61 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
61 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
AST RESEARCH TECHNICAL BULLETIN TB-0298 9-11-87
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HARDCARD 10 - 40 & PREMIUM/286
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Plus Development, Inc. presently manufactures three different
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hardcards for IBM compatible systems. Their first product was
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designed to easily add a fixed disk to IBM PC/XT systems and
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compatibles. It was named the Hardcard 10 and had a fixed
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disk capacity of 10MB. Later, as small fixed disk capacity
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improved, they came out with the Hardcard 20 which had a 20MB
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capacity. Their latest product is the Hardcard 40 which is
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designed for both PC/XT and AT type systems and has a capacity
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of 40MB.
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Hardcard 10
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This board is designed for PC/XT and compatible systems and
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will not work in AT type systems including the Premium/286.
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There is no 80286 upgrade kit offered for this board.
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Hardcard 20
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The original release of this product was designed for PC/XT
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and compatible systems and would not work in AT type 80286
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based systems. However, Plus Development offers an 80286
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upgrade kit that allows the board to work in AT type systems.
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This kit must be installed for the Hardcard 20 to work in the
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Premium/286. Furthermore, the user must follow the upgrade
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kit instruction manual exactly to get the Hardcard to function
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properly in the Premium/286. It is not necessary to include
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the Hardcard during system set up using the AST SETUP utility.
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Users may obtain the Hardcard 20 80286 Upgrade Kit from most
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larger computer stores. The kit is presently shipping with
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firmware release 4.2.
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Hardcard 40
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This product works as shipped in the Premium/286. However, the
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user must follow the installation and set up instructions in
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the Installation and Reference manual exactly. It is not
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necessary to include the Hardcard 40 in the system set up
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using the AST SETUP utility.
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Caveats
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1. Due to the fact that the Hardcard requires a full-length 8-
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bit slot and there is only one of these in the Premium/286,
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may cause the user some problems. For example, placing two
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Hardcards in a system and/or if the user is using a non-
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standard display adapter designed for PC/XT systems that
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won't fit into a 16-bit slot. The IBM XT/286 has the same
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problems.
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2. Neither AST ASTUTE or IBM ADVANCED DIAGNOSTICS for AT
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recognize that a Hardcard is installed in a system. The
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reason for this is because you do not describe the Hardcard
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at set up time.
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