ATC-1415

32 Years old Motherboard A-Trend

ATC-1415 © 1994 A-Trend.

The ATC-1415 is a high-performance 486 motherboard built for the absolute peak of the VLB era. Before A-Trend fully committed to PCI with the 1425 line, the 1415 was the "go-to" board for users who wanted to push the 486DX2 and DX4 processors to their limits using the established, high-bandwidth VLB standard.

TECHNICAL

Chipset: UMC UM8498F / UM8496F (a very high-performance chipset that was often faster than the later SiS 496/497 boards).

CPU Support: Socket 3 (supports 486SX/DX/DX2/DX4).

Expansion: 2x VLB slots, 5x ISA slots.

Memory: 4x 72-pin SIMM sockets (typically supporting up to 128MB, which was enormous for 1993/94).

Cache: 256 KB of L2 cache (usually in 8x DIP sockets + 1 TAG chip).

Form Factor: Baby AT.

TRIVIA

The UMC Advantage: Many collectors actually prefer the atc1415 over the later atc1425a/b because the UMC chipset used here provided significantly lower latency for memory and VLB access than the SiS 496/497 chipset used in the 1425 series. If you wanted the absolute fastest 486 "DOS gaming" machine in 1994, this was the board to have.

The VLB "Triple-Threat": The ATC-1415 was famous for its ability to handle "bus mastering" VLB cards (like high-end SCSI controllers or early video capture boards) without the system crashing—a problem that plagued cheaper VLB boards.

The Jumper Map: The silk-screening on the ATC-1415 is surprisingly excellent. Unlike the 1425A where you were left guessing, the 1415 had almost all CPU voltage and clock multiplier settings clearly printed directly on the PCB.

SOURCES
đź”—
Machine's Bios.