Comments for The Silicon Underground

Comment on First CD-ROM drive: Philips CM-100 by Cosmin

Cosmin — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 14:34:55 +0000

I remember Lxycon Lasonic cd-rom drive that needed a dos driver to run under windows 9x

Comment on Marx diesel passenger train set 9639 by Ronald Swanson

Ronald Swanson — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 04:30:02 +0000

I enjoy your silicon underground archives Marx toy train posts, as I believe they are more accurate
than many previously written articles in toy train publications and or price guides. Seeing your
posts has caused me to to appreciate Marx for trying to make a more expensive toy more within reach of hard working families of modest means.

Comment on HP 200LX and related palmtops by Dave Farquhar

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 01:37:43 +0000

In reply to CubicleNate. I wasn't aware of the GPD Pocket products but they sure do look like a modern version of a palmtop! It goes to show that good ideas never die.

Comment on HP 200LX and related palmtops by Frank McConnell

Frank McConnell — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 21:43:03 +0000

And then someone named Mack figured out how to double the clock speed (and write some code to run at startup to fix the display timing to work with that) and add a 32MB RAM disk inside the 200LX. Not merely fast, but faster! And you could still use the PCMCIA socket for flash storage (mine’s a Sandisk 256MB).

It wasn’t flashy, there wasn’t much to show off, it was an XT-class PC with some built-in applications that you could carry round and get stuff done anywhere. In a world of landlines, you might also carry a battery-powered modem and cables so you could download your e-mail and upload your replies and writings. In the data center, you might use it as a serial console for configuration or diagnosis.

Comment on HP 200LX and related palmtops by CubicleNate

CubicleNate — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 13:21:30 +0000

Have you looked at the GPD Pocket products? I sort of feel like they are a kind of spiritual successor to the HP Palmtop form factor. I don’t make GPD money so these aren’t in the budget but the do look pretty cool and quite compelling to those that could use such a thing.

Comment on Second-generation video game consoles by Greg Mohney

Greg Mohney — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 15:49:37 +0000

Wow, I wasn’t aware Colecovision had such visuals, pretty impressive for the time! I had a 2600 (and as a dopey kid, quite liked ET the Extraterrestrial. The government agents were scary.)

Comment on 486SX vs 486DX: A closer look by ibmmuseum

ibmmuseum — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:12:44 +0000

I compiled data on the Intel 486 CPUs, using a feature started at the 386 CPU level and modified to be information always availble mid-stream with the 486 class: The “CPU Reset Signature”, which became the “CPUID” instruction. When power is applied to an Intel 386SX/386DX or higher, it loads a hard-coded “Reset Signature” into the DX register reporting the CPU “family” and “class”, later an encoding of the processor stepping. A system BIOS (I’ve only found that the IBM BIOSes of the time saved the value) had to store the Reset Signature away before it would be overwritten.

On on Intel 486-class processor with an additional copyright date of 1992 or later (except for the 486SL, which was a low-power 486DX in PQFP packaging for laptop designs) changed the CPU Reset Signature into an always-available “CPUID” rather than esoteric x86 software code to distinguish which CPU level and features were present. Intel later had the CPUID change value slightly (from the mode that was shown with the CPU Reset Signature) for the mode of the L1 cache as the conventional “Write-Through” or “Write-Back” on a few 486DX4 (clock-tripled) and a 486DX2 (clock-doubled). Intel also increased the L1 cache to 16Kb on some of the 486DX4 models.

Here is my chart: https://www.ardent-tool.com/CPU/486_Step.html

Comment on 486SX vs 486DX: A closer look by Greg Mohney

Greg Mohney — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 15:30:35 +0000

My first x86 computer was a 486DX at 33mhz with 4M RAM. Building a Linux kernel took about 8 hours!

Comment on Marx diesel freight train set 9629 by Greg Edel

Greg Edel — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 14:06:01 +0000

Thank You !

Comment on Marx diesel freight train set 9629 by Dave Farquhar

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 02:54:38 +0000

In reply to Greg Edel. That set was on my to-do list for a very long time. I did finally run a blog post about that last September.