🚀 go-pugleaf

>I understand that at this years Comdex, there was a board for a PS/2 that
>interfaced to a Intel 860 through the micro channel. Does anyone have any
>information about this board?
>1) what is the availability of the board for prototype work?
>2) is there a development environment for the board other than the normal
>   one for the 860?
>3) what version of Unix will run on the 860 on this board?

IBM showed this board, called "Wizard", as a "technology demonstration" and
has not announced it as a product.  I don't think it is available even for
prototype work, unless you have some special relationship with IBM.  They
have not shown any development environment or Unix running on it.

The board is clearly designed to be a product; it has two ASICs on it
(named "Dorothy" and "Toto").  There are rumors that it may use as-yet
undocumented Micro Channel protocol extensions.

Intel has announced, but not publicized, an IBM AT with an 860 add-in
card, which they are selling as a development system for about $25K.  The
board is not available separately.

In any case, the 860 silicon is in early state, and at last report had
bugs with "serious performance impact".  I don't think IBM will announce the
Wizard board until the silicon is stable.

>4) does the 860 interface directly to a disk drive or via the main processor?
>   can the 2 processors share the same drive?

The Wizard card is a bus master, so it can access a disk controller card
directly, given appropriate software support.

Michael Slater, Microprocessor Report   mslater@cup.portal.com