#ATOP 20mhz 386sx review
19 messages in this thread
I recently received and installed the ATOP Bridgeboard Enhancer kit. Here
are my first impressions of this product.
Packaging:
The kit came packaged in a small styrofoam box which contained the 20mhz
386SX board, a chip puller, three connectors to expand the space between
the BB and its daughterboard, and some jumpers (which aren't used all). A
simple manual is included which details the installation procedure.
Installation:
Installation is simple. Just pull apart the daughterboard from the main
2286 board, pull out the 286 chip, plug in the 386SX board, and insert the
connectors between the BB & daughterboard to allow enough space for the
386SX board to sit in between.
CAUTION: The included chip puller is cheap and I wouldn't recommend using
it due to the possibility you could crack your socket and/or 286 with it.
I suggest going to a electronics parts shop and picking up a good PLCC chip
extractor which will make it quicker, safer and easier to pull the 286 out.
Performance:
I tested my BB with and without the ATOP board with two standard benchmark
programs, Norton SI (4.5) and the Landmark AT Speed Test (2.0). The
results are as follows:
Norton SI (4.5)
standard A2286 — 7.7 (times speed of PC/XT)
A2286 w/ATOP — 20.7 Landmark AT Speed Test (2.0)
standard A2286 — 8.0 (equivalent to 8mhz PC/AT)
A2286 w/ATOP — 27.0 (equivalent to 27mhz PC/AT)
The speed increase is about 3x that of the standard ATBB. The reason the
Landmark speed is 27 mhz is due to the fact that the ATOP has a built-in
ram cache (manual doesn't say how big it is, I suspect its a 32K cache).
These figures are about the same as most 20mhz 386 PC clones.
[cont'd next msg]
Compatibility:
Seems to work fine with all Janus software (including AMouse and TimeServ,
even though I normally use neither since I have a bus mouse connected to my
VGA Wonder+ card & the 2286 has a built-in clock.)
I didn't have to modify the AUTOEXEC.BAT or the CONFIG.SYS files at all, my
system booted up normally after the ATOP was installed.
The ATOP also is working fine with the cards I have installed (ATI VGA
Wonder+ & Pro Audio Spectrum). Links is much more playable now; I'll have
to try Wing Commander next.
Other Notes:
The ATOP does not provide a 387SX coprocessor socket, but will allow you to
use a 287 plugged into the BB.
I will post more info as I test out the board further. If you have any
questions, I'll be happy to answer them (as best as I can).
-sun
Sunny:
Thank you for the information on the ATOP! How much did it cost and where
did you get it?
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
Michael,
You can call ATOP @ 216-352-8471 for ordering and other info. The price of
the 20mhz 386sx board was $449. When I last called them, they said they
did not take credit cards; they only ship COD.
-sun
Sunny:
Thanks for phone # for ATOP… they're even local (here in Cleveland), so
maybe I can go visit!
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
Michael,
Let me add that when I examined the board, I noticed that it was
manufactured by a company called Aox. I've seen this company's name in
various PC magazines before. I suspect what ATOP did was try out several
AT accelerator boards until they found one (the Aox board) that was the
most compatible with the ATBB. I'm going to try and dig up a phone number
for Aox; it may be possible to buy the board direct from Aox (for a much
cheaper price, presumably).
-sun
Hmmm… well let us know what you discover…
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
This is a test. pay no attention to this message.
– Whapping from the North Coast Michael
Will it make the Bridgeboard work with Windows 3.0? Story I've heard is
that the A2286 is not Winows 3.0 Compatible.
– via Whap!
Who makes ATOP? I've never heard of it.
>>DonovaN
Alex,
Windows 3.0 runs just fine on the 2286 in real mode. Unfortunately it has
problems running in standard mode due to problems in accessing the A20
line.
If you're going to use Windows (or any other disk intensive software) with
the MakeAB and JLink pseudo drives, it is highly recommended that you
perform the 8742 jumper mods to your 2286 board. I've already modified my
2286 and disk i/o, jlink drives, and aread/awrite are sped up tremendously.
I've received the latest version of Windows 3.0 (the one with the
Multimedia Extensions) on CD-ROM for free as part of my Pro Audio Spectrum
package. I'll try installing it on my HD within the next few days to see
how it goes.
-sun
Sunny, would you please post the 8742 jumper mod for the 2286 Bridgeboard?
I have a friend who has one and I'm sure he would be very interested in
speeding up his Hard Drive access.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
John,
The mod was posted on Usenet several months ago, which is where I got it.
I'm not sure if I still have the text on the mod saved somewhere, but I'll
look for it. If I find it, I'll upload the text file to the libraries
here.
BTW, the mod involves soldering a wire to an IC on the ATBB, so I wouldn't
recommend doing it if you don't think you're technically adept enough to do
it and if the BB's warranty hasn't yet expired.
-sun
I would appreciate getting the mod Sunny if you can find it. And I'm a
technician by trade, so I have no problems with hacking on hardware.
Uhhhhh….. Mods? What Mods? I ain't got no stinkin Mods!
Where can I find out about the 8742 jumper mods? And what is the A20 line?
Right now, I've got the Bridge Board running off its own hard drive and
controller… Word I read in one of the Amiga mags was that the keyboard
got flakey with Windows 3.0. Darn! I had a chance to pick up 3.0 for
$49.95 and backed off because I hard that it wouldn't run.
Glad to know it will…..
– via Whap!
Alex,
The jumper mod is only to speed up the pseudo drives (MakeAB & JLink) as
well as Aread & Awrite. If you have a controller and hard disk on the IBM
side, then you have nothing to worry about.
-sun
Speeding up Aread, and Awrite would be nice. I broke down and bought a
real drive, after I did a copy a:*.* C:\Text\Batfiles. I had about 75
small batch utilities on the floppy. The copy died about 3/4 of the way
through. Trashed the pseudo drive, and then when I tried to delete the
pseudo drive and start over, I wound up with errors on the Amiga side too.
Had to re-do it all, so I spent the buck on a MS-Dos hard drive. Never
tried to repeat the situation to see if it was repeatable. (Restoring
everything once, was enough!)
I just recently located the text file detailing the jumper mod which I
got off of Usenet. I have uploaded it to the libraries here in
section 12. If a copy to your pseudo drive died and resulted in
error, it most likely meant that there was a problem with your Amiga
hard drive. I have never had a problem copying files to and from my
MakeAB drive. Backup programs and file/sector editors also work fine
on the pseudo drive.
The only time I had a problem, was when I used the copy A:*.*
C:\Prololg\Bat command. The sub-directory was two levels down, and there
were about 75 small files on a 360k disk. Using XCopy there was no
problem. Using Copy would make it choke. Rather than redoing my hard
drive over, and over I simply worked around the problem, and didn't tempt
fate anymore.
– via Whap!