386 motherboards using the SiS Rabbit chipset - MAME machine

Motherboard:

386 motherboard using the SiS Rabbit chipset © 199? Unknown

The SiS "Rabbit" chipset is a family of core logic chipsets—specifically the SiS 85C310, 85C320, and 85C330—developed by Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) for 80386-based computers.

Interleaved DRAM: The primary marketing and performance feature of the "Rabbit" series was its support for interleaved DRAM, which helped mitigate memory latency by alternating access between different banks of memory.

386-Era Logic: It was a popular choice for 386DX motherboard manufacturers in the early 1990s who were looking for a reliable, mid-to-high-end logic solution that offered better performance than the standard, non-optimized IBM AT chipsets.

TRIVIA
Reliability vs. Performance: While often considered a solid "workhorse" chipset, "Rabbit" boards are sometimes documented in retro-computing communities as being finicky regarding RAM configurations. Users often report issues when mixing different SIMM types (like parity vs. non-parity) or when attempting to populate all available memory banks.

Component Identification: If you are inspecting a physical motherboard, look for the SiS 85C310, 85C320, or 85C330 chips. These are frequently found on boards from generic Taiwanese manufacturers of the era.

Distinction: It is important not to confuse the SiS "Rabbit" chipset with the company Rabbit Semiconductor, which produced Z80-based embedded microcontrollers in the late 1990s and 2000s. The two share the name but have no relation to one another.

CONTRIBUTE
Edit this entry: https://www.arcade-history.com/game/235599/?o=2