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From: rps@homxc.UUCP (R.SHARPLES)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 6300 upgrade
Message-ID: <1823@homxc.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Oct-87 09:04:28 EST
Article-I.D.: homxc.1823
Posted: Thu Oct 22 09:04:28 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Oct-87 09:08:58 EST
References: <2478@sphinx.uchicago.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 37
Keywords: 80x86 accelerator for 6300?
Summary: "turbo" boards probably won't work in 6300
Xref: mnetor comp.sys.att:1570 comp.sys.ibm.pc:9331

In article <2478@sphinx.uchicago.edu>, pgil@sphinx.uchicago.edu (paul  gilna) writes:
> 	SO. Can the 6300 be upgraded to 80x86 status by use
> 	of accelerator boards etc. Fact, Fiction or wishful
> 	thinking? (Intel has just announced a 80386 InBoard
> 	for 8088 machines). 
> 
> 	Thank you muchly,		Paul Gilna.
> 	...!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!pgil
> 	pgil@sphinx.uchicago.edu


All of the "turbo" boards that I have seen have a relatively short
cable which plugs into the 808x's socket (after removing
the 808x).  This is done this way because the 8088 in an IBM PC/XT
is mounted on its own card that plugs into the motherboard.  The
turbo board is inserted in an adjacent slot and the cable is routed
around to the 808x socket.  

In a 6300, the 8086 is mouted on the bottom of the motherboard, the
expansion slots are on the top.  Physically the cable from the turbo
board would have to be lengthened.  Given what is traveling through this 
cable, it probably would not be a good idea (noise problems).  Further,
I have no idea whether there would be architecture, buss, or BIOS
problems, but the 6300 is only a 90% compatible machine.

BTW, this business of mounting the 808x on the motherboard is not
unusual for compatibles.  The only compatible I have seen that truly 
duplicates the physical structure of the IBM PC/XT was Kaypro.

Russ Sharples
homxc!rps

NOTE:

The above in NO WAY reflects the opinions of AT&T.
These opinions are my own and the results of un-scientific and 
highly irregular analysis methods.