i think the 386 is too modern for me xD you can run much
more stuff on a 386 than a 286. like netbsd! XD

16 bits does seem more than enough, was 32 bits ever really necessary?

if only they made a pocket 286 :>

I agree that would be an interesting machine! I think it's possible, if the developer happens to find a big stash of 286 chips, so we can keep hoping at least.


Chris/akacastor


--- Maximus 3.01
* Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

Re: Re: Pocket386 is here!
By: AKAcastor to Mary4 on Thu Jun 20 2024 22:40:28

16 bits does seem more than enough, was 32 bits ever really necessary?

I do have one example :)

When the mighty Acorn were deciding what to do after the 6502-based BBC micro, they assessed a bunch of 16 bit processors of the era and were pretty unimpressed, finding them all deficient in some way.

They looked at making their own processor and it soon occurred to them that the biggest bottleneck in current computers was memory access. It was slow and pushing data around a byte at a time multiplied the wait times. So if they were going to build their own processor, why not jump straight to 32 bits and quadruple the memory bandwidth?

And that's how we got the ARM...

BobW
--- SBBSecho 3.20-Linux
* Origin: >>> Magnum BBS <<< - bbs.magnum.uk.net (21:1/205)

mary4 wrote to AKAcastor <=-

i think the 386 is too modern for me xD you can run much more stuff on
a 386 than a 286. like netbsd! XD

Older version of MINIX run on a 286 - I was able to run a caching DNS
server, web server and mail server on a 286 with 2mb of RAM.

My desktop system at the time was a Pentium/133; I was bored at work and looking for a distraction.



... Are there sections? Consider transitions
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Older version of MINIX run on a 286 - I was able to run a caching DNS server, web server and mail server on a 286 with 2mb of RAM.

Way back when, at one stage I had examples of most every generation of CPU.. I still had an XT running mail on KA9Q along with some routing. Unfortunately
500 moves later, things had to go...

Spec


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
--- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
* Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)

Spectre wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

Way back when, at one stage I had examples of most every generation of CPU.. I still had an XT running mail on KA9Q along with some routing. Unfortunately 500 moves later, things had to go...

I played with KA9Q for a while - that was an amazing feat, showing
exactly how much you could do on an XT. I remember The Little Garden,
an ISP started by Tom Jennings ran on all KA9Q boxes when they first
started out. They ended up growing pretty successfully then getting
swallowed up in the ISP consolidation wars of the late '90s.
Best->Verio->NTT.



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

CPU.. I still had an XT running mail on KA9Q along with some routing.

I played with KA9Q for a while - that was an amazing feat, showing
exactly how much you could do on an XT. I remember The Little Garden,

I stopped using it, because its POP3 was a bit non-standard and required patching of newer clients at the time, and eventually it was just to hard.

Spec


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
--- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
* Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)

I played with KA9Q for a while - that was an amazing feat, showing
exactly how much you could do on an XT. I remember The Little Garden,

I'm not familiar with KA9Q, what can it do? Could be fun to find a download somewhere and have a play with it.

... DAC: Divide And Conquer

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

16 bits does seem more than enough, was 32 bits ever really necessary?

I agree that would be an interesting machine! I think it's possible, if the developer happens to find a big stash of 286 chips, so we can keep hoping at least.

16 bit is all you need! :D i am using one of my 16 bit 286 machines here!
<3

--mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

... Redundant book title: DOS For Dummies

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)

Older version of MINIX run on a 286 - I was able to run a caching DNS server, web server and mail server on a 286 with 2mb of RAM.

THATS COOOL!! 2MB OF RAM IS ALL YOU NEED!!!! :D srsly thats cool!
i need to upgrade the 286 here to 16 mb of ram if those darn boards WORKED! >:(. alot of rare fast 286 boards are faulty and need work because of bad soldering..

pF> My desktop system at the time was a Pentium/133; I was bored at work
and pF> looking for a distraction.


--mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

... Help! I can't find the "ANY" key.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)

whats ka9q?

--mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

... That's not a bug, it's an undocumented feature

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)

I'm not familiar with KA9Q, what can it do? Could be fun to find a download somewhere and have a play with it.

me neihter what is it? :D and how to i get it for my 286s?

--mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

... System halted - Press all keys at once to continue

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)

Older version of MINIX run on a 286 - I was able to run a caching DNS server, web server and mail server on a 286 with 2mb of RAM.

THATS COOOL!! 2MB OF RAM IS ALL YOU NEED!!!! :D srsly thats cool!
i need to upgrade the 286 here to 16 mb of ram if those darn boards

I was not aware that MINIX could do some much with such limited resources.
Also RE 16MB support with 286 class machines, I've had some odd results with the motherboard I am currenlty using in my 286 PC & that you might run into.

The board supports more than 4Mb of ram which is the usual max for most 286 motherbaords, but while it works fine with 10Mb installed (2 4Mb SIMMs + 2 1Mb SIMMs), 8Mb (2 4Mb SIMMs) just causes the bios to flip out completely, due to some weird bug. I have no idea what 16Mb would do as I just don't have enough 4Mb SIMMs to try.

... "Chief, wait!" - Kira "When?!" - O'Brien

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

I was not aware that MINIX could do some much with such limited
resources. Also RE 16MB support with 286 class machines, I've had some
odd results with the motherboard I am currenlty using in my 286 PC &
that you might run into.

i have 2 super rare 25MHz M216 rev 1.2 mobos these boards support the maximum of 16 MB. it's a crazy mobo. i just wish the solder the manufacturer used was not bloody TRASH. like the chipset needs to be soldered really well with good nice solder not this cheapo junk solder. i had to send it to my friend multiple times.

ki> The board supports more than 4Mb of ram which is the usual max
for most ki> 286 motherbaords, but while it works fine with 10Mb installed (2 4Mb ki> SIMMs + 2 1Mb SIMMs), 8Mb (2 4Mb SIMMs) just causes the bios to flip out ki> completely, due to some weird bug. I have no idea what 16Mb would do as ki> I just don't have enough 4Mb SIMMs to try.

depends opn the mobo :D

--mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

... A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. Asks: 'Can I join you?'

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)

Hi Kirkspragg,

On Wednesday June 26 2024, Kirkspragg said to poindexter FORTRAN:

I played with KA9Q for a while - that was an amazing feat, showing
exactly how much you could do on an XT. I remember The Little Garden,

I'm not familiar with KA9Q, what can it do? Could be fun to find a
download somewhere and have a play with it.

KA9Q is a networking stack for DOS based amchines (It was also ported to
other machines, like the Amiga). It has/had many features for the limited resource of the early machines. Ie: 286.

You should be able to find it with a google search.

\/orlon
aka
Stephen

Rocking FSXnet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

--- Zeus BBS 1.5
* Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (21:1/196.0)

i have 2 super rare 25MHz M216 rev 1.2 mobos these boards support the maximum of 16 MB. it's a crazy mobo. i just wish the solder the manufacturer used was not bloody TRASH. like the chipset needs to be soldered really well with good nice solder not this cheapo junk solder.
i had to send it to my friend multiple times.

Oh that sucks! I hope you solder woes are over and that you get many trouble free years of use from them now. I've never seen 25Mhz 286 motherboards turn up for sale, only the harris 25 Mhz 286 CPU itself. Where did you find yours?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

Also RE 16MB support with 286 class machines, I've had some odd results with the motherboard I am currenlty using in my 286 PC & that you might run into.

The board supports more than 4Mb of ram which is the usual max for most 286 motherbaords, but while it works fine with 10Mb installed (2 4Mb SIMMs + 2 1Mb SIMMs), 8Mb (2 4Mb SIMMs) just causes the bios to flip out completely, due to some weird bug. I have no idea what 16Mb would do as I just don't have enough 4Mb SIMMs to try.

For most 286 Mobos 4Mb simms wouldn't not have existed during their
lifetimes. If you can get your hands on one that came out of the US Defence then you've got more likelyhood. I don't remember what they got used for
now, but they had 25-30Mhz 286 models doing something, long after 286s in general were obsolete.

The one NEAT chipset board I had, couldn't see 4Mb SIPP/SIMMs at all.


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
--- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
* Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)

poindexter FORTRAN was heard saying....

I played with KA9Q for a while - that was an amazing feat, showing
exactly how much you could do on an XT. I remember The Little Garden,

I ran an ISP for a while, and when we first opened we were using an old
386 sx-16 as the router running ka9q. The rest of the network were linux boxes.

Why did we do it this way? I can't remember. LOL



Shawn

--- Via Silver Xpress V4.5/P [Reg]
* Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

I ran an ISP for a while, and when we first opened we were using an old 386 sx-16 as the router running ka9q. The rest of the network were linux boxes.

If you get the basics of TCP/IP, then KA9Q has a lower learning curve than linux does. Might have been part of it, and or a machine that wasn't doing anything else? A 386 of pretty much any flavour was meant to be able to route enough packets for ~10 486 claass systems? Something like that, I forget.

Spec


*** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
--- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
* Origin: A camel is a horse designed by a committee. (21:3/101)

Spectre was heard saying....

If you get the basics of TCP/IP, then KA9Q has a lower learning curve
than linux does.

Honestly I don't remember why we went that way. I think just because it
was easier as you say.

Might have been part of it, and or a machine that
wasn't doing anything else? A 386 of pretty much any flavour was meant
to be able to route enough packets for ~10 486 claass systems? Something like that, I forget.

That ka9q box handled the dedicated 28.8 connection to the internet. Then
a linux box running a boca board handled the 8 lines we had for dialup
once we started getting clients it became ISDN, then T1, then we were
bought out. LOL



Shawn

--- Via Silver Xpress V4.5/P [Reg]
* Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

Oh that sucks! I hope you solder woes are over and that you get many trouble free years of use from them now. I've never seen 25Mhz 286 motherboards turn up for sale, only the harris 25 Mhz 286 CPU itself.

yeah it's a pain in the ass

Where did you find yours?

i was lucky to find one on ebay

--mary4 (Victoria Crenshaw) the 286 enthusiast

... Error, no Keyboard - Press F1 to Continue.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/24 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Datanet BBS | telnet://datanetbbs.net:23 (21:1/166)

Spectre wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

I stopped using it, because its POP3 was a bit non-standard and
required patching of newer clients at the time, and eventually it was
just to hard.

One of my first IT victories was replacing a horrid Mac LAN-based email
system with a BSD box, Qpopper and Eudora mail clients. We figured out
how to push out address books, back up mailboxes and use Majordomo for
most of our big email lists. It was all pretty cool for the early '90s.



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

kirkspragg wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

I played with KA9Q for a while - that was an amazing feat, showing
exactly how much you could do on an XT. I remember The Little Garden,

I'm not familiar with KA9Q, what can it do? Could be fun to find a download somewhere and have a play with it.

It's out there. It was an early internet app/environment for DOS, you
could use it to route packets, it had a couple of internet servers
built-in, and it could act as a TCP/IP client. Pretty heady stuff for
DOS.

https://www.ka9q.net/code/ka9qnos/



--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

kirkspragg wrote to mary4 <=-

Older version of MINIX run on a 286 - I was able to run a caching DNS server, web server and mail server on a 286 with 2mb of RAM.

THATS COOOL!! 2MB OF RAM IS ALL YOU NEED!!!! :D srsly thats cool!
i need to upgrade the 286 here to 16 mb of ram if those darn boards

I was not aware that MINIX could do some much with such limited
resources. Also RE 16MB support with 286 class machines, I've had some
odd results with the motherboard I am currenlty using in my 286 PC &
that you might run into.

The board supports more than 4Mb of ram which is the usual max for most 286 motherbaords, but while it works fine with 10Mb installed (2 4Mb
SIMMs + 2 1Mb SIMMs), 8Mb (2 4Mb SIMMs) just causes the bios to flip
out completely, due to some weird bug. I have no idea what 16Mb would
do as I just don't have enough 4Mb SIMMs to try.

... "Chief, wait!" - Kira "When?!" - O'Brien

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbS>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

AKAcastor wrote to Jimmylogan <=-

Thanks. Gel shots every so often work wonders...

It's been years since I had Jello shots! Delicious.

Not what I meant at all - but maybe you knew that?

I've never had Jell-O shots - no desire.

I have a Ham radio in the house now - working on getting
an antenna on a nice tall pole/tower.

I haven't gotten into radio myself but I do appreciate hearing about
the interesting equipment and infrastructure involved.

Our 6 year old grandson has been with us for the last 6 weeks, so it's been unhooked. He enjoys the radio in the truck with me, but at home we've
been busy with legos :-) And by the time the nightly nets start he's
bathing and down for bed...

Sadly he goes home this weekend, and next week we'll be at a conference.
After that things get back to a routine, so I plan to work with it
again.







... ETHERNET - A device for catching the ether bunny.
--- MultiMail/Mac v0.52
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)