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--- blog:286_shootout_pa286-sa1 [2021/01/19 23:19] – [Results] john
+++ blog:286_shootout_pa286-sa1 [2024/02/16 19:02] (current) – [Conclusion] john
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Peaktron / Micro Systems PA286-SA1 ======
+{{:blog:img20210115115936.jpg?150|}}
+A 286 motherboard that seemed promising. Information on specifications and configuration, as well as benchmarks and testing.
 ===== Initial Thoughts =====
@@ Line 129: / Line 132: @@
 {{:blog:img20210116091224.jpg?200|}} {{:blog:img20210116093134.jpg?200|}} {{:blog:img20210116093104.jpg?200|}}
+===== Oscillator Modification =====
+The board has a soldered-in oscillator of 32MHz, giving a 16MHz processor clock. To do any performance tuning or use a 20MHz or faster processor, it will have to be replaced with a socket:
+{{:blog:img20210116110901.jpg?200|}}{{:blog:img20210116121004.jpg?200|}}{{:blog:img20210116121019.jpg?200|}}
+{{:blog:img20210116121136.jpg?200|}}{{:blog:img20210116122204.jpg?200|}}
+The board works correctly again with the original oscillator in the socket.
 ===== 0 Wait State =====
@@ Line 242: / Line 253: @@
 | Norton Sysinfo CPU     | 9.2       | 12.1        |
 | Norton Sysinfo HDD     | 996KB/sec | 1012KB/sec  |
-| Norton Sysinfo Overall | 8.9       | N/A         |
+| Norton Sysinfo Overall | 8.9       | N/A  <color red>Crashed</color>       |
 | CheckIt Dhrystones     | 3157      | 4042        |
 | CheckIt Whetstones     | 528.1K    | 537.3K      |
 | CheckIt Video chars/sec VGA 1 | 2779      | 2913        |
 | CheckIt Video chars/sec VGA 2 | 2979      | 3121        |
-| CheckIt HDD Transfer   | 915KB/sec | 992KB/sec   |
+| CheckIt HDD Transfer   | 915KB/sec | 992KB/sec <color red>Crashed several times until it ran to completion</color>  |
 | Landmark CPU           | 18.54MHz  | 24.67MHz    |
 | Landmark FPU           | 18.25MHz  | 18.70MHz    |
@@ Line 262: / Line 273: @@
 | CompTest MFLOPS        | 0.045     | 0.046       |
 | CompTest Video Wait States | 3     | 3           |
-| CompTest Video BIOS VGA 1  | N/A   | N/A         |
+| CompTest Video BIOS VGA 1  | N/A <color blue>Not captured</color>  | N/A <color blue>Not captured</color>        |
 | CompTest Video BIOS VGA 2  | 6965  | 6992        |
-| CompTest Video Direct VGA 1| N/A   | N/A         |
+| CompTest Video Direct VGA 1| N/A <color blue>Not captured</color>  | N/A <color blue>Not captured</color>        |
 | CompTest Video Direct VGA 2| 4926  | 5128        |
 | CompTest Dhrystones    | 3323.5    | 4198        |
@@ Line 280: / Line 291: @@
    * //(2)// - ATPerf benchmarks did not complete successfuly - part way through the system halted and the remaining test run was a failure. Another example of unstable behaviour at 0-wait state in this configuration.
    * All results marked as "N/A" were unable to be completed either due to lack of that configuration to POST successfuly, or the system crashed or froze repeatedly during that particular test.
+   * Several of the disk benchmark tools crashed several times at 0-wait states and were repeated until we achieved a complete result set. In addition, several tools would not load and the system rebooted multiple times until they could be run.
+   * In both 1-wait and 0-wait mode the Tseng card exhibited some strange output in text mode:
+     * Corrupted text on Tseng card: {{:blog:img20210119222635.jpg?150|}} {{blog:img20210119223647.jpg?150}}
+     * Correct output from Trident card: {{:blog:img20210116163038.jpg?150|}} {{blog:img20210116163227.jpg?150}}
 Configuration **3** and **4** were left untested after the board proven unstable at just 16MHz operation.
@@ Line 285: / Line 300: @@
 ===== Conclusion =====
-This one looked too good to be true: 20MHz support, 16MB RAM support, modern-single-chip chipset, performance options (0-wait state, BIOS shadowing, etc). Unfortunately it simply //was// too good to be true.
+This one looked too good to be true: 20MHz support, 16MB RAM support, performance options (0-wait state, BIOS shadowing, etc). Unfortunately it simply //was// too good to be true.
 The board is well made, clean and nicely finished... but... it simply can't run reliably with 0-wait state mode enabled; and that is absolutely essential for decent performance. Running in 1-wait state mode with a 16MHz processor speed drops the overall performance to that of a 10 or 12MHz processor (12MHz is being generous).