there anything strange about the 16 MHz 6386's with regard to
] disk controllers, etc.?
No stranger than anything else in the machine :-)

]   Can I replace the stock controller with
] a WD1007A-WA2 ESDI controller and ESDI drive(s)?
Yes.

]   Is the floppy
] controller on the motherboard and would thus require disabling of the
] floppy control on the WD1007A-WA2?
Yes.

]   Or, are there other pitfalls?
] What drive types are supported by the CMOS?  Do they include support
] for the Micropolis 135  and 300 MB drives used in the Intel boxes?
The 135 MB (Micropolis 1355) only.  Drive type 25.
Also the 136 MB NEC D5652 or Fujitsu M2246 as drive type 24,
and the 67 MB Micropolis 1353 as drive type 26.

] Also, with regard to memory: what is the total motherboard capacity?
Zero.  All memory is on expansion cards.

] What is the appropriate memory expansion board, and what is its
] capacity?  I have seen 3rd party boards advertised; does anybody
] have any experience?  (I am familiar with the Intel-built line, but not
] this).  Do the boards take standard 1 MB x 9 SIMMs?
Don't know the AT&T comcode offhand but it is a "4/16 MB memory
expansion board for 6386 WGS".  It takes ordinary SIMMs.
If you get a very old one at a swap meet it might understand only 256K's.
The 16 MHz 6386 takes 120 ns or better SIMMs, the 20 MHz needs 100 ns.
BTW, I have seen occasional parity errors (possibly overheating) when
using two cards of 256K chips, so I'd rather use one card of 1MB's.

--Mike Rubin <mike at attunix.att.com>