Uncreative Labs

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

While at the local recycler I snagged an AST sixpakplus (thinking it was an EMS board). From my quick search on the card it basically upgrades an old XT with low memory to 640K (up to 384kb on the card and up to 256K on the XT motherboard). It also has a serial, parallel, and game port plus a RTC.

The only XT class machine I have (well other then my XT bridgeboard in my Amiga 2000) has 640K built in, so this card would be useless in that machine correct?

Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:11 pm

pretty much, unless u disabled the ram and used it for the ports.
i had one of those but cant use it cuz of that, know how to set up a kouwell Kw 554-b?

Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 264 Location: Ohio/USA

I will save it for if/when I get an IBM XT with 256K RAM.

A quick google search finds nothing on that card, have the numbers correct?

Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:40 am

oh yea, it's a good number, it seems to be the lesser known of the 554 series though, what i'm trying to do is use 2 floppy controllers in my XT so i can have 3 floppies, a 360k, 1.44m and a 1.2m, i have the 360k and the 1.44m in, but i need the second one for the 1.2 and maybe a 720 if i can remember where i put my modified tandy cable. I have a procom pc-txf controller, it is an extension controller for a floppy controller, but it doesn't like the xt, and i have a dual port 8-bit hi-dens 4 floppy controller, again, the XT hates it so my only route is to either keep the original controller, and slow down the 1.2 to half the rpm so the controller can see it. Amiga did that and it worked wonderfully, hopefully the xt will see it the same way. or i can take 2 16bit controllers that work in 8bit slots, disable EVERYTHING on one save the flop, and keep the other controller as usual. this is i don't know if simply changing the addy of the second card will do the trick.

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

I don't think it is possible
an xt has a limited number of irq's
the original xt controller had an external DB-37 port.
by resetting the mothernboard switches, you could have up to 4 gloppies.
usually 360k, but by meand of "driver.sys or Drivparm you could use a 720. ( or a 1.44 as a 720)
you could NOT use a 1.44 as a 1.44, and a 1.2 was totally useless.
with a controller with a bios you could. use either a 1.2 or a 1.44.. It has been 20+ years and I don't recall if these cards will allow 4 floppies.

I will warn that the DTK card was set by switches and when set to format one drive ( wrong format) it was right for the other kind.
so I would avoid that card.
the Compaticard had NO BIOS but used device drivers. I think it handled 4 floppies.

Most, if not all 720k or 3.5" "720k formatted"
floppies when used with an xt will boot the system on the regular xt/pc controller. no device drivers
but when you format the disk it will formay as 360k.

a windows machine is picky about making odd floppies. in fact a total pita.
take a 16 biyt formatted older drive any version of dos 6.22? like a 120m or 300m drive and put it in the windows machine. when you boot fropm a floppy in that machine, you will only SEE the smaller drive. any large drive will be ignored.
in effect, you are creating a bery fast floppy/dod based machine.. this will let you format and copy files back and forth.
as said windows seems to HATE any non standard floppy format. if you try to format a 1.44 disk as a 720k oir a 360 it will give you an error.

I would avoid trying to use a 1.2 drive for 360k floppies.( in you faster system) nothing but headaches in most circumstances.

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:11 pm

Most fascinating. I have a dtk card that the XT loves, it even supports XTs by way of a jumper, i think i have 2 of them actually, i have it set to the secondary floppy address to run as a secondary controller. I am using 2M for bios compatibility, and i found my 286-20 so i may mod my mach 20 to 20mhz operation since the ram and such is clocked seperatly, or i may just use the cpu enhancements and look elsewhere for an 8-bit ems card. i would also like to see if i can find an intel inboard 386 or 486 add in card but those may be beyond my monetary limits

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

this was a square 8 bit xt floppy card with 9 I forget) junmpers or more likely switches.
when the switches were set to properly format a 720
they would not format other diskls
when set to what I considered normal
the formatted 720 floppies had a smaller number of bytes.
this card had a bios.
I took it back and got another brand card.
I think the software in the card's bios had a BUG.
I don't recall problems with any other DTK card.

the very bes xt floppy card was aa IOS-2
it seemed to work like the cmos setup in a 386.
it had clock and other ports.

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 1:34 am

hmm, the one i'm using is a 16-bit DTK super-io card set in XT mode, i'm going to attempt to see if this card will recognize my st-351a/x aswell, i believe i may have a rare but common at the time super io card, it works superbly with the DTC one i have in as primary, and will allow me to use 4 flops with the xt, i have the DTC as primary flop and the DTK as secondary flop with all the additional ports disabled, i want to see if the controller in the dtk one supports 4 floppies by hooking it up to my procom floppy extender board and using the external port and 3 inside.... and i STILL haven't started overloading the XT's power supply. it is a VERY robust thing

and where might i be able to find an aa ios-2 card these days

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

if I locate mine, I will either describe it ot send a photo
the box ( my clue at shows_ was soft gray and blue
there was a coin type cell on the board.

I was working part time for a person with several pcs. he blew up my last board
luckily I got another
but did not tell him
he laid guilt on me so I gave him a replacement
His idea were strange
need more ports? add more cards with no regard for IRQ's ( remember this was befoire PNP)

HE really wanted me to install a audio casette type tape backup. after a careful explanation abot the small capacity of the tape and the fact that common audio casettes would work but were not dependable This was befor the colorado tape era.

or ADAPT SERIAL TO PARALLEL ( BOTH DB 25) AND SWITCH LASER PRINTERS AND LAUGH ABOUT BLOWING ONE UP AND hp FIXING IT.

he had an old eagle pc and oggered to me. next day it was in tinmy pieces, never got to try it./
sort of like a columbia.

Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:49 am

welp, bad news, my procom card blew a gasket. Almost literally, dunno why, but looks like i'm stuck to 2 floppies again, i had to pull the DTK card out for another machine. I've got 2M though, so i've still got my HD floppy capability. I've got a neat little thing that lets you put a half height drive in a full height bay, i'm going to take my black 1.2 and black 1.44mb that match right down to the dual color LEDs and stick them in to the XT. Got the jumpers for a mach 10 board?