HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: leo@zelator.in-berlin.de (Stefan Hartmann)
Subject: Re: Genoa local bus experience?
Organization: Puplic-Access-Xenix-System
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 92 01:43:57 GMT
Keywords: GENOA LOCAL BUS MOTHERBOARD 486

In <1992Oct9.165734.20131@netcom.com> ewadams@netcom.com (Ernest Adams) writes:

>I've recently seen ads for a Genoa local bus motherboard which works
>with a 24-bit (true color) local bus video card. Anybody know anything
>about these?

>Also, where can I, in general, find specs on things? Is there a
>list server on the net where I  can write?

Hi,
I just tested a days ago a Genoa Local Bus Turbobahn Motherboard and
the new true color ColorBahn Et4000 Local Bus graphics board.

I used it to display FLIC (SVGA 640x480x256) files from 3 D Studio
(autodesk).

In playing the FLICs directly from Extended Memory it was 4-5 times
faster than on my 486 PC (33Mhz) at home with a normal Genoa 7900
Et4000 board...

So Local Bus is really faster !

Best regards, Stefan Hartmann, c/o Ingenierbuero Gatz & Hartmann.
email to:  leo@zelator.in-berlin.de


-- 
 
*************************************************************
*  Stefan Hartmann       This is how to contact me:         *
*  EMAIL: leo@zelator.in-berlin.de                          *
*  Phone : ++ 49 30 344 23 66      FAX : ++ 49 30 344 92 79 *
*************************************************************
From: grohol@novavax.UUCP (John Grohol)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: ATTN: Gateway 2000 Current Owners! New Group!
Keywords: gateway 2000
Date: 7 Oct 92 12:41:55 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Nova University, Fort Lauderdale, FL


Attention All Gateway 2000 Computer Owners:

	Since I see so many of us online on Usenet, I'm looking
	to put together a Gateway mailing-list in order to take
	advantage of our pride and use in Gateway products.

	This would be a Gateway Users Group to answer questions
	owners may have about their systems, offer insight to
	new products and pricing, and maybe try to change the
	world through cows.

	Well, if this at all sounds weird or interesting to you,
	Email a reply to this message. I'll see what kind of
	real interest exists for this kind of mailing-list
	before putting it up. Thanks and mooooo!

-John (grohol@novavax.nova.edu)

PS - Just received my copy of their latest Gateway Monitor. Nice...!

-- 
  John M. Grohol, M.S.    grohol@novavax.nova.edu     Nova University
--::--::--::--::--::--::--  the indigo girls:  --::--::--::--::--::--::--
   "Dark and dangerous like a secret that gets whispered in a hush,
    When I wake the things I dreamt about you last night make me blush." 	
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: pss1@kepler.unh.edu (Paul S Secinaro)
Subject: Re: VESA Local Bus Cards
Organization: University of New Hampshire  -  Durham, NH
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 13:33:56 GMT

In article <uprao.719105165@mcl> uprao@mcl.ucsb.edu writes:
>I too am looking into replacing my 386/33 with a VL bus system, but I'm also
>thinking about getting a local bus drive controller.  The problem is of course
>SCSI, the drive sizes I'm talking about (1+ gig) don't work well with IDE,
>which is the major local bus drive controller (as far as I know).  Then
>again, I suppose a ISA SCSI controller is fast enough... or is it?

There is at least one VESA SCSI controller that I know of.  It's from
Ultrastor (I think), and is mentioned in this month's BYTE magazine.

Paul
-- 
Paul Secinaro
pss1@kepler.unh.edu
Synthetic Vision and Pattern Analysis Laboratory
UNH Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
From: co@chrom1.mednet.gu.se (Christer Olsson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: IDE drives and old BIOS
Date: 15 Oct 92 18:28:43 GMT
Organization: MedNet, University of Gothenburg

In article <15660019@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM>, crane@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Randy Crane) writes:
|> The MFM disc in my old 286 is on its deathbed and I wish to upgrade to 
|> an IDE drive.  I have read that old BIOSes don't support the new IDE drives.  
|> My computer is a pre-1989 and I suspect that my BIOS would fall into 
|> this category.
|> 
|> What is necessary for the BIOS to support an IDE drive?  Is it just a matter
|> of having a match in the disk parameter table or are there actual routines
|> in the ROM for these drives?
|

Most IDEs can translate their internal parameters to meet the available parameters
in the computers bios. But you loose some capacity.  The problem is that old bioses only has
up to 150 meg large drives in their tables and newer IDEs are often larger.

Why not upgrade the mothercard? A cheap 386sx is better than your old 286
and most 386sx-bioses has configurable drive-tables. 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: lowe@fnx.uucp (Phill Lowe)
Subject: Re: IDE? MFM? RLL?
Organization: I/Ovations
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 06:45:05 GMT

ST 251 is a 40mb MFM hard drive.
From: adhir@cygnus.umd.edu (Alok Dhir)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Keyboard
Date: 9 Oct 92 03:56:46 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization

In article <1a312bINN20f@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> dpn2@po.CWRU.Edu (Damien P. Neil) writes:
>
>I have been thinking about buying a new keyboard, since my current one is
>starting to fall apart. My roommate just got a Gateway 2000 machine, with a
>Gateway AnyKey keyboard. This is a beautiful thing with function keys
>across the top and side, eight direction keys instead of four (and a
>'empty' key in the middle) and four keys that are used to program the other
>keys.
>
>I would like to boy something like this. I have heard that the Northgate
>Omnikey keyboard is very good. Is is as good as the Gateway ones? Can
>anyone offer me advice on a good keyboard to buy?
>
>Many thanks in advance.


The best keyboard I have ever used is the Focus 9000 keyboard (which I happen
to be using right now).  After alot of research on keybaords, this was the one
I decided upon.  Your description of the Gateway keyboard sounds just like
a Focus 4001, which is just like my keyboard except that mine has a built in
calculator too.  The numeric keypad doubles as a calculator :).  I
recommend it highly.







-- 
 ============================================================================
 Al Dhir                      			   Technical Consulting Staff
 Internet: adhir@cygnus.umd.edu	  	 University of Maryland, College Park
 Bitnet:   adhir%cygnus.umd.edu@Interbit      (301) 405-1500 * (301) 405-3014
From: shang@irss.uucp (shang wen-chung)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Help. IDE/SCSI conflic
Date: 7 Oct 92 12:28:30 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.

I originally own an Seagate 1096N + ST-02 controller 
with the floppy disk control on it.
Recently, I bought a Maxtor 7213 and get a IDE controller
locally. 
The problem is that the IDE controller also has a floppy
disk control on it. So it conflict with the floppy control
on the ST-02. 

Does anyone know how to disable one of the floppy control on
either card? I can not disable it on the IDE controller, because
there is no such jumper. And according to the info. I have
for the ST-02 controller card, there is also no such jumper.
Is there a dirty way to do it? Or I just have to find a place
to get a IDE controller whose floppy control can be disabled.

I can use the two hard disk at the same time but no longer have
access to the floppy diskette anymore.

Any idea?
Thanks

shang
shang@irss.njit.edu
Reclaimer, spare that tree!
Take not a single bit!
It used to point to me,
Now I'm protecting it.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: bruce@corona.syd.ips.oz.au (Bruce Paterson)
Subject: Help needed with DMA circuit design
Originator: bruce@corona.syd.ips.oz.au
Reply-To: bruce@ips.oz.au (Bruce Paterson)
Organization: IPS Radio and Space Services.  Sydney, Australia.
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 07:50:20 GMT

As part of a larger system, I am currently designing a special purpose I/O
and control board on the ISA bus (16 bits). After the board "does its thing",
it has a block of data in its FIFO buffer (16 bits, of known length up to 2k).
It then generates an interupt. The interupt handling software then reads a 
status register on the I/O board, which resets the interupt and provides some
information. Then it simply reads each word of the data and then writes it to
memory. This seems fairly straightforward, but it should be quicker to do it
via DMA - but how? I find my reference "AT Bus Design" by Solari, very hard to
understand on this point.

The following seems possible:
(1) Interupt and read status, as above. Then the DMA handling routine sets up
the DMA controller.
That seems clear enough, but I can't seem to see how the DMA is then started.
The best I can guess is -
(2) Write to the I/O board some sort of "ready for DMA" instruction.
The I/O board hardware then drives the appropriate DRQ line high.
(3) Sometime later, the platform drives the appropriate DACK line low, and
the I/O board responds by driving DRQ low.
(4) The platform DMA controller then does successive I/O reads - memory writes
until the ammount of data (as loaded during (1) above into some register in
the DMA controller) has been transfered.
(5) The platform DMA controller sets the appropriate DACK line high. (it also
strobes TC high, but I don't seem to need that.)

Questions:
(a) Is the above the correct way, or is it workable but there is a better
way (or am I way off)? If there is a better or correct way, what is it or
where can I find it? (circuits please, not specification legalise.)
(b) What about loss of refresh cycles on an ISA bus during DMA? My system
may "do its thing" up to 100 times per second.
 
Other information:
(i) The system is designed for remote unattended operation so it must be
robust.
(ii) Small quantities (initially only one) so custom chips are out.

Thanks in advance.
From: sonix@schunix.uucp (Duane Morin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Good Book on Parallel I/O?
Date: 16 Oct 92 13:34:46 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: SCHUNIX Public Access Unix for Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA

Subject line says most of it.  We're designing a piece of hardware that we 
want to use through the parallel port.  A good book describing complete 
pin configurations, etc...would be appreciated.  

Apologies if this is an inappropriate group, but it seemed like a good one.
Please send any responses via email.

Thank you for any help, 
 Duane Morin
 Software Development Manager
 Walker Sonix, Inc
 Worcester, MA 01604
 sonix@schunix.uucp
From: mye3349@cuphub.cup.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: IBM PS/2 8086 upgrade
Date: 15 Oct 92 05:38:03 GMT
Organization: California University of Pennsylvania, California, PA

Hello computer Users

	I got a problem.  I have an 8086 IBN PS/2 modle 30.  To put it bluntl
of my money.  I am looking for a vga color monitor for this system  and a HD 
around 40 to 80 megs, at a decent price.  If anyone out there knows where I can
get these for a decent price, please e-mail me that information.  Also could
anybody tell me what the going price for an IBM mother board 386/486 33mhz
would cost me to replace my old motherboard.

						Thanks for teh help
						  Jay E. Myers
						California University
					             of Pennsylvania
						(sophmore student)

of my money 
I am currently upgrading it, slowly, because my college tution is taking mo
From: smintz@sedona.intel.com (Stephen Mintz exp 11/92~)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: ***** Ah!!!!! For Speedstar24 and/or ViewSonic 5E owners...
Date: 16 Oct 92 19:17:43 GMT
Article-I.D.: ichips.1992Oct16.191743.29204
Organization: Intel Corporation
Originator: smintz@alamo


accually he is right vmode does control the vesa enable, there is a chip for vesa
on the card...
Stephen
Organisation: European Space Operation Centre (E.S.O.C)
Date: Friday, 9 Oct 1992 16:54:31 CET
From: Karl Keyte <KKEYTE@ESOC.BITNET>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Old MFM & SCSI drives together

I have an 80MB MFM drive & I'm about to expand to a big SCSI disk
& controller.  Can I use them at the same time?  Can I get a SCSI
controller that will support the MFM drive or do I need both
controllers?

Please reply to me directly at KKEYTE@ESOC.BITNET

Thanks,

Karl
From: ajb8886@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Does the Diamond Speedstar 24x Have 1024 x 768 x 16M color drivers?
Date: 12 Oct 92 16:11:41 GMT
Reply-To: ajb8886@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology

\In article <1992Oct10.013604.15307@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>, tkhut@ap.cl.msu.edu (Scott Karre) writes:
>
>	I just purchased a Diamond Speedstar 24x SVGA board, and the stats 
>say that it can run 16 million colors only in 640 x 480 mode.  Are there
>new drivers out there that allow you to get 16 million colors or even
>32 K colors in a higher resolution mode?  Or are there new drivers out
>there for the 24x that give improved performance?  Thanks!

RE: 1024 * 768 * 16 million colors.  

Maybe it could, but you would need about 2.5 megs of video memory to support
such a resolution (1024 * 768 * 3 bytes (24 bits color per pixel) =
2,359,296 bytes).  Since the card only supports 1 meg of video ram, you're
pretty much limited to 640 * 480 for 16 million colors.

800 * 600 * 32K colors (15 bits ... call it 16 for the dynamics of memory
allocation) does work though, requiring 960,000 bytes to display.

800 * 600 * 16 million (24 bits) would require 1,440,000 bytes of video memory,
so you'll only find this mode on a video board with 2MB of RAM or more.  (ie.
the ATI Ultra Pro and Ultra Plus come with 2 mb, and can thus run 24 bit color
at 800 * 600).

Likewise, 1024 * 768 * 32K (15 bits) or 65K colors (16 bits) colors would be 
about 1,572,864 bytes of video memory, so that mode is probably available
on the new ATI Graphics Ultra + and Pro 2MB cards.


For any 1MB card, you can assume that

   640*480 * 16 million colors is the max resolution for 24 bit color;

   800*600 * 65,535 (16 bit) or 32,768 (15 bit - 5 bits per color) is the max
   for high color, and

   1024 * 768 would be at 256 colors max.

for a 2MB card:
   up to 800*600* 24 bit color
   up to 1024*768 * 32K or 64K color.


Need 3MB for 1024*768* 16 million.

Need 4MB for 1280*1024 * 16 million.

Alex

>
>	  Kris
>
>	     " That which does not kill us, makes us stronger... "
>
>*******************************************************************************
>*  Kris Kortright  ( tkhut@ap.cl.msu.edu or kortrigh@cem.cemvax.msu.edu )     *
>*  Research : Laser analytical chemistry under Dr. Gary Blanchard             *
>*  Depatment of Chemistry  -  Michigan State University  -  E. Lans. Michigan *
>*******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann)
Subject: Media Vision - Pro Audio FAQ
Organization: Zeos International, Ltd
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 17:56:55 GMT

-- 
Ken Germann              ZZZZ EEEE  OO   SSS    ZEOS International, Ltd.  
support@zeos.com   INET     Z E    O  O S       Technical Support Dept.
uunet!zeos!support UUCP    Z  EE   O  O  SS     530 5th Ave N.W.
800-228-5390      VOICE   Z   E    O  O    S    St. Paul, MN 55112
612-633-7337             ZZZZ EEEE  OO  SSS     FAX         612-633-4607
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: dje@cygnus.com (Doug Evans)
Subject: Re: Large Capacity Hard Disks
Organization: Cygnus Support
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 00:53:06 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

KEVIN PRATER (10666281@eng2.eng.monash.edu.au) wrote:
> 
> 		I currently have an 80mb hard disk and have found this about 
> 	5 times too small. So when I buy my next pc I plan to get a larger 
> 	one so that I have greater than 400mb. 	
> 	What I want to know is,
> 1/  is it better to get two fair sized disks,(say
>     200 mb each) or to get one large 400-500mb disk.
>     Does having the two disks make more sxnce as if an
>     error occurs, you still have one disk? What I mean is 
>     that if track 0 goes bad on the large disk, the disk is
>     stuffed. Whereas on a smaller one you've only done half
>     your money?

I started out with one 200mb disk, filled that and bought another 200mb disk,
filled that and said "Enough of this!" and bought a 1gig SCSI. I don't
anticipate filling the SCSI for a year or two (famous last words ... :-).

So my first bit of advice is PLAN AHEAD! How much disk space do you anticipate
needing 1 year from now? Disk prices will have dropped by then, so one might
want to hold back and only consider short term requirements, but then again
do you want to keep filling slots by buying disks as you need them?
From my experience pay the money now, and get a bigger disk with a good
warranty (my Fujitsu 1gig SCSI has a 5 year warranty!).

My tower case didn't have enough room for all of them so I put one 200mb
on the shelf. I then had to replace the first 200mb and conveniently
replaced it with the one from the shelf, while my dealer decided whether
or not to replace the dead one (it was still under warranty). If minimizing
down time is important to you then yes, two disks are better than one.
But I wouldn't place too much weight on this factor.
Two disk are also better if you run Unix where having swap separate from
user files can increase throughput (however, don't get carried away and
believe this is always the case, lots of factors get involved here).
I've put swap and netnews on my small(ish) 200mb disk to keep the load
off the big one. I suspect any performance improvement is marginal
(my system is rarely loaded enough for it to matter and I run X,gcc,etc.).

> 2/  Does it work out cheaper to buy a large disk rather than
>     two small ones or just partion a large disk?

Depends on the sizes you're going for. At the time I bought mine, 2x200mb
was about the same price as 1 300mb. Definately a deal. I'm not sure if
the same holds for the 200mb range anymore. Do some research and compare.

I don't know what kind of system loads you have or anticipate, but I don't
think that any efficieny improvement you would get with two small
drives now would in any way make up for having to buy yet another a year from
now. If the prices work out right, I would get *one* 400-500mb disk now
rather than 2x200mb's. I've got 10 bucks that says you'll probably need
another 400mb within two years, and I'd rather have 2x400mb than 4x200mb
anyday! If you go SCSI you could even buy 1 400mb now and a 1gig next time,
but buy then 2gig drives may be the norm ...
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Monitor Mystique: Trinitrons Not Good
From: djlewis@ualr.edu
Date: 13 Oct 92 15:40:11 GMT
Organization: University of Arkansas at Little Rock

In article <1992Oct6.213951.1@uwovax.uwo.ca>, singer@uwovax.uwo.ca writes:
> I have recently looked at a 14-inch Sony monitor, a Nec 4fG, Compac and
> so-called Trinitron Viewsonics, and haven't seen anything among the crop that
> was worth considering at their higher price. On the other hand, I have seen a
> less expensive Samsung 4C (flat screen) that was slightly less and much much
> crisper; and an Everdata I am told was made by Darius(?) which despite a price
> half as much as the others, was a better monitor. Am I missing something in the
> high priced Trinitrons and Necs? Most color monitors are pretty bad stuff, and
> seem to be the second major cause for going blind. Has anybody discovered any
> moderately priced monitor that approaches the clarity of monochrome?-- 
When I evaluated 486/33's and 14" monitors recently, strangely enough the
SAMSUNG Syncmaster 3NI came out better than the MAG Multisync with trinitron
tube or the Tatung CM14SAS monitors. Of course I don't put any of these above
my SONY CDP-1304hx at home.
Don
For what it's worth. . .
djlewis@ualr.edu

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,purdue.general,rec.arts.anime
From: dabl2@nlm.nih.gov (Don A.B. Lindbergh)
Subject: Re: Converting 2400 to 9600
Organization: National Library of Medicine
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 92 14:26:45 GMT

In article <1992Oct15.230703.22673@utagraph.uta.edu> thao@cse.uta.edu (Laly Thao) writes:
>My brother grabbed a text file off a BBS a while back that
>explained how to remove the chipset off a 2400 and replace
>it with chips for a 9600 baud modem, which will effectively
>make the 2400 a 9600.  I'm just curious if anyone has 
>tried this before.  If so, what was the cost and can it
>be done with an external 1200 US Robotics?  BTW, the 1200
>does have an INTEL chipset.
>
>Hope to hear from someone. :-)
>
>Thanks,
>Laly
>
>-- 
>
>thao@cse.uta.edu        |     "There are no balls!!" 
>b645zay@utarlg.uta.edu	|               -Goku from Dragon Ball 

This is an old scam.  Absolute rubbish.  DO NOT TRY IT.  End of story.
--Don Lindbergh
dabl2@lhc.nlm.nih.gov
From: scha@pollux.usc.edu (Seungho Cha)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: 486DX-66 or 486DX-50?
Date: 16 Oct 1992 00:59:55 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: pollux.usc.edu

I'm planning to but either of 486DX-50 or 486DX-66.
What do you think is the better buy?
Is 486DX-66 reliable?

Thank you very much for your advices.

- Seungho

-- 
 ___
' o/                                   |>
  |    .  o                            |
  >\.                                ( | )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: ressler@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu (Mike "IR" Ressler)
Subject: Small demo prog available for Diamond Speedstar-24 (NOT 24X!)
Summary: Was: Re: ***** Ah!!!!! For Speedstar24 and/or ViewSonic 5E owners...
Organization: UH IfA and NASA Infrared Telescope Facility
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 00:38:42 GMT

In article <cP7DsB1w165w@rhps.UUCP> syzygy@rhps.UUCP (Eric Swanson) writes:
> ...  I've tried VPIC 5.1 to show true-colors pics but I'm not sure if it
> actually enables the modes or not..  Haven't done anything in Hi- or
> True-color in DOS.  > -Eric Swanson

VPIC 5.1 does work in 24-bit mode IF you give it a Targa file to display.
It does not do anything special if you only give it a GIF.

As an aside, I wrote a small DOS program which draws a "mathematical
butterfly" in 640x480x15-bit, 800x600x15-bit, or 640x480x24-bit mode. It's
kinda slow and not too flashy, but it shows off the distinctions between
HiColor and TrueColor well. It will run under regular DOS and a fullscreen
DOS session in OS/2. I'll e-mail a uuencoded zipped copy to anyone who
wants it ...

Mike
--
  Mike Ressler - Infrared Photon Jockey     ressler@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu
  - astronomer who favors changing "Big Bang" to "Horrendous Space Kablooie"
  Some people like music they can brush their teeth to in the morning.
  Me? I like music I can brush my teeth with ...