- Given a budget of around 98000, Francis Marchiseand Jean Coppola (left)ol Pace Uni- versity created an AT-based 386 workstation with exceptional f loating-point performance. TURBOGHARGING YOUR 386 Build a 386 from scratch, or inrease performa,nce on a budget chip, and the software must be Weitek .fi', _/crn F. Coppola and, Francis T Marchese compatible to recognize it. Srtren writ- I t : ve bousht a 386 machine tional floating-point power for computa- ing your own code, this is not a big prob- f .rnning UNH, and you wanl tionally intensive applications such as lem because compilers are available I - improve i1s per[ormance ray tracing, cellular automata, and that support Weitek. I rci add some neat features. molecular modeling. Although the Weitek was excellent - j :.,::, vou have a limited budget, so w We would have complete control for our in-house intense floating-point ,n. best price/performance over all the components in the system. applications, we also needed a fast : ::,: If we would have bought a preconfig- numeric co-processor for commercial ', -=:: do you start? Whether you're ured system, it would not be custom- non-Weitek-supported applications, and particular parallel , -,. .:::rg -""our 386SX or building your ized to our needs, nor would possibly computations. A ' ::. stem from modules, you first we be assured of the quality of each daughterboard. wilh sockels for both ' :": ., Sat priorities. As small systems component. chips, can accomplish this task, and j : r ::s at Pace, a New York universiff, Two further considerations: we both chips can reside in the same sys- -: :articuiar goal was to build a 25- chose to stay with the AT-bus architec- tem to accommodate any co-processor- ,.-.- s1'stem that was as powerful as a ture because the Industry Standard specific application. Although a daugh- , :r,station, reasonably priced, yet Architecture (ISA) is still the current terboard is needed for the majority of - =.,',' maintained. slandard and most widespread bus cur- the motherboards. some manufactur- rginally we thought we were allotted rently in use, whereas the percentage of ers have installed both sockets directly. '--. '.Ni for a complete UNX worksta- MicroChannel Architecture machines Instead of installing an Intel 80387 - :, enough to buy a low-end Hewlett- is still small, and the Extended Industry chip, for almost the same price (see :.:iard or Sun. In the end, however, Standard Architecture (EISA) has not table), we purchased a Cyrix FasMath :: actual budget was reduced to caught on yel We also chose the 386 Intel numeric co-processor-which is fully -,:.'-N,i-a real challenge, but we accom- processor because Pace's Motorola Intel-compatible. Cyrix claims this co- :,.hed it by comparison shopping and 6802Gbased workstations have had sev- processor has a greater precision in di- .'. .luating price/performance. After eral problems, not to mention a high- vision, and is faster on single-precision -.:etul thought, we decided to design cost service contract. Here's why we and double-precision computations -C implement our own generic UNX chose what we did. than Intel's. Furthermore, the Cyrlr is ...,rkslalion because: especially good for high performance e The system can be easily main- Co-processors on transcendental functions, and meets ::.ined and upgraded. Local vendors Our primary design objective was to all IEEE specifications. In the near fu- -- -,u1d supply parts for in-house service, have exceptional floating-point perfor- ture, look for a new chip from Cyrlr that :rd a service contract would not be mance, so we chose the Weitek is Weitek compatible, competitively :eeded. mW3167 Abacus numeric cGprocessor. priced, and faster than the Weitek. e AT:bus hardware is compatible Weitek claims its co-processor is capa- The Motherboard ,,i'ith the majority of the existing ma- ble of floating-point speeds 50 times ihines in the university, and could be faster than an Intel 8087 chip and 4 to 5 The most difficult decision was selec! sivapped out in an emergency. times faster than an Intel 80387, thus ap ing a motherboard. Though there are * The 386 will not become obsolete proaching the speed of a V/\X 8600. many manufacturers and models of 386 for several years, and it could provide The Abacus chip provides full 32- and motherboards, not aii support the service for word processing and spread- 64-bit floating-point operation and con- Weitek.'lhese included (but were not sheets in a departmental offlce when it forms to the IEEE standards for float- exclusive to) speciflc models from ALR, is replaced. ing-point arithmetic. However, it AMI, Dell, Everex, Intel, Micronics, e The machine can be designed at a requires a special 121-pin socket on the Mylex, and Zenith. Other manufactur- reasonable cost while providing excep motherboard specifically made for this ers such as AST, Compaq, HP and Hauppauge also have versions that are Weitek compatible, but also have two sockets on the board to accommodate both the Weitek and a math coprocessor. Most motherboards have similar throughput performance. We chose the Micronics because it is cleanly engi- Lisl Price I neered, rblatively inexpensive,-and is Description Purchase price Vendor sold by local vendors. Ourlocal vendor S0Y0Micronicscompatible386-25 N/A /$j598 JomDaiaSysten"s had a Micronics compatible that met all B megabytes of RA[/ installed 14838 Valley Blvd., #C of our requirements, came a (expandable and with to 16 megabytes); City of lndustry, CA 91 746 one-year warranty. we pur- Though slots include: I 32-bit, 5 16-bit; B1 B-330-6553 chased this board, in retrospect, we rec- 2 8-bit; Weitek compatible; minus ommend that you purchase a major cache; AMI Bl0S brand name, such as those mentioned Weitek co-processor 3167-25 MHz $2495 i $995 Weitek Corp above, unless you have a dealer with a 1060 E. Arques Ave. good track record that will give you the Sunnyvale, support you need. CA 94086 408-738-8400 Other features to look for when in- Cyrix numeric co-0rocessor 25 MHz vesting in a motherboard are maximum $814 i $600 Cyrix Corp memory capacity, processor speed, wait 1850 N Greenville Ave., #184 states, number and ['pe of expansion Bichardson. TX 75081 slots, and tlpe of RAM. Because most 214-234-8387 versions of UNX require a minimum of Daughterboard for Weitek and 80387 $220 i $200 MicroWay lnc. 4 megabytes of memory, the maximum P.0. Box 79 expansion ability of the motherboard is Kingslon, MA 02364 important. Also, check the maximum 508-746-7341 amount of memory that can go directly Iurbo cool power supply 250 watt $205 i $169 PC Power and Cooling on a motherboard-and if and how much 31510 Mountain Way memory can go on a daughterboard. Bonsall CA 92003 When deciding upon the speed of the 61 9-723-951 3 system, we chose a speed of21MHzin- TEAC 1.2-megaby,te 5 li4-inch N/A / $69 TEAC Corc. ol America stead of 20 or 33 MHz because the floppy disk drive /733 Telegraph price/performance Rd. ratio was the best Montebello CA 90640 when compared to others, especially TEAC 1.4-megabyte 3 1/2-inch N/A / $79 213-727-7682 when considering it would cost thou- floppy disk drive 508-683-8322 sands of dollars more to add the faster Lark Associates 16-bit 2O-megabit/sec $j99 / $j50 Lark Associates Weitek, Cyrix, and RAM for a 33-MHz 1 1 2tloppy12 hard disk conlr0ller 4046 Clipper machine. It was only a few hundred Ct !,-,. Fremont, CA 94538 dollars more fo r a 2*MHz thut a 2UMHz. 415-657 5275 Most boards will have the option of :'"Jl Hewlett-Packard 340-megabyie 1 one or zero wait states, but the RAM has 7-ms $1890 / $1709 Hewlett-Packard ESDI FH hard drive (s-year warranty) to be fast enough to meet that particular 3000 Hanover St manufacturer's specifications if it is to Palo Alto. CA 94304 run at zero wait state. A good number of 41 5-857-1 501 expansion slots is about eight, which ArchiveVP Tape Backup 60-megabyte $975 / $545 Archrve allows for future growth. If you are re- internal DC6004 cartridge c0mpatible 1650 Sunflower Ave. placing an existing system board, make Costa Mesa, CA92626 sure there are enough of the right size BA0-537-2724 bit (8, 16,32) slots. 714-641-1230 When you purchase a motherboard, Paradise VGA Professional Card 512K $649 / $269 Weslern Digital lmaging/Paradise be sure that the Intel 386 chip speed is 256 colors at 600-by-480 resolution 800 E. Middlefield Rd. the same as the advertised speed of the Mouniain View, CA 94043 motherboard. For example, many dealers 41 5-960-3353 are installing 2GMHz chips on 2*MHz 800-356-5787 system boards, and selling them as Princeton Graphics Systems 1 6-inch $1375 / $822 Princeton Graphics Systems "2EMHz systems" to unsuspecting cus- color multisynch monitor tomers. Some motherboards will 1100 Northmeadow Pkwy., Ste. 150 Roswell, GA 30076 "push" the chip and actually benchmark 404-664-1 01 0 at the motherboard speed, but this is not recommended because it will fail lntel UNIX System V/386 Version 3.2 lntel Corp. erratically at a higher rate. System Platform Set Limited $595 i $357 (formerly Bell Teclrnologies) x_T_ clock lL.Id. Software Development Set $565 / $339 3065 Bowers Ave. Hard Disk and Controllers Intel System Platform lVanual Kit $1 00 / $60 Santa Clara, CA 95051 Intel System Development Manual Choosing a hard disk and controller is a Kil $1 00 / $60 408-765-8080 difficult but important decision.