ShaBLAMM! NiTro-VLB
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The ShaBLAMM! NiTro-VLB was a computer system (using a MIPS R4600 CPU) implemented on a VESA VLB peripheral card and designed to function when connected to a host computer system using an Intel i486. The NiTro-VLB conformed to the ARC standard, and was produced and marketed by ShaBLAMM! Computer as an "upgrade" card for accelerating Windows NT.
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[edit] Characteristics
The NiTro-VLB is notable for various unique characteristics among personal computer accessories. For example, although the system was marketed as an "upgrade" for computers already using a 486 processor, the NiTro-VLB was in fact of an entirely different architecture (specifically, the MIPS RISC architecture) from the IA32-based 486. Further, as a "parasitic" or "symbionic" coprocessor, the NiTro-VLB was designed to coopt the host 486 processor from running, and used four megabytes of the host 486 motherboard's system memory as a DMA buffer (although the NiTro-VLB required its own separate DRAM main memory, in addition to any memory installed on the host 486 motherboard).
This type of "parasite"/"host" upgrade card configuration, in which an entire motherboard and processor are implemented on an expansion card designed to connect to a host motherboard's expansion slot, is common among Apple Macintosh systems (in which, for example, radical upgrades from a Mac II system with an M68000 processor can be upgraded to a PowerPC G3 which is implemented on an expansion card plugged into one of the host M68000 motherboard's NuBus expansion slots). However, such configurations are rare among computer systems designed to run Microsoft Windows.
[edit] Specifications and benchmarks
The NiTro-VLB's MIPS R4600 processor, running at 100 MHz, was rated at 73.8 SPECint92 and 63 SPECfp92 (which are similar figures to the first-generation Pentium running at 66 MHz). Faster and costlier versions were designed to run at 133 MHz or 150 MHz.
[edit] Sales
Initially, the NiTro-VLB system was priced at $1095 for a 100 MHz card with no main memory, $1995 for a 100 MHz card with 16 MB of main memory and a copy of Windows NT, and $2595 for a 150 MHz card.
