Alice Averlong🏳️⚧️So my roommate bought that weird Hand386 portable PC that popped up on aliexpress. Let's tear it down (nondestructively for once, since I'm borrowing it).
first off, lemme get the spoilers out of the way: It's real, it runs DOS/Windows 95, and it can run Doom (badly) and VGAPride.
It's easy to open (this image came out blurry, but I'm just using it for navgiation)
We've got two terminal connectors on the left, plus a 3.5mm audio jack. The right has a USB port and a barrel jack power connector.
First off, the CPU. This is surprising! It's an DM&P ALi M6117D.
This is a modified version of the chip made by ALi/ULi, licensed to DM&P. ALi's chip division was bought by Nvidia in 2006.
This is a modified version of the chip made by ALi/ULi, licensed to DM&P. ALi's chip division was bought by Nvidia in 2006.
So the M6117D is a 386SX-compatible system on a chip.
It's a static 386SX Core (apparently licensed from Intel?) plus ram controller, peripheral controllers, IDE support. It runs at 25-40mhz, and up to 16 megabytes of RAM
It's a static 386SX Core (apparently licensed from Intel?) plus ram controller, peripheral controllers, IDE support. It runs at 25-40mhz, and up to 16 megabytes of RAM
Chip info here:
Also, I was wrong. Apparently it goes up to 64 megabytes of RAM:
Next to the CPU, we've got four DRAM chips. AMIC A420616AS-50F, 2-megabyte chips.
So we're looking at 8 megabytes.
So we're looking at 8 megabytes.
Then we've got our VGA chip: A Chips&Technologies 65535.
This is a fully integrated chip with built in CRT controller/flat panel support, RAMDAC, and and clocks.
It supports up to 1280x1024 resolution with enough VRAM, or 640x480 16bpp truecolor.
This is a fully integrated chip with built in CRT controller/flat panel support, RAMDAC, and and clocks.
It supports up to 1280x1024 resolution with enough VRAM, or 640x480 16bpp truecolor.
For VRAM, a Sharp LH6A4260K-60, which I'm pretty sure is a 512 kilobyte chip, but I can't be sure.
The really surprising chip is this, a Yamaha OPL3 YMF262-M...
Yeah, this thing has real OPL3 sound. Assuming this chip is genuine, of course.
Yeah, this thing has real OPL3 sound. Assuming this chip is genuine, of course.
KDDLB
Matt
Jonathan ‘theJPster’ Pallant@thejpster @kevin @foone ah yes, Graham Linehan, well, he goes in the file with Morrissey as someone who did great work but then turned into a dick. It doesn't make their previous work suddenly worse or make you into a hypocrite for enjoying the pre-dick work, but I would avoid their post-dick work. Same goes for Hugo Boss, but they went to another level.