Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!enea!tut!jja
From: jja@tut.fi (Ahola Jari)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Wire-wrap Question
Message-ID: <2378@korppi.tut.fi>
Date: 15 Jan 88 17:34:39 GMT
References: <7110004@hpcupt1.HP.COM>
Organization: Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Lines: 42

In article <7110004@hpcupt1.HP.COM>, glowell@hpcupt1.HP.COM (Gary Lowell) writes:

> Greetings -
> 
> Does anybody know if wire-wrap can be used to build a reliable proto-type
> at 20 Mhz clock rates and what techniques can be employed minimize
> problems ?  I am trying to determine the feasibility building a homebrew
> computer using 20 Mhz 80386 chipset.
> 
> Thanks for the help.
> 
> --

	Hi there!

	
I use Vero- Bicc's Speedwire wiring system as my prototyping system, and
I'm very satisfied with it. Currently I have an Intel 80186 micro wrapped
on a plain non-metallized epoxy board and it runs happily at 10 MHz.
For the display card I've used a metallized card because of the high
(24 MHz) operating frequency. These board are made in various sizes
from E1 to extended E3, S-100, STD- bus, PC-AT and multibus compatible.
Boards are available as plain epoxy cards or metallized and silk screened.
Metallized boards are equipped with power distribution planes and plated
through holes. The wrapping pins are made of beryllium copper and the
cup is coldplated. Standard AWG30 ww wire is used as wrapping wire.
Each of the pins can take two wires passing through the pin, so there is
four wires maximum to one pin, and no need to cut the wire when joining
two or more (busses) pins. Normally the boards are drilled for DIL-
devices, but some boards exist for PGA devices (I've got the only one in
Finland :-) ). This system is nearly optimal for high speed ww projects
because the wire lengths and impedances can be controlled easily.

If you need more info please contact directly or via news.

P.S. I'm also building a 80386 box with Austek's cache controller and
     82786 display processor, Happy Hacking!


		jja
Tampere University of Technology
         Finland