8087 and quicken

[evildragon]

Ok, I use my model 25 for banking and balancing my checkbook, and one of the pains i find is, everytime i record a new log, it pauses for like 7 seconds.

The 8087 should get rid of this, right? cause it's not.. :neutral:

[mbbrutman]

The kind of floating point that Quicken is doing is not going to benefit much from an 8087. It is probably updating it's database of transactions, which is a disk operation and would take far longer than any floating point calculation running unassisted on an 8088.

Do anything you can to improve disk performance. More open files, more buffers, and a caching program will probably fix the problem.

[Trixter]

I concur. The type of math Quicken is doing will not benefit from a math co-processor.

BTW, no DOS version of Quicken was Y2K compliant. If you're still using it, how are you dealing with the 2-digit years and potentially incorrect days of the week not matching up with the real date, etc.?

[evildragon]

mine lets me enter it as a 4 digit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/Evilweredragon/quicken.jpg

Quicken 8

[IBMMuseum]

And of course that 4-digit year has to be entered when the Model 25 is booted too. The 8086-based Model 25 was the only PS/2 that didn't have a battery-backed Real Time Clock (RTC) chip. There were a couple after-market ways to add one however.

That also brings up the interesting trivia that the low end 8086-based PS/2 Model 30 used a different RTC than other PS/2s, and thus didn't have the same Y2K BIOS issues (actually the way the century would rollover on the RTC). Ironic that the older, lesser technology had less troubles. Preaching to the choir here, but a good point.

[evildragon]

yep

if i enter it as 08, it's invalid.. if i enter 2008, it takes it wonderfully and continues running with it.

where does the RTC run? is it a software run clock or something? cause even warm-booting (ctrl+alt+delete) kills the time.

[vwestlife]

Back in the day, there was a RTC chip that would plug into the ROM socket and then the system ROM would piggyback on top of it. It claimed to work with both PCs and Apple IIs. However, even if you could find one today, you'd have to hack a new battery into it, as it's even more obsolete than the DS1287. (Both my CompuAdd 810 and PS/2 30-286 use a DS1287 chip, both of whose batteries are dead.)

There were also many RTCs available on an 8-bit ISA card using a regular coin cell battery, but I can imagine in a Model 25 you don't have (m)any slots to spare.

[dongfeng]

Back in the day, there was a RTC chip that would plug into the ROM socket and then the system ROM would piggyback on top of it. It claimed to work with both PCs and Apple IIs. However, even if you could find one today, you'd have to hack a new battery into it, as it's even more obsolete than the DS1287. (Both my CompuAdd 810 and PS/2 30-286 use a DS1287 chip, both of whose batteries are dead.)

I have one of those in my XT! And it still works :) It's a 'no-slot-clock'. I believe you can still buy them new.

[mbbrutman]

Back in the day, there was a RTC chip that would plug into the ROM socket and then the system ROM would piggyback on top of it. It claimed to work with both PCs and Apple IIs. However, even if you could find one today, you'd have to hack a new battery into it, as it's even more obsolete than the DS1287. (Both my CompuAdd 810 and PS/2 30-286 use a DS1287 chip, both of whose batteries are dead.)

There were also many RTCs available on an 8-bit ISA card using a regular coin cell battery, but I can imagine in a Model 25 you don't have (m)any slots to spare.

http://www.brutman.com/PCjr/DS1216E.html

That page has a description of the process, and some ancient software for reading and writing the clock.

I also have a new program that I wrote that can work at arbitrary memory locations, including the cartridge address space of a PCjr. (There was a clock/cal cartridge that used the Dallas chip.)

[squirrel-steam]

Ahhh, using a old IBM for what it was ment to be used for. But adding a 8087 might speed it up a little, but its probalby not mathmatics its doing, probalby just writing something to the disk drive. Perhaps it is doing both?


Its always fun to use the old computers like they were used in the old days, try thinking that someone else was probalby doing the exact same thing on this, thinking it was the bee's knees. Now look at us, with our GUI's and our 32 bit colors, and user friendly operating systems.

[Yzzerdd]

Its always fun to use the old computers like they were used in the old days, try thinking that someone else was probalby doing the exact same thing on this, thinking it was the bee's knees. Now look at us, with our GUI's and our 32 bit colors, and user friendly operating systems.

You know, I do just that, use my machines for what they were meant for. I've been trying to convince a certain friend of mine on here to pull his 5150 out from the cover and do just that.

Depending on which DOS machine I have setup (Either an IBM 5150 or AT&T PC 6300, usually) I use different applications. Both are dual disk-drive models, I've never needed an HDD on these old beasts...if a program you want needs one, just buy a similair and high-reputable program that will accept running on floppies.

Anyhow, I do my finances with LOTUS 1-2-3, dial in to the BBS to check my e-mail with a modem, of course, get my entertainment from vintage computers, word process, print, etc. I do everything but get on the forums with them. As a matter of fact, if it weren't for the forums and eBay(eBay mostly, I can surf the forums easily on a vintage computer) I'd have an AT&T PC 6300 as my main computer.

Pretty sad I'd keep a newer computer around just for eBay, but there are many things I need I can't get on here, but at least I am always at the ready when eBay does something totally retarded (BIN on all items...) I can quickly ditch the new machine and go vintage.

You know, eBay wants to be LESS of a flea market, but if they make everything BIN/best offer, they will be an online flea market without all the old ladies getting in the way.

--Ryan
Sorry for going off topic, but I can always get into a conversation about how I use my vintage computers.