The Big 80s 386

Everything was bigger in the 80s, including high end computers. In 1987 this would have been among the best machines money could buy. Today it offers little that a smaller, cheaper 386SX probably wouldn't do better, but the hardware is worth documenting if nothing else and it's certainly nice to use. A few timestamps and additional notes; 0:00 - Introduction Can you tell this thing doesn't really fit anywhere? 1:33 - System Exterior Unfortunately the case is quite battered. Try as I might, those marks won't come off and a lot of them are rust. We do get a brief cameo from my Numatic, though. 6:17 - System Interior Somehow cramped despite its size. This was one of the hardest systems to actually film. 16:25 - A lack of standards & Sony Someone once said that Sony would have their own electrical system if they could find a way to do it. I'd believe them. 24:48 - Storage & ESDI ESDI isn't dissimilar to SCSI in operation, as far as the user is concerned, though electrically they're very different. If I'd known how the system would turn out, I wouldn't have opted for such large drives... 33:11 - VGA & TIGA ...because originally the machine used the Everex board and was going to have the DEC Full MPEG installed in it. Now it's too slow for video. Maybe I'll find another gimmick device for it. 38:27 - System Boot & Performance Surprisingly, it actually does outstrip an equivalently clocked 286 in some areas. 56:00 - TMS340 Montage An extremely impressive piece of hardware. TI, however, likely realized there was more profit in making other people's ICs. I suggest an alternate reality in which they went on to dominate the 90s graphics market, but in some ways, they probably weren't ever too far away from it. There's every chance they were at the very least a second source for some ICs used on later video cards. 57:31 - Outro Despite all that was said, a part of me is strongly tempted to run NetWare or something on this machine if I can ever sort out the stability. Other places where I can be found;   / discord   (DXZeff 5619) http://forum.dxzeff.com/   / high_treason   (Not really used any more)    / hightreasonlp   I might start using the posts feature on YouTube occasionally.