I got in on the tail end of this discussion so I don't
know when it crossed the line from voice synthesis to 8088's, but
the thing about an 8088 is that it will be much slower for the
same clock speed than a PIC.  It is , however, tremendously more
friendly to high-level data processing of certain kinds of data
but it isn't quite fast enough to do justice to real-time audio
and definitely not video.  I keep a few old XT's around because
the price was right, mainly nothing for most of them, and they
can be outfitted with Kermit and a 16550-based serial board and
they do a pretty neat job as a smart VT100 up to 9600 baud.
You've just got to be realistic about what to expect it to do.
It is in the category of too useful to throw away, but I wouldn't
spend anything to fix it when its time comes.

        You could use such a system for a dedicated application
if it isn't something that needs to be fast.

        I have used these cast-offs to log serial data as well as
generate test data for other systems, etc.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK
OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Data Communications Group

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