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PS/2 8560

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MykeLawson

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2014
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404
I have a simple 8560. Nothing fancy. It does have a 2MB Orchid RAM car, dual Async card, 8514/A with added memory, and two ESDI 70MB drives. I'd love to find some IBM 30pin SIMMS for the other memory card I have so I can put more memory in it. And maybe find a non-IBM monitor that supports interleaved video so I can get some real use out of the 8514/A card. Another project I'd like to tackle is to put Xenix on it, but the only images I've found are for 1.2MB 5.25 floppies and I only have the 1.44MB 3.5 inch. So, the thing sits in the corner will I continue the hunt......
 
Actually, I'd like to be able to run an OS on this thing that is something beside the DOS/WIN stuff.
 
MykeLawson said:
8514/A with added memory... And maybe find a non-IBM monitor that supports interleaved video so I can get some real use out of the 8514/A card.
Click to expand...
XGA requires a 386SX at a minimum... no holy joy there...
Image Adapter/A should work, but I'm not sure if you will have driver support. :(
 
BTW, I just picked this up from eBay.... With manuals and software. I've seen a few threads (somewhere) that the docs and software aren't online. Once I get this thing, I will figure out how & where to post them. Also, I have the Ardent website bookmarked and use it as a go to for my PS/2 stuff; along with kev009's site.

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ardent-blue said:
AIX for PS/2 1.3 should sate your curiosity. I believe it is also on the Internet Archive...
Click to expand...
Yep, I have that downloaded. A boatload of diskettes; and 3.5" ones at that (96 to be exact). Oh, what fun installing that, but at least with that new card, I will have 5MB!!! But if I could find some 'real' IBM 1MB 30 pin parity SIMMs, I could populate my other card and have even more.....
 
So I've been mulling over an alternate OS to DOS/WIN on my 8560. My new memory card will be here Friday, so I'll (hopefully) have 5 MB in the thing to play with. I see three possibilities; AIX, CP/M 86, and OS/2. I remember what a pain it was to install AIX on the PC/RT's and RS/6000's we had a work, and I suspect the PS/2 version is just as cumbersome; or worse. Then the CP/M 86, which from what I can see, doesn't really have much in the way of usable applications available out there as the world moved on from CP/M by the time this machine was out. That kind of leaves OS/2 v1.3 as my best choice, given the 8560 only has an 80286 in it. I wonder if a motherboard from an 8580 could be a drop-in replacement..... Hmmmmm
 
My route of action for a model 60 was PC-DOS 5 and Windows/286. It was absolutely happy with this configuration, but you specifically didn't want to go that route.
AIX 1.3 really wants at least 8mb ram or you will be paging a lot.

Edited: Waaaaaait minute. Doesn't AIX 1.3 require at the minimum a 386?
 
Last edited:
NeXT said:
My route of action for a model 60 was PC-DOS 5 and Windows/286. It was absolutely happy with this configuration, but you specifically didn't want to go that route.
AIX 1.3 really wants at least 8mb ram or you will be paging a lot.

Edited: Waaaaaait minute. Doesn't AIX 1.3 require at the minimum a 386?
Click to expand...
Well, if AIX 1.3 requires a 386, then scratch that one. The 8560 already has DOS7/WIN3.1 on it, so maybe I'll just go the OS/2 1.3 route. Who knows. I would like to find an interleaved display so I could get 1024x768 out of the 8514/A video card. And maybe upgrade the two 70MB ESDI drives to the 310 MB ESDI drives.
 
IBM has "improved" their announcement letter search page. again.

You are looking for a 386SX or better upgrade for AIX for PS/2. 386SX-16 or better.

I am guessing you need the memory management functions of a 386 or better.
 
For the price of a 310mn ESDI that works (or two of them for that matter), it might be more economical to get an MCA2IDE or even an MCA scsi card and your pick of a SCSI disk.
 
NeXT said:
For the price of a 310mn ESDI that works (or two of them for that matter), it might be more economical to get an MCA2IDE or even an MCA scsi card and your pick of a SCSI disk.
Click to expand...
MCA2IDE? Oh, I never knew IBM made any. I'd love to get more info so I could see what is available.
 
ardent-blue said:
IBM has "improved" their announcement letter search page. again.

You are looking for a 386SX or better upgrade for AIX for PS/2. 386SX-16 or better.

I am guessing you need the memory management functions of a 386 or better.
Click to expand...
Yep, I was trying to find a 386 to 286 processor upgrade, but they are almost extinct.
 
Well, my Orchid 50/60 RAM card has arrived, and it does contain the original diskette and the original manual and quick reference card. I seem to recall some postings somewhere that this stuff could not be found. I have no problem scanning the paperwork in and making a copy of the diskette. The question is, where to put it. Ardent Tool of Capitalism? BitSavers.org? ps-2.kev009.com? Archive.org? Any thoughts or suggestions?
 
Well, I ordered the McIDE-CF and it should be here this week. As my system sits now, there are two 70MB ESDI drives. The one with the drive C: partition is okay, but the other is a bit flaky and has no data. I'm going to pull the flaky one so I just have the one ESDI drive and the two CF card drives from the McIDE-CF. Since the McIDE-CF has an externally available slot, I can easily use that for transferring data on and off of the machine; in a powered off state of course. My 'assumption' is that fdisk & format will just see the card(s) as plain 'ol disks and treat them accordingly; most likely, but I've learned to never assume anything till you test it.
 
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