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From: wtm@neoucom.UUCP (Bill Mayhew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: How effective is a V30 on an XT (8086) clone?
Summary: V30 works in PC6300, but not with the AT&T 16 bit memory extender card
Message-ID: <1879@neoucom.UUCP>
Date: 21 Jan 90 14:50:58 GMT
References: <19163@netnews.upenn.edu> <7703@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Lines: 36


The V30 does indeed work well in the PC6300 for virtually all
applications.  You'll find that basic register-register and
memory-register operations aren't speeded up much but things like
string move and multiplies complete at 2 to 4 times the rate of an
8086 at the same clock speed.  The V30 is well worth the $10 cost,
especially if you have an application that is math-intensive.

Installing the V30 is simple, provided that the original 8086 is in
a socket (some very old PC6300s we have actaully have the CPU
soldered in).  Simply remove the 8086 and replace it with the V30.
Of course, the usual precautions to prevent electrostatic discharge
should be followed while performing the chip swap.  The V30 is also
a CMOS chip, and thus consumes slightly less power than the 8086.
The power savings of the V30 really isn't significant relative to
the power consumed in the rest of the machine, however.

Note that a stock V30 is rated at 8 MHz, and will not work in a
6300-WGS, which runs at 10 MHz.

There are some slight bus timing differences that make the V30
incompatible with the AT&T 16-bit memory expansion card.  The AT&T
card is the same as the card manufactured by AST for the PC6300.

I have been using a V30 in my Xerox 6064 (same chassis as the
PC6300) for over two years now, and have not encountered any
software incompatibilities.  In fact the V30 is nice because it is
more forgiving in that it recognizes the 80186 instruction set
extensions.  I use an everex modem, Taiwan serial board, eprom
burner, STB ega board, intel aboveboard, and OMTI 5027 disk
controller in that machine and have not seen any problems related
to the V30.  Xerox had a BIOS numbered 1.36, but I ordered 1.43
from the AT&T parts line and also upraded to AT&T msdos 3.2.


Bill