Want to learn about computers

  • Thread starter Thread starter larry
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larry

Greetings

Well, I just retired, age 55, and want to learn about computers. Actually
my reason is somewhat selfish. I have a project, I am working on, that I
would like to computerize. I have, what I believe is, a 486 which I would
like to expand with a multiple parallel input output ports. With this
project, speed is not important.

First, before I spend any money, I would like to know if there are any kinda
detailed totorials, on the internet, that would give me enough education
about my computer to let me know if what I want to do is possible or
practical, etc.

I do realise the a 486 computer is so old that there may no long be any
cards, on the market, that can enable me to expand this computer to give me
multiple input output ports.

My electronics training is such that I might be able to build the multiple
input output board and plug it into the computer myself.

With that said, how difficult is it to add a card to a 486?

Any ideas?

Larry
 
larry said:
Greetings

Well, I just retired, age 55, and want to learn about computers. Actually
my reason is somewhat selfish. I have a project, I am working on, that I
would like to computerize. I have, what I believe is, a 486 which I would
like to expand with a multiple parallel input output ports. With this
project, speed is not important.

First, before I spend any money, I would like to know if there are any kinda
detailed totorials, on the internet, that would give me enough education
about my computer to let me know if what I want to do is possible or
practical, etc.

I do realise the a 486 computer is so old that there may no long be any
cards, on the market, that can enable me to expand this computer to give me
multiple input output ports.

My electronics training is such that I might be able to build the multiple
input output board and plug it into the computer myself.

With that said, how difficult is it to add a card to a 486?

Any ideas?

Larry
Click to expand...

well this depends - probably many old ISA cards will work - but also, what
OS will you run?
 
larry said:
Greetings

Well, I just retired, age 55, and want to learn about computers. Actually
my reason is somewhat selfish. I have a project, I am working on, that I
would like to computerize. I have, what I believe is, a 486 which I would
like to expand with a multiple parallel input output ports. With this
project, speed is not important.

First, before I spend any money, I would like to know if there are any kinda
detailed totorials, on the internet, that would give me enough education
about my computer to let me know if what I want to do is possible or
practical, etc.

I do realise the a 486 computer is so old that there may no long be any
cards, on the market, that can enable me to expand this computer to give me
multiple input output ports.
Click to expand...

The age might be in your favor, those machines are in closets all over the
country, at least those that haven't wound up in landfills. If you could
use serial I/O ports, the digiboards might work, there were several types
but I never looked for one with parallel ports so I don't know if they ever
produced one.
My electronics training is such that I might be able to build the multiple
input output board and plug it into the computer myself.

With that said, how difficult is it to add a card to a 486?
Click to expand...

As hard as anything else, the older boards often used jumpers for memory
address and IRQ settings and you can get 486 motherboards with ISA and/or
PCI slots. If you're referring to the pinouts, those're also out there like
at
http://inf33-www.informatik.unibw-muenchen.de/infothek/computer/tutorial/epr
mhtml/eprm/248.htm
 
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