Michael, What has changed that is prompting this endeavor? On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 9:47 AM Michael C Robinson < [email protected]> wrote:
> RTC stands for real time computer and it typically runs MS-DOS 6.22. > > GUI stands for Graphical User Interface and it typically runs 98SE. > > SBC stands for single board computer. > > Windows Me may not work because a driver for the shared memory card > has to be loaded at boot > where Windows Me seems to have done away with autoexec.bat and config.sys. > > The ISA only passive backplane is a passive backplane that supports at > least 18 ISA cards. > > The computers we have to use are industrial computers that plug into > the backplane. > > Windows XP will not work, it is not a dos based kernel and Q-Soft > probably won't even run on it. > > The RTC is almost full of ISA cards including a shared memory card, so > we can forget going to a different backplane that has PCI slots. What > we will do is wire a buck convertor to a PCI slot so we can run Pentium > class and later computers on the RTC. 486 SBCs are hard to come by > let alone working. We have one, but it > isn't working. To run a Pentium class SBC on a ISA only backplane you > have to provide the 3.3V line through > a PCI slot. > > Many SBCs on the market today, realize they are upwards of 20 years > old, do not work with Windows 98SE. Windows XP came out and most > hardware manufacturers abandoned support for 98se. Considering that a > set of modern heads is $7000, and has different problems/bugs as well > as antiquated Windows 7... that is not a feasible route to go. > > And an SBC is not your typical PC motherboard. These aren't designed > the same. They plug into a backplane. They cost a lot more > typically, especially if they are refurbished. > > Seems there is no direct replacement for Windows 98SE, the last dos > based version of Windows. This is a shame because you cannot get > support for this system. The major problem for these machines is that > they depend on 98se and MSDOS 6.22 which Microsoft could care less > about these days. Freedos may work as an in place substitute for > MS-DOS, but what I'm hearing is that nothing will replace 98se on this > old hardware. > > Doesn't help that running 98se on top of a virtualization layer is > highly difficult now, at least with VirtualBox. Oracle dropped > support for legacy Windows 98 applications. > > Realize these are $15k-$30k machines refurbished. > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
