8086/8087 SBC

[codecat]

Hi all...<p>This is my first post to this forum...<p>I am looking for a maximum mode 8086 SBC with an 8087 stackable daughter board (preferably PC104). If as I suspect, there are no such objects left in this world, I would really like to find some circuit diagrams of an 8086-8087 SBC, so that I can have the boards made. I need this to be able to interface with standard stackable I/O and controll boards. I do not need any on board keypads or numeric displays, although the display would be nice. I will program the device either with an RS232 link to a pc or with a programmed ROM. Any ideas on this would be most welcome.<p>I have done a lot of searching on google, but that has been rather useless. I am a fairly decent 8085 programmer, but I need the mathematical umph that the 16 bit 8086 and 8087 FPU would give me...<p>This will be used in conjunction with several other u-processors and u-controllers for a robotics project.<p>Thank you in advance,<p>73,
Joe

[dyarker]

Take a look at uM-FPU Floating Point Coprocessor. It can probably be driven by what ever uC or uP you're already using.

[philba]

Do you need a real 8086? The reason I ask is there are lots of x86 based boards out there that are quite a lot faster than even the fastest 8086 going. For example, check out soekris stuff. Their 133 mhz 486 board is $156, quantity one. These have lots of ethernet on them so its not the cheapest possible. <p>Phil

[codecat]

Hi Phil...<p>I really would like to have an 8086 max mode board with an 8087, for three reasons...first, they have low power requirement, second, I am fairly adept at coding for them, and third, they are fairly simple compaired to a 32 bit device...I will ultimately use a high power processor when I get some of the low level functions taken care of...so far, I have used two PIC (bs2) devices for servo controll and sensor controll...I want to use the 8086 to do spatial computations and mapping using sensor input data. (provided that I can come up with the code for that...I might have to defer to a better coder than I)...Then I will use the high level processor, such as a pentium, to make the decisions concerning obstical avoidance and destination aquisition. This is a learning process for me, and I am mostly a math person, so I have several other people in on this project with me to help develop the code and designs...I would rather start with a less powerfull device and work up to the more complicated devices.<p>Hope that I wasnt too windy!<p>All the best<p>Joe

[philba]

not to windy...<p>I understand what you are saying but the 32 bit instruction set makes a huge difference, especially if you are doing math. The 8087 is an amazingly slow math processor. Its worth the effort to figure out how to take advantage of 32 bit mode if you need math power. By the way, I think DOS extenders are still around so you could use one of them to handle getting the processor into protected mode. They are pretty easy to use. Or you you could run a stripped down linux out of a flash disk. <p>But, hey, do what works for you!<p>Phil