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- NICKEL EXPRESS JR up to 8 MHZ !
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- The Nickel Express JR turbo boards are ready. The cost is $79.00 plus
- $3.00 shipping.
- There are some compatibility issues to deal with regarding the Nickel
- Express JR. First, the IBM sidecars that we tested worked well on the fast
- speed which is 8 MHz. The JR Hotshot is not compatible (yet).
- We are working on the problem with the JR Hotshot, and it should be
- resolved shortly. It may mean replacing a chip on the Hotshot board.
- The turbo board works fine with Racore DMA in the medium speed setting,
- which is 7.37 MHz. We have tested the Nickel Express JR with a few Tecmar
- boards with success about half of the time. The ones that did work had
- to be set on the slow jumper, which is 6.66 MHz.
- The 128k PCjr works on the slow setting but is not much of an increase
- because software is needed to rearrange the video buffer which
- of course does not work with 128k.
- There are a few extra memory configurations which we have not tested yet,
- such as, Impulse, Microsoft, and others. We hope to be testing these
- in the near future.
- All software that we have tested works fine including a few word processors,
- data base, and spread sheet programs. I cannot test every piece of software
- available, but if there is a problem with a particular one, you can always
- toggle the turbo mode off to run it. All in all, it is a very interesting
- upgrade for the PCjr.
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- To install the Nickel Express JR, you will need to unsolder the 8284
- clock chip and solder a socket in its place. Only a skilled technician
- should perform this task. If you feel uncomfortable with this step,
- you can send your computer to Paul Rau Consulting and we will do the
- soldering, install it, test it, and return it to you for $30.00.
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- If you have a Font Rom which improves the readability of the PCjr monitor,
- you'll notice that it connects to pin #25 of the 8255 chip, the same as
- the turbo board. If you connect the Nickel Express JR to pin #25, then,
- connect the Font Rom to pin #20 (first pin on the left/top). This will
- leave the Font Rom on all the time.
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- There is also a program which will allow you to load the software to
- drive the turbo board. It is of the TSR type, which means Terminate and
- Stay Resident. This means you type the name of the program (TURBOJR) and
- it loads and is resident for you to toggle back and forth by pressing
- left shift and alt. Press the same key combination again and it toggles
- the software again. The program is listed on the back page. You will
- need DEBUG and need to type it in the same as the other three programs.
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