Monotech NuXT - Modern XT Board Fix & Test
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- Опубліковано 6 січ 2024
- This time I get to look at an amazing little PC motherboard!
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William - / ste_mega
William - wmgaming.co.uk/
I forgot to mention Glen from CRG (The VGA card used to test) - / @crg
There are a few videos showing that card and covering it where I give Glen a massive shoutout!
Monotech NuXT Info & Sales - monotech.fwscart.com/details/...
Monotech NuXT Files - github.com/monotech/NuXT
USE!UMBS.SYS (configurable version - doesnt need compile) and DOSMAX can be found in archives here ^
NuXT BIOS Files - github.com/monotech/NuXT/tree...
LGR Review - • Building a MicroATX IB...
Phils Computer Lab - / @philscomputerlab
Vogons Forum - www.vogons.org/ - Наука та технологія
NOTE - I think I worked out that clash between EMS and UMB RAM at the end there! I suspect I set the range for the UMB driver too big, and included some of the EMS Page Frame! That's why DOS reports more than 96KB of upper memory available. I've reduced the UMB RAM to 64KB (down from 96KB), and set the range to match in the USE!UMBS.SYS driver (C800-D800) and EMS doesn't clash. What is strange is we have 32K of "available" space now, which when used clashes with the EMS card (even when the UMB driver is set to C800-DFFF), but the EMS card base address starts AFTER that at E000... So that clash is still unexplained.
*Correction* : The v1 board does NOT have a parallel port!
Correction : The point I talk about the FPU getting hot - it's running at ~9.5Mhz - not 1Mhz...
William - twitter.com/ste_mega
William - wmgaming.co.uk/
I forgot to mention Glen from CRG (The VGA card used to test) - www.youtube.com/@CRG
There are a few videos showing that card and covering it where I give Glen a massive shoutout!
Monotech NuXT Info & Sales - monotech.fwscart.com/details/p6083514_19777986.aspx
Monotech NuXT Files - github.com/monotech/NuXT
USE!UMBS.SYS (configurable version - doesnt need compile) and DOSMAX can be found in archives here ^
NuXT BIOS Files - github.com/monotech/NuXT/tree/master/Utils/BIOS
LGR Review - ua-cam.com/video/pwzHurzTNTY/v-deo.html
Phils Computer Lab - www.youtube.com/@philscomputerlab
Vogons Forum - www.vogons.org/
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Didn't know that somebody produce new/old XT motherboards, unbelievable! 😉
Oh the bygone days when we swooned over the suggestion of a half meg upgrade.
The V20 is essentially an 80186 clone but pin compatible with a standard 8088 while the Intel 186 had some of the support hardware integrated in and wasn't possible to be used in a 100% PC compatible machine.
Note this was ACTUALLY designed by Sergey Malinov many years ago together with a ISA vga card, ISA parallel/serial card and some other 8-bit cards and is open-source (the original design not this one). This board is a re-hash of it to put everything all on one board to free up the slots.
Jacob who makes this board is a really nice guy. He showed me the board a few years ago when he helped me get my C64 up and running, an it blew me away. Would be really interested to know what case people end up pairing with the board.
Great video! Yes it's underpowered but it's a fun project to tinker with. Also amazing that this clone even exists. A lot of very dedicated folks clearly put so much time and effort into this. Maybe one day we'll see something similar for 486s...
I definitely would be interested in a build video, Gadget. 👍🏻
Designed in New Zealand by 1 guy. LGR did a review as well.
IMO the best use case for a system like this is really to shoot for maximum compatibility with XT software, meaning ditching the VGA for a real CGA card with a composite output, running a 8088 at 4.77mhz (which XT most software expects) and fitting a fat paper cone speaker like the original IBM. There will always be better options for EGA and VGA gaming so why not embrace the limitations of the original platform, albeit with a few quality of life improvements.
Yes! The NuXT!
Gotta say i prefer the PICNIC acronym :)
I love this board, too. I'm chuffed you enjoyed it, mate. My go to game on the XT was always Art of War.
Thanks a million William! I do love this machine and will get a case and follow up on it! I've realised there are actually quite a lot of great games that do run on an XT - things like KGB (wow that has awesome Adlib sound track...), and Dungeon Master. I will have a play of Art of War - I've never tried that one!
@@GadgetUK164 The XT is surprisingly capable. Try Commander Keen 4-6.
There is a nice alternative to the Micro_8088 BIOS in the form of GLaBIOS, but you'd need to combine it with a 3rd party HD FDD BIOS, XTIDE BIOS, and optionally ROM BASIC.
I love the fact that people build things like this. Yes, for most people, it is pointless (after all, they generally run their old DOS software on Dos Box, which is more than adequate for most purposes), but there are people who don't like emulation, and want to run their software on bare metal, not VMs.
Personally, I am quite happy with emulation. It's not perfect, but it's generally very good. It's also pretty much my only option for using old machines, because I don't have space for loads of computers and consoles.
Yeah, the appeal for this product is for those that want to get a closer feel for what computing was like for our hardy ancestors - all that endless fiddling with driver configuration trying to get them all to co-exist.
But it really needs to be coupled with a real floppy drive and, say, a 5 or 10 MB spinning iron harddrive to get the full effect.
Great video! I am just very curious. Some of the comments here, including the pinned one, UA-cam claims are 4 months old? Maybe UA-cam is slightly malfunctioning today. Sorry, this is not relevant for the video itself, but things like this is very interesting to me. Again, awesome stuff! I always enjoy your content. Thumbs UP!
Thanks! It was a Patreon early access video - I have several videos up there at any given time, most of which were filmed over a month ago!
@@GadgetUK164 Thanks for the clarification. 😀
Instead of cat you can use the traditional copy command like this: "copy /b file1.bin + file2.bin output.bin"
This is the proper way to do this with windows as windows has no such utility as cat, something else was providing the cat program for him.
For the last 4 years I assumed Microsoft were providing it lol - I wonder where its coming from, perhaps the GNU C+ stuff, CodeBlocks maybe.
This is cool 😊Happy Newyear .So is there any way to lower the votage to the co pro ? might get the temp down a bit ish
You would need to mod it I think!
that reset jingle i just realised its the old Intel advert jingle. from the 90s. not sure if you remember that?
Oh yeah lol!
I like my NuXT but the speed and incompatibilities prevent me from running a lot of games and software. I get why it's an XT though, all of the parts are off the shelf and relatively cheap so it's a pretty great way to repurpose these old components.
Which EMS card are you using?
The card is coming up next on the channel!
You might as well just remove the 8087 as nothing uses it except a few high end business programs that you wouldn't want to run on an XT now anyway.
That's the most logical - but collectors like me prefer to fit as many upgrades as possible, even if we can't / won't use them lol
@@GadgetUK164Ok well you'd better learn how to use very early versions of DBase, Lotus123 and Autocad because that's the only PC software that uses the FPU. The 8087 is expensive now and practically useless but it's surprising how many clueless people think they need one LOL!
@@g4z-kb7ct I used to use Auto CAD and Lotus123 on an 8088 with 8087 ;) I am led to believe that Sim City uses it too - a number of people pointed that out. In any case, it is a novalty, but so is using an XT in 2024 lol
The actual cause is actually you. Notice that you've got 128kb of UMB instead of expected 96kb.this is due to you using EFFF instead of proper DFFF for the upper limit of UMB block.
Thanks, yes - see the commented I pinned earlier ;)