{"id":42,"date":"2019-06-13T22:36:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T20:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/?p=42"},"modified":"2019-06-15T22:38:05","modified_gmt":"2019-06-15T20:38:05","slug":"ncr-pc386sx-mc20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/2019\/06\/13\/ncr-pc386sx-mc20\/","title":{"rendered":"NCR PC386sx\/MC20, an introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In my quest for an old computer I came across this beauty: a NCR PC386SX\/MC20. At first sight a fairly normal 386, with a nice big red power button that you can push, a 3.5&#8243; 1.44MB diskette drive, a 100MB hard drive and a host of interfaces at the back. When I bought it, it came with a matching VGA monitor and a Tulip DIN keyboard. The price on Marktplaats was fairly low, so it seemed a good bargain for me. Only thing was that nobody else was interested in it. I wondered why! So I looked this particular type up, and then I knew ..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NCR-PC386SX-MC20-2_resized.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-72\" width=\"314\" height=\"418\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NCR-PC386SX-MC20-2_resized.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NCR-PC386SX-MC20-2_resized-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NCR-PC386SX-MC20-2_resized-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 314px) 100vw, 314px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>If it was just a PC386SX, life was pretty simple: an onboard Intel 80386 at 20mHz, floppy drive, hard drive and IBM AT \/ ISA slots to expand your system with every card you ever wanted. But the \/MC20 extension meant something completely different: this was no AT clone with ISA, but a system equipped with Micro Channel Architecture, or MCA. For you guys that don&#8217;t know this: MCA was the IBM answer to the AT \/ ISA interface, but with better specs and performance: higher frequency, wider bus and a kickass feature that predated Plug &amp; Play for years and years. Read the full article at <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Micro_Channel_architecture\">Wikipedia<\/a>. An MCA system is notoriously difficult to install and manage, that&#8217;s why a lot of people left it where it was. I decided to take on the challenge, so here it is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>When I started it for the first time, it booted right away! And still with working software on the HD: a DOS shell like menu receives you with open arms, offering a wide range of software shortcuts for WP51, DOS 5.0, Windows 3.1 etc;<\/li><li>Monitor and keyboard work! I only had to buy a converter from DIN to PS2, as the NCR only has PS2 input for the keyboard;<\/li><li>System is equipped with 4MB RAM, a 100MB HD, with an additional floppy controller, two serial ports and a network interface for MCA cards;<\/li><li>The serial mouse I had worked right away. Only had to clean the X and Y axis rollers;<\/li><li>It booted up, ready to go!<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The bad:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>When exploring the computer, the 1.44MB TEAC FD-235HF floppy drive seemed to fail all diskettes I fed it. So I am afraid it&#8217;s broken. A new (hopefully toime correct) drive is flown in as we speak<\/li><li>When I removed the lid, I think I accidentally broke off the nice red power button. So, when removing the lid, pay attention that you horizontally slide of the top lid before lifting it.<\/li><li>That&#8217;s about it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The main challenge now is to find the reference diskette software and the ADF&#8217;s, or Adapter Description files, for all the installed hardware. After that I want to have a go at reinstalling DOS, Windows and some applications. Luckily, the guys at <a href=\"https:\/\/winworldpc.com\/home\">WinWorld<\/a>, have archived almost every MS-DOS and Windows version. I am trying to find an old greybeard at NCR to help me collect a full software set, and to perform a clean install. More posts to come!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my quest for an old computer I came across this beauty: a NCR PC386SX\/MC20. At first sight a fairly normal 386, with a nice big red power button that you can push, a 3.5&#8243; 1.44MB diskette drive, a 100MB hard drive and a host of interfaces at the back. When I bought it, it &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/2019\/06\/13\/ncr-pc386sx-mc20\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;NCR PC386sx\/MC20, an introduction&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,5,4,6,3],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2","tag-mca","tag-ncr","tag-old","tag-vintage","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.legacyman.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}