USING DISCARDED 386, 486 MAINBOARDS FOR TRAINING AND TECHNICAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Due to the properties of microprocessors and features of mainboards, when upgrading substantially a computer we often have to change its mainboard whereas the other constituents (case and power supply, video card, monitor, etc.) remain in use. However the mainboard still has many capabilities especially for the purposes at the level lower than a complete computer set. This article presents our research result to reuse the 386, 486 mainboards which are almost discarded when we upgrate our computers. We designed additional hardware and wrote appropriate programmes to turn the mainboards into relatively versatile microprocessor kits for training and technical applications. We have obtained good results.