10-26-2008, 07:04 AM
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| | | Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: USA
Posts: 3,319
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From the FWIW department. The DX32 software is dated and it supposedly won't work on machines above 133mhx. As machines got faster and faster and boards digressed more and more from the communications paths used by the old DOS machines, the issue of M/B compatibility rose its ugly head more and more. I can believe that too fast of a processor won't work with BMDC, the chips on it are old Atari derived processor chips that simply might not be able to keep up with gigahertz processing speeds used by XP.
Simply put, unless you find a machine that still has the communication capabilities and speeds to the ISA that the old BMDC DOS stuff uses, you may be out of luck with regard to XP machines. Moreover, id the 133mhz ceiling is valid for DX32, that too may be a sticking point. NOTE" EMI offers a 333 mhz board. If the later faster processors do NOT access the ISA slot in the same way as the old stuff did, you might have an ISA slot that won't think/react like the BMDC is looking for.
The nice thing about 98 and even 98SE, it is is still a DOS based O/S. I know of some folks who had 98 based software and upgraded to XP and everything quit. NO matter what they did or who did it, the stuff just would NOT work on XP. Again this was before the emulators came along. AFIK, XP was M/S's attempt to put DOS to bed with a stake in its heart and move on to a different form of bus work entirely so that they could move on and gain more control over their software - too much piracy and revenue loss for M/S. Besides, the only way for M/S to sell new software and for Intel to sell more computers is to make your old stuff obsolete and unusable.
There may be hope in a not too often discussed industrial based computer system called PC104. This has a PC on a card with a true ISA backplane. I"ve not seen much talk or use of it in CNC or DX32 retrofits but it should work as it runs DOS which the BMDC is using pure and simply. I"ve even seen some of these with 489 and Pentium processors and Ethernet which should be what you're looking for to some extent.
When/if someone does such a swap and serves up a DIY thread, I'd copy it in a heartbeat. Otherwise, you're/we're simply stuck with dumpster diving for M/Bs or paying EMI for an overpriced board that they've either found that works or have had built.
IT is truly sad that EMI, who supposedly acquired the "rights" to the BMDC system, hasn't updated the BMDC to keep it contemporary with the update in operating systems. Sadly, unless some sharp integrators come along who are willing to share their finds on a message board, the DX32 will become a stagnant legacy system for the folks who have come to rely on it for their income streams.
Sorry for the rant but I"ve been studying the DX32 for some time now and uncovered potential in it that would have made for some neat aftermarket CNC stuff. Sadly, the folks who have/had the source code didn't see it the same way and we're paying the price for it in problems just like you cite.  |
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