Altos 586 and V20

[Bill Pechter]

In article <4891 at macom1.UUCP> larry at macom1.UUCP (Larry Taborek) writes:
>Heres kind of a goofy question.  I didn't really know where to
>post it so I hope you xenix users arn't too miffed seeing this in
>your news group.
>
>I have a Altos 586/40.  This machine has a 8086 CPU.  I have
>heard from several people that if you bought a V20 chip and
>plugged it in, the Altos would pick up some speed.
>
>Ok, I mail ordered a 10Mz V20 chip and installed it.  No go.
>Wont boot up.  Sure power comes on, but I never get any of the
>power up diagnostic messages.  I'v tried the reset button, power
>on and off, and reseating the chip, all to no avail.  I take out
>the V20 and re-install the 8086 and it comes right up.
>
>Naturally the question is, whats wrong?  Too fast a chip?  

Wrong chip is the problem.  The V30 is the 8086 replacement.  The V20 is
an 8088 replacement and the pinout is different.

The V20 uses an 8 bit data bus.  The V30 is the 16 bit bus version.

Drop in the V30 and everything should work ok.  I've got one in my AT&T6300
and it works beautifully under XenixV-86 and under MS-DOS.  The Altos should
work as well.

Now, if anyone could show me how to squeeze the news software in under Xenix
on an 8086 box with 640k I'd be pleased.  My 80 meg drive is waiting and 
I can't seem to get it shoehorned in.  Outside of that it's great and the V30
makes a fair speed difference.

I guess I've got to dump the PC platform and resurrect my 68000 SysV box 
next to it.

Bill

-- 
Bill Pechter -- Home - 103 Governors Road, Lakewood, NJ 08701 (201)370-0709
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  **   MS-DOS is CP/M on steroids, bigger bulkier and not much better  **