Book 8088 - the retro machine you didn't know you needed

[rubber_jonnie]

There has been a bit of a fuss about a little machine based on the 8088 and I decided to pick one up.

It's called the Book 8088 and runs at a heady 8Mhz (With TURBO on, 4.77Mhz as standard) and comes with a glorious complement of 640K of RAM, seen here with a Toshiba Libretto for scale :) It even comes with Windows 3.0 pre-installed!!!

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The boot screen gives an idea of the specs:

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And once booted, Landmark shows it performing like a 5Mhz AT:

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This one is a bit different in that it is the newer version sporting VGA graphics and not CGA, despite what the sticker says on the front!!! There's no trackpad, that's not what this machine is about, though there is a spot round the back for a serial mouse.

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The battery is 4000Mah though I've yet to test the battery life.

Up top there are more hatches, one for the OPL3 sound card, and another where the CPU lives with space for an 8087. I hate an empty socket, so I expect at some point I'll find an 8087 to drop in...

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One bonus is the use of a USB port under DOS:

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And I've successfully used a 4GB SD card in a USB adapter, so there is plenty of opportunity to copy software onto the included 512MB CF card that DOS boots from. The only caveat with USB was having to download a driver that actually worked (The driver you need is CH37588.sys), however I was also able to read the CF card with a USB -> IDE adapter and a CF to IDE adapter plugged into that, so updating the driver was a cinch.

Last but by no means least, mine also came with this:

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And yep, that's a 3 slot 8 bit ISA adapter you're looking at there.

It is a neat little machine I have to say, and though there is a element of "This was knocked up in a shed" about it, for the price, which included the CF card, the PSU, and the ISA slot adapter, it is OK.

I got this one from Ali Express, watch out, there are still examples of the CGA version for sale on evilBay for a good £100 more and no ISA expander, so if you are going to buy one, be sure to check exactly what you're being sold before you order.

[HigashiJun]

:D

[nokturnal]

i thought about getting one. But it would be cooler if it came out with something stronger like 386dx-486dx2 ;)...

[rubber_jonnie]

i thought about getting one. But it would be cooler if it came out with something stronger like 386dx-486dx2 ;)...

Well, for my 386/486 needs I have these chaps:

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On the left a Dolch L-Pac 486 DX2 and on the right an Amstrad Alt-386SX. They lack the portability of the Book 8088 though!!!

I think a 386SX version of the Book might be feasible, but at the end of the day it's down to getting the parts, building a suitable board and making it small enough to be useful and having a battery that would last a decent time. I suspect that might be outside of what they were thinking for the original project. I think a 486 might be a bit too far.

Who knows though?

[stephen_usher]

I saw Adrian Black having "fun" with his machine. Thankfully you didn't have his trouble.

[rubber_jonnie]

I saw Adrian Black having "fun" with his machine. Thankfully you didn't have his trouble.

Nope, aside from the USB driver it all worked right out of the box. I saw his video too, but I think the one he had was the CGA version :)

[rubber_jonnie]

i thought about getting one. But it would be cooler if it came out with something stronger like 386dx-486dx2 ;)...

Out of interest, there is now a 386 version available :) It's called the Pocket 386 and is available on Ali Express.