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A comment on “Was isolated from 1999 to 2006 with a 486. Built my own late 80s OS”. Parent comment

Re:“Was isolated from 1999 to 2006 with a 486. Built my own ... by edmccard on Sunday December 14, 2014 @12:33PM (#8748870)
>What were the AA batteries for?

Some motherboards from the 286 era used 4 AAs as the CMOS backup battery.

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Re:“Was isolated from 1999 to 2006 with a 486. Built my own ... by yuhong on Monday December 15, 2014 @01:02AM (#8750861)
To be more precise, it was common with motherboards that used the MC146818 RTC chip used in the original PC/AT. The four AAs provided a total of 6V of power.
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