[rescue] Looking for k486.tar.Z - aka "Sun 386i Speed-up package"
Richard
ejb at trick-1.net
Wed Jun 19 07:02:17 CDT 2019
Hi Folks
So I still have a Sun 386i churning away with a couple of Transputer boards on board. Makes quite a nice if not a little slow development environment.
Anyway the Sun 386i FAQ mentions the following location which is now long dead.
ftp://sun386i.mono.org/pub/sun386i
now most of what is there is comparable from source. However there is one file that relates to a 486 mod that could be done and is referenced in the following section. The file is known as the 486 speed-up package
filename: k486.tar.Z
the following is the section....
Are there any speed-up modifications for the 386i?
Yes and no. The modification mentioned most frequently
involves Cyrix chips but the consensus is that they cannot
be used successfully in the 386i. Indeed, Cyrix actually
documents their 386 upgrade chip as being incompatible
with the 386i.
However, there has been a modification by Tim Wood
(timwood at slip.net) of a 386i/150 using a Kingston/IBM
Blue Lightning 486 CPU running at 60 MHz. Results were
said to be mixed. CPU-intensive computations showed a 30%
to 40% speed-up and seemed particularly useful for DOS
applications. As one might expect, though, there seemed
to be little improvement where extensive I/O was
performed (the internal bus was still running at the same
speed) so basic SunOS and X11 functions did not benefit a
great deal.
Tim has always been most helpful but he no longer has his
386i. The best bet would be to get his "k486.tar.Z"
package from the FTP site (ftp://sun386i.mono.org/pub/sun386i) - it
contains all the necessary software and documentation.
My google fu and wayback machining has not found the file....
So long shot.....does anyone happen to have it or know where to get it?
cheers
Richard
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