Help me ID this ancient MB

redarrow

redarrow

Expert Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
2,411
Reaction score
57
Location
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Can anyone help me identify this ancient MB of mine?
http://mybroadband.co.za/photos/showphoto.php?photo=520

This is the MB from my first PC ever..
I have some sort of fancy for old PC's.. :o and I'm wanting to get this one going again.. but the MB is dead..

Really I have no clue where I would find a replacement, but I figure the first step would be finding out precisely what it is.. :o

Perhaps I should add, I never owned this PC in "it's day" .. I bought it second hand at a fete when I was 12 or 13 for around R20.00 ..

I believe it's some sort of xx86 machine .. probably 286 or older.. any ideas? :o

I can upload higher res photos of a particullar section of the board if it'll help anyone..
 
Just google the serial number on that big that square chip, or the SIS chip ;)
 
Photo is not very clear but that is a very old board!

I'd guess XT ( 8088 ) as it has only one slot and that is 8-bit. Also has 2 banks of RAM chips probably for a max of 512kb. Probably had to use the slot for an MFM controller - possibly a floppy controller connector at the top ( unless it and the one next to the power connector were the 2 MFM connector heads). Can you see what processor chip it has? Looks like a proprietary board from a custom case - the ( serial? ) connector below the 8-bit slot would not fit in a standard XT case maybe.

Edit. The processor is probably the long chip under the 10121. Any numbers on it?
 
Last edited:
Looks like an 8086 or 8088 - XT Class board... U could probably get some $$$ on Ebay for this one! :D
 
teraside said:
Just google the serial number on that big that square chip, or the SIS chip ;)
Click to expand...
Heh.. never thought of trying that.. :o

pip said:
Photo is not very clear but that is a very old board!

I'd guess XT ( 8088 ) as it has only one slot and that is 8-bit. Also has 2 banks of RAM chips probably for a max of 512kb. Probably had to use the slot for an MFM controller - possibly a floppy controller connector at the top ( unless it and the one next to the power connector were the 2 MFM connector heads). Can you see what processor chip it has? Looks like a proprietary board from a custom case - the ( serial? ) connector below the 8-bit slot would not fit in a standard XT case maybe.

Edit. The processor is probably the long chip under the 10121. Any numbers on it?
Click to expand...
It has an expansion card of sorts which splits the one 8-bit slot into about 3.. into this went a controller card for the floppy drive and for the hard-disk.. (yea it actually has a hard disk :eek: - funny old thing though.. with two ribbon cable running to the controller board)

My best guess at the CPU is one of the removable ones.. it's got on it:
AMD
P8088-1
930AULX
(C) INTEL 1978
Click to expand...

Yea it also has 2 serial ports.. and it had one 9 pin monochrome monitor port - which I actually unsoldered from the board a long time after it blew..

The only actual text on the board apart from "Made in Taiwan" is : "PIM-106 MULTI-TURBO - MB V2"
 
pip said:
Photo is not very clear but that is a very old board!

I'd guess XT ( 8088 ) as it has only one slot and that is 8-bit. Also has 2 banks of RAM chips probably for a max of 512kb. Probably had to use the slot for an MFM controller - possibly a floppy controller connector at the top ( unless it and the one next to the power connector were the 2 MFM connector heads). Can you see what processor chip it has? Looks like a proprietary board from a custom case - the ( serial? ) connector below the 8-bit slot would not fit in a standard XT case maybe.
Click to expand...

Looks like an 8088 to me too, maybe an 8086. Looks like one of the early branded slimline motherboards with the riser card. Coprocessor slot.
 
redarrow said:
My best guess at the CPU is one of the removable ones.. it's got on it:

AMD
P8088-1
930AULX
(C) INTEL 1978
Click to expand...

Yes, it's an 8088 then. Ran at 4.77 Mghz if I remember. That was a looong time ago.

It's these chips that resulted in Intel suing AMD a long time ago. They came to a settlement which included money and other licensing. Intel later used this settlement to copy the AMD64 instruction set without paying any royalties.
 
xcleric42 said:
http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboards/D/DTK-COMPUTER-INC-8088-PIM-106.html
or is it something completely different?

no its the same, picture is upside down...
Click to expand...

pip said:
A variant of the PIM-106 is pictured at:
http://artofhacking.com/th99/m/C-D/30062.htm

or you nearest friendly Total hardware 99 mirror.
Click to expand...
Yea.. :D

Those appear to be the same thing.. cool! :)

The jumper names and things even appear the same.. only strange thing is my CPU appears to be in the NPU socket? (whatever that is?) ... possibly it might be that I switched them at some stage some years ago when I was trying to get it going.. :o
 
redarrow said:
only strange thing is my CPU appears to be in the NPU socket? (whatever that is?) ... possibly it might be that I switched them at some stage some years ago when I was trying to get it going.. :o
Click to expand...

Numeric co-processor - an 8087 if I recall right.
 
Abe said:
Yes, it's an 8088 then. Ran at 4.77 Mghz if I remember. That was a looong time ago.

It's these chips that resulted in Intel suing AMD a long time ago. They came to a settlement which included money and other licensing. Intel later used this settlement to copy the AMD64 instruction set without paying any royalties.
Click to expand...
I do remember it running at a whopping pace.. :D :eek:


Thanks everyone for the assistance! :)

I acutally thought I'd probably never find out what it was..


Now to find a replacement and force killadoob off the forum for 2 days.. :p
 
redarrow said:
Now to find a replacement and force killadoob off the forum for 2 days.. :p
Click to expand...

Well I dunno about killadoob, but getting those old boards to function is a nightmare - they tend to blow a RAM chip every time you apply power! Probably best to encase it in perspex or something and forget about reviving the 80's! ;)
 
redarrow said:
I do remember it running at a whopping pace.
Click to expand...
Some of the games relied on the 4.77 Mhz speed and when the faster boards came out, there was a Turbo switch to slow them down for the games. Also a piece of software which you could run before the game to slow the PC down to 4.77 Mhz.
Now to find a replacement and force killadoob off the forum for 2 days.. :p
Click to expand...
See if you can find one of those deals that says trade in your old one for a new one + some cash :)
 
Last edited:
pip said:
Well I dunno about killadoob, but getting those old boards to function is a nightmare - they tend to blow a RAM chip every time you apply power! Probably best to encase it in perspex or something and forget about reviving the 80's! ;)
Click to expand...
I remember dropping a handful of 8K (I think) chips on the carpet at a client which checking the damn things. The damn legs got caught in the carpet and it took me ages to pry each one loose without damaging them.

Edit - cool, my Grandmaster post :)
 
pip said:
Well I dunno about killadoob, but getting those old boards to function is a nightmare - they tend to blow a RAM chip every time you apply power! Probably best to encase it in perspex or something and forget about reviving the 80's! ;)
Click to expand...
Lol.. you're probably right.. still.. I'll be keeping an eye open.. never know when one pops up.. ;)
Heh.. me I can't remember the 80's anyway.. :o I was only born in 84.. :D


Abe said:
See if you can find one of those deals that says trade in your old one for a new one + some cash :)
Click to expand...
Well, I don't know if a blown board would count.. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X