x86 Cards for the Risc PC

This page contains information on the following:

Standard x86 Cards
High Performance x86 Cards
x86 Card Upgrades
Old x86 Cards

For further information, see:

x86 Card Speed - factors affecting the speed of your card, plus comparative performance statistics for various cards, and links to similar info elsewhere
PC Card Pictures - JPEG images of many of these x86 cards

Standard x86 Cards

The following PC cards are available from Acorn dealers and from Acorn Direct, 13 Denington Road, WELLINGBOROUGH, Northants NN8 2RL. The cards come with IBM PC DOS 7, but not Windows or Windows 95. All of these cards have 128Kbytes secondary cache, unlike the High Performance x86 Cards, which all have 512Kbytes secondary cache.

Order Code   Spec 
--------------------------
ACA57        5x86-100   
ACA56        486DX4-100 
ACA53        486DX2-66

Consult dealers for pricing.

High Performance x86 Cards

All of these cards use 5x86 processors from either AMD, Cyrix or IBM, and all of them have 512Kbytes secondary cache to improve performance. Note that we have had some reports of sound under DOS becoming worse with 512Kbytes secondary cache rather than 128Kbytes.

Aleph One 100MHz 5x86 (512KB cache)

This card includes the highly recommended PC Pro software, which is 39ukp inc VAT for purchasers of all other cards. In addition, purchasers of the Aleph One card will receive support from Aleph One rather than Acorn. Note that this card is supplied without DOS.

See Aleph One's website for current pricing.

CJE Micro's 133MHz 5x86 (512KB cache)

This is in effect an upgraded Acorn 486DX2/66 card, and as such is supplied with IBM PC DOS 7.

The card uses an AMD processor, and has a fan added for cooling. CJE supply the cards with software pre-configured for the different processor, as well as providing their own one-year guarantee and full telephone support (which we have found to be excellent). CJE supply !PCx86 v1.93 with the cards, but recommend the upgrade to PC Pro v2.03., which they can supply with the card.

See CJE Micro's web site for pricing.

x86 Card Upgrades

486SX to 5x86 (Gemini I)

This upgrade will replace the 486SX processor on an original Acorn Gemini I card with a 5x86 running at 100MHz or faster, and also enable the writeback cache on the processor. Note however that:

The card will still be fitted with a Gemini I ASIC, so will probably be around 10% slower than a genuine 5x86 card which will have Gemini II
The card will still only have 128KB cache (in most cases), which will slow it down further in comparison with the newer cards fitted with 512KB cache

The following different methods of carrying out this upgrade are available:

Yellowstone Electronic Solutions are acting as an agent for ACE in Germany, who will upgrade your card from 486SX to 5x86/133, the cost being 165ukp including VAT, and the turnaround time being around three weeks. Full details can be found on their website
Instructions for upgrading your 486SX card to 5x86/133 yourself are available on this website, including diagrams; a number of people have carried out this upgrade, but you attempt it entirely at your own risk

Gemini II upgrade to 133MHz 5x86 (128KB cache)

CJE are offering to upgrade most second generation (Gemini II) x86 cards to the 133MHz AMD processor. Consult their website for current pricing.

5x86 (Gemini II) to 5x86 (Gemini II, 512KB cache)

This upgrade has now risen in price to 49ukp (fully inclusive), and is carried out on behalf of Aleph One by:

First SMT Ltd, Spirella Buildings, Bridge Road, LETCHWORTH, SG6 4ET
Tel: 01462 483360

You must include:

a covering letter with your address
your working PC card (this is not a repair service)
a cheque for 49 UK pounds payable to First SMT Ltd.

We are aware of a similar scheme from ACE computers in Germany, but it is likely they will revise their pricing in the light of Aleph One's offer. Note that we have had some reports of sound under DOS becoming worse with 512Kbytes secondary cache rather than 128Kbytes.

Old x86 Cards

The following Risc PC x86 cards are now believed to be no longer in production:

Original Acorn Texas Instruments 33MHz 486SXL card ACA42 (Gemini I)
Original Acorn Texas Instruments 33MHz 486SXL card ACA52 (Gemini II) (it's believed that these cards were also used by CJE as the basis for some of their 133MHz 5x86 cards)
Early Aleph One 486DX2/66 (Gemini I) - not to be confused with Acorn's later "Second Generation" 486DX2/66 card, ACA53, which has Gemini II (and was also used by CJE as the basis for some of their 133MHz 5x86 cards...)
Early Aleph One 486DX2/80 (Gemini I)

Details of x86 cards available for pre-Risc PC systems are on Aleph One's web page. However x86 cards were never produced for A3010 and A4 systems, and the 386 and 486 PC cards made for A3020 and A4000 systems are now out of production, and so are only normally available second hand.

Back to RPC x86 Info Pages