The Little Known Epson Equity Ie - An IBM PS2 Model 30 Clone

I have always had a fascination with 8086 XT class computers. Mainly because there were so few of them compared to the multitude of 8088 XT class computers out there. I own a Tandy 1000 SL with an 8MHz 8086 CPU (upgraded to an NEC V30). This is much faster than my Tandy 1000 SX with a 7.16MHz 8088 CPU (upgraded to a NEC V20). I have always wanted a 10MHz 8086 based system. These are as fast as you can officially go with an 8086. Intel only made them to run up to 10MHz. I had been keeping my eyes open for quite some time when an Epson Equity Ie came up for sale on eBay. The computer was in excellent condition and I ended up buying it. This is the only computer I know of outside of IBM’s PS2 Model 25 & 30 that have MCGA graphics onboard. This is basically a cut down version of IBM’s VGA chip. It only has 64K of ram vs 256K for the VGA. It supports the 320x200 256 color mode of the VGA as well as 640x480 2 color mode, but none of the VGA’s 16 color modes. This makes it pretty useless for DOS retro gaming with any 16 color games. The computer bests the IBM PS/2 model 30 in two areas. It runs at 10MHz vs 8MHz and has 4 8-bit ISA slots vs 3 for the PS/2 Model 30. The computer comes with 640K, 120ns, 0 wait state memory. The computer was released in late 1988 as far as I can tell. You do not come across many of these, so I assume it was not a huge seller. Epson did offer a model in Europe called the Epson PSE-30. I do not know if that sold any better, but it was just a rebranded Epson Equity Ie.

I really wanted to take this computer to the limit with upgrades. I replaced the 8086 CPU with an NEC V30. This upgrade can result in 5-30 percent performance improvement, more in many cases especially in the area of memory access, instruction loops, multiplication, and division instructions. I added an 8087 math coprocessor. Many of people skip this upgrade, but I have a lot of software that takes advantage of a math coprocessor and they can usually be had for around $15. For expansion cards, I started with a Sound Blaster 16 model CT4170. These work great in 8-bit ISA slots using the UNISOUND utility to initialize the sound card. Next up a XT-IDE adapter with built in CompactFlash adapter from Blue Lava Systems on eBay with a 2GB SanDisk Ultra CompactFlash card running MS-DOS 6.22. I updated the video with a Diamond Speedstar ET4000 1MB ISA video card. These also work well in an 8-bit ISA slot. Putting a VGA card in this system will automatically disable the onboard video.  I installed a Lo-Tech 1MB memory card and enabled 128K to use as upper memory. Many people do not know, but you can use upper memory in an XT class system. You need the right memory card and an upper memory manager called USE!UMBS. You can then load most of MS-DOS into this upper memory area. This frees up a lot of the lower 640K memory for running larger programs. I added networking by plugging in a Xircom PE3-10BT parallel port Ethernet adapter. With these upgrades the computer has about the same performance as the original IBM AT with a 6MHz 286 CPU. Not bad for an XT class system. It can run many games that were too slow even on Turbo XT computers.

I have had the computer now for about 8 months and has provided many hours of enjoyment. The fact the computer is rare and unusual being an IBM PS/2 model 30 clone makes it all the more satisfying.