Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!mcnc!rti!bcw From: bcw@rti.UUCP (Bruce Wright) Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec.micro Subject: Re: 286 boards for Rainbow Summary: 286 board availability Message-ID: <2402@rti.UUCP> Date: 2 Aug 88 02:09:47 GMT References: Organization: Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC Lines: 40 In article , GTHEALL@PENNDRLN.BITNET (George A. Theall) writes: > > Hello netlanders! Well, August 1st is just around the corner, > and here I am eagerly awaiting release of Suitable Solutions' > 286 chip-replacement board for the Rainbow. Has anyone heard > anything about this recently (last 2 months)? What type of > software/memory expanders are planned to accompany the board? > > Is anyone still using a Rainbow? Is anyone listening???? > We have been told by the people at Suitable Solutions that the 286 board for the Rainbow will be out sometime in early September. Don't know how close they are to meeting that schedule, but as of a couple of weeks ago they thought they would make it by first week in September. Software: Suitable Solutions is expecting to be coming out with MS-DOS V3.1 for the Rainbow just about now (early August). The main hangups were getting the agreement worked out with DEC, and printing the documentation, so I expect this to be reasonably on-time. You can always use Code Blue which with the 286 would give you a little more IBM compatibility. It would NOT however give you full AT compatibility - for example the graphics modes are totally different. Memory: The 286 board is much like many of the 286 enhancement boards for the IBM-PC and XT - that is, all you get is a faster processor and a cache memory for faster memory access - you do NOT get extended or expanded memory. So the Rainbow will still be limited to 896K. I expect that for many people this will not be a big point - that's still 256K more than a standard PC, and a PC with a 286 enhancement board is a very popular and useful box. But if you really need the extra memory you will be better off going with a real AT class machine, even though that may mean a good deal of pain in getting new software. We are planning to get one of the boards as soon as they become available. I can post a review if there is interest but it will be at least a month... Bruce C. Wright