Tandy 1000 EX RAM and CPU upgrade and benchmarks
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- Опубліковано 30 кві 2017
- Part 1 of 2 of my Tandy 1000 EX upgrade series.
I max out the RAM to 640k on my Tandy. I then upgrade the processor to a NEC V20 and run benchmarks to see what kind performance improvement we get.
haha... The Tandy 1000 ex was my first pc. I did the exact same upgrade in the 1980s and it cost me almost $900. I did it just so I could run Test Drive. Thanks for the memories. I'm toying with tracking down a Tandy 1000 ex to relive my youth.
I miss my old 1000ex. I wish I had room to keep all the computers I had over the years.
I used to have one of them back in the early 90's. I wish I had kept it as well. I loved the keyboard.
Great video ! Very informative, looking forward to seeing part 2.
great video. I did the ram today and the processor is on the way! long live the EX!
Awesome vid! Great content Bud! Subscribed!!!
nice job man
Cool upgrade.
Cool video😎I like the way you explain exactly what your doing😎New subscriber here🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂
Excellent. I now have the info I need to try to sort out my RAM expansion. But it could just be a bad connection. I really need to add an external drive though it get the most use of more memory when it comes to what I can actually use. The Speed600 issue may be due to the DOS version being too low.
I have found that some WD40 sprayed into the female plugs really helps the contact longevity. Love the 1000s. I have a collection of TXs.
NEC V20 and V30 have even a compatibility mode where they run 8080 directly. So it is possible to run CP/M software directly on them. Requires quite some tampering but is absolutely possible.
Wow I remember putting the NEC chip in my final XT class machine which I still have! Still have the original chip too. Makes me want to see if it'll boot.
Overclock it! Get that thing goes fast!
Just finished the same mods on my HX. Identical results.
My first real computer. We upgraded the ram and got the RTC chip later on. Always dreamed about a cpu upgrade. You should try changing the oscillator to take advantage of what the new cpu can offer
Yeah my first XT had an NEC V20.
The ram upgrade card also should help with performance because it includes a Direct Memory Access controller which is not present normally.
I connected a 20Mb Harddrive to it. Easy job because it's bus structure is 100% IBM compatibele
I love this videos!. now I miss my XT so much!! hahahaha. I want a XT 640kb with 20mb hard disk and green mono cga! (I hate color cga)!
My first PC was an 80286 12 MHz I got back in 1990. Trident 1MB video, good times!
This is exactly the video I needed to see, right now. I just ordered a V20 to upgrade my 1000 SX. I didn't know about all those benchmark apps that you showed - I'll have to find those so I can test it myself. The V20 I ordered is the 8 MHz version, though. Still higher than 7.16, so I presume it will perform the same? Or is the 16 MHz newer and a better choice?
My first PC was a 80286-12 MHz.
I plan on swapping out my cpu in the HX and benchmarking it. Then I'll swap the 640k 150ns memory for 640k of 100ns memory to see if there is an improvement.
I miss my Tandy 1000 EX. These upgrades were quite a bit more expensive than eight dollars for some RAM chips at the time.
I agree!
I believe with a v20 if you know what your doing you can run cpm on the Tandy, due to the v20 supporting 8089 emulation mode.
I have replaced my 8088 for a nec v20 on my hx, its a little improvement also i´m working on the schematic to insert an 8087 and the nec v20 on the 8088 socket the pinout of the 8087 and the 8088 are almost identical.
i was thinking on overclocking have purchased a big buch of crystals to try the limit is how much can take the rest of the ics on the board.
i don't think it can be overclock much, maybe 10 or 12 mhz.
You may also try the 8080 mode of the V20.
Desk Mate!
You kinda Wiggle it in , Just like that :) QC
It's kind of odd that the RAM expansion uses x1 chips in banks of only 4. In order to read out a full byte, it has to do 2 cycles, so this must be slower than using a memory expansion board that has banks of 8 chips (or uses wider output chips).
Isn't that an AMD 8088-2 you removed, not Intel? Definitely saw the old-school AMD logo on the old CPU.
As far as my memory goes, manufacturing chips for Intel is how AMD got the license for the x86 architecture.
@@R0n8urgundy So technically it is an Intel 8088 made by AMD.
Great Vid, Adrian cant wait for part#2, i upgraded my drive on the weekend, burnt 2 drives in the process, now it kind of works fine the third drive cant read all the old 3.5" floppies, it spins both drives when i put any command in so i need to sort that out. Also so you know where i can download deskmate from ? would love to get this working my original copy from 1987 has gone corrupt.
thanks Adrian, great work,
wow youtube not only burried this beauty of a vid, but also unsubbed me from ya shadow like...
Im upgrading a tandy 1000 RLX if anyone has any suggestions/sources for neat 8 bit isa stuff for it?
So the V20 is rated at 10mhz.
Ever thought about trying a crystal swap to 10mhz and see what happens?
why 10MHz? it said 16MHz on the Chip itself. (1:35 the little "-16" at the end of the name is the speed rating)
also it wouldn't work since the entire Computer bases it's clock from that one crystal, so if you replace it it would fuck up the video signal, audio output, and a lot of chips that cannot go any faster (the DRAM for example). This is also why you cannot overclock a C64 or similar Computer.
BUT, if you were to take your time to make a daughter board, you could give the CPU it's own Clock crystal and make heavy use of the READY Pin (this pin is used to interface hardware that is slower than the CPU by pausing the CPU during Read/Write). that could increase the overall speed but it would be useless if you don't always have faster Memory.
though it would take some effort, since you need to make a circuit that activates the READY pin for a set amount of clock cycles depending on what is currently being read/written to. but it still seems like an awesome Project.
I know this is an old video, but I was wondering, where would one get that plus RAM expansion card? I found a 1000 EX on eBay for fairly cheap but it does not have any expansion cards installed that I know of, and I can't seem to find one online. Am I limited to 256k if I can't find this specific card?
Are there any EMS cards for the EX? Most of the ISA ones are rather large and simply wouldn't fit even if it had an ISA slot, but I was just wondering anyway.
Available GUI for the Tandy 1000 are GEM (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Environment_Manager), Windows 2.11/3.0, Geos (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_(16-bit_operating_system))/New Deal Office
So essentially you're going to turn it into an HX, sans the romdisk?
Most of that is the DMA from the memory card. Pull it out and retry.
I don't have a memory expander card. do you know if it would be possible to replace the memory chips on the board to expand the memory?
Where did you find the ram board? I have a bunch of games but I can run them due to lack of ram. I can't find a ram board under $300!
Would it possible to run a V20 10mhz cpu if you changed the oscillator as well?
It’s still seems weird replacing and Intel processor with an NEC, did they have a deal with Intel, or did they just do it on their own?
I have one of these up in the attic. Now you have me thinking about crawling up there. Did you pay $8 for all of the memory chips or $8 each. I can't imagine spending $64 on it.
Been looking into the NEC V20, but Sony has a compatible CPU as well, and runs at 8Mhz, the Sony CXQ70108D-8. Have you considered this CPU instead of the NEC V20, or is this not compatible with the Tandy 1000EX?
So, I've read that the machine runs at 4.77 MHz / 7.16 MHz, so it would be limited to 7.16Mhz? So would there be any performance increase over the NEC V20 if I used the Sony CPU?
as for games is test drive 2 more responsive, can it play Sierra sci games much better then with the stock chip, and is test drive 3 playable? these are my burning questions. I hope you can get back to me.
Adrian Black I recently attempted to run drakkhen on my sx computer and with the stock chip it ran great. it was better then I expected.
since watching this video again I'm almost inclined to just outright buy a v20.
Adrian Black ha I was going to ask if the china stuff came yet but it's only been a week. hope the floppy emu works out for you
HELP! I have a Tandy 1000rl. Was going to install compact flash but it won't accept it, while in the process I changed drive c to drive a and can't get into the bios to change it back. I also think I deleted something from desk mate not programs are on it. When I try to install the 6 installation disk it won't accept any of them. When I type c: setuprl \a or \s it doesn't accept it.
Did you consider swapping out the rest of 150ms memory for 100ms? There are 4 chips that are marked 4067-15. I believe the 15 is for 150ms.
I doubt it makes any difference. bottleneck back then was not memory speed.
If you change the cpu clock crystal could you make the cpu run faster ?
No, everything is tied to that crystal. Everything would go out of whack.
what would happen if you put 256k ram chips in the machine. would it bring it to 1.2 megs.
The 8-bit architecture of the time allowed only so much memory to addressed.
Will this also work on the Tandy HX?
Yes the EX & HX are pretty much the same MB, same layout. Only difference is the Floppy Drives. You can also add a Hard Drive to both the Ex & HX.
decent computer? can I watch UA-cam on it?
Run on 240v twice as fast
bang! (i have a 1000EX and is 110v..did they make a 240v version.?)
@@andygozzo72 same here, got one over 2 years now and need a converter to run it.
So fast it can't wait to let the magic smoke go free.
is there no way to let the processor to run at it's full 16MHz? change the clock chip, maybe?
Sarreq Teryx if you wanted a faster clock speed like at 16 MH z which the v20 was rated at. I believe you might have to replace the Crystals for that. Since it's current rating is at 7.16 at the time of when this video was made.
@@Compucore Yeah, you could. Most boards get unstable at 10 to 12Mhz, let alone 16Mhz. Remember that the ISA Bus is also running at the same frequency, so speed sensitive ISA cards may introduce strange problems. Using a 16Mhz CPU on 7.16 or 8mhz will keep the CPU cool :-)
@@KuvayiMilliye1918 yeah you are right I was just thinking of the possibilities. You know how goes when it comes to these things.
The old CPU had an AMD logo but says "Intel" on it. Weird.
Very cool! Thanks for the fun fact. It's like seeing a Pepsi logo on a Coke can
Think that Intel CPU had the "Predator" vulnerability? lol Seeing this computer brings back memories. I had one of these when I was 9 or 10. Had to make my own games, and made a graphics editor as a tool to do so. Nowadays kids have it easy and are becoming lazy (mentally as well as physically).