My first IBM compatible development machine was a IBM-XT clone with a 8088 processor, 640 MB memory, a CGA graphics card and a 10 Mb hard disk and two floppy drives. I later changed the 8088 for a NEC V20 and added a bigger hard disk. I was running DOS and the first releases of MS Windows up to version 3.0, I have some good memories from that time, beside development I also used the machine for games and I remember many hours of fun. But very soon I got an Intel 286 AT machine and then a Intel 286 and so on. At that time I was programming in C and 8086 assembler and I still have some code I wrote at that time.
Nowadays there are not that many 8088 / 8086 machine left and the prices of old retro IBM-PC machines is still rising. Also there are not that many 8088 DIY projects, it looks like a not so popular processor. I have been looking for a 8088 / 8086 system for a long time and beside some expensive development boards there is not that much on the market. Then I found this Book 8088 laptop on a Chinese website and at first it looked a little too good to ben true. A complete laptop with LCD screen, a VGA compatible video card, am OPL compatible soundcard, SD drive with preinstalled DOS 6 and Windows 3.0 and some nice software, and all that around 200 euros.
I ordered one and was surprised by this little device, it worked out of the box and after a good charge I tested most of the features. It is nice to see a dos machine boot and it brings back good memories. The speed is also “compatible” and that is a strange experience, but it is accurate. The machine has a NEC V20 processor on board and there is room for a 8087 co-processor.
It has 640 KB of ram, a parallel and serial port on the back, a USB host plug for USB sticks (that mound as drive D) to transfer data and files, it has an ISA header on the back where you can add a standard 3 slot ISA bus and it has a build in battery.
I also played some of my old games on this machine and it feels exactly like the old days, I am planning to look for more of my favorite games.
There are some plans I have, I want to build a 8088 / 8086 IDE with a build in IBM-PC emulator, I can use this machine as a reference. I am looking for a serial mouse, that would be nice using Windows 3.0. A also ordered the ISA extension card and a ISA serial card. I also intend to change the BIOS rom because there is an alternative that is open source and GPL and I want to see if the machine runs on a standard intel 8088 processor. A lot of things to do, and hopefully a lot of fun.
Regards, Hein Pragt