Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!caesar.cs.montana.edu!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!chinacat!bigtex!dell!sauer
From: sauer@dell.dell.com (Charlie Sauer)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Dual FPUs?
Summary: 486 can use 4167 similarly
Message-ID: <6229@dell.dell.com>
Date: 19 Mar 90 17:36:52 GMT
References: <24915@princeton.Princeton.EDU> <2157@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <27907@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: sauer@dell.UUCP (Charlie Sauer)
Organization: Dell Computer Corp., Austin, Tx.
Lines: 15

In article <27907@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
>The Compaq Systempro allows you to have both a 387 and a Weitek chip
>to be installed on the same 386 CPU.  This is for software compatibility,
>because only a few programs, like AutoCAD, use the Weitek chip.  Everything
>else uses the 387.  

Similarly, some 486 machines, such as the Dell 425E announced today, have a 
socket for the Weitek 4167, even though the 486 has builtin floating point.  I 
just watched a Weitek demo that alternates back and forth between the "387" and
the 4167.
-- 
Charlie Sauer  Dell Computer Corp.     !'s:uunet!dell!sauer
               9505 Arboretum Blvd     @'s:sauer@dell.com
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               (512) 343-3310