Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ico!vail!rcd
From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 386SX replacements for 80286 machines
Summary: MicroWay probably won't work EXCEPT for real (blue) ATs
Message-ID: <1989Nov6.060124.13725@ico.isc.com>
Date: 6 Nov 89 06:01:24 GMT
References: <786@awdprime.UUCP> <1989Nov2.080213.2989@ico.isc.com> <23716@cup.portal.com>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation
Lines: 33

Captain-Magic@cup.portal.com writes:
> MicroWay has a board that allows you to pull your 286 out and replace it with
> their board that contains a 386DX and a socket for a 387...
...
> For those of us whose motherboards/cases have all sorts of built-in stuff this
> may be a better way to go than a motherboard swap...

The MicroWay board will probably NOT work in most clones (nor do they imply
that it will--they're careful about that when you order).  The board is
designed to plug into the 286 PGA socket of an AT.  It will not work in a
PLCC socket, which is what's used for the processor in most clones.  Also,
you need enough clearance for the board, which has to sit as a "mezzanine"
above the motherboard.  If there's something tall in the way, forget it.
(I tried the MicroWay board for my machine, which *does* have a PGA CPU,
but a power-supply connector in the way wouldn't let it fit.  Sigh...)

They were going to have a different approach for clones--a separate board
in a bus slot, with a cable over to the processor socket, sort of like the
INboard.  That's been delayed until sometime next year, alas.

Details from above for the unfamiliar:  PGA = pin grid array; LCC =
leadless chip carrier.  If your processor is that sort of gray/purple
ceramic with pins on the bottom, it's a PGA.  If it's plastic and you can
see the metal leads around the side of the chip, with the chip sitting "in"
the socket (socket surrounds edge of chip) instead of "on" it, you've got
the leadless style.  If you don't have a PGA, the MicroWay board won't
work.  If you have a real AT, it should.  If you have a clone but with a
PGA, it might...talk to MicroWay about the board dimensions.  They do have
the board orientation right so that if you have a ZIF PGA socket, the lever
for the socket clears the board OK.
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com    uucp: {ncar,nbires}!ico!rcd     (303)449-2870
   ...Worst-case analysis must never begin with "No one would ever want..."