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From: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russell Poffenberger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.sys.intel
Subject: Re: Difference between a 386 and a 386sx
Keywords: 386 386sx
Message-ID: <1990Sep18.162642.28421@sj.ate.slb.com>
Date: 18 Sep 90 16:26:42 GMT
References: <1990Sep16.194605.11968@ecn.purdue.edu> <935@sppy00.UUCP>
Reply-To: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russell Poffenberger)
Organization: Schlumberger Technologies, San Jose, CA.
Lines: 25

In article <935@sppy00.UUCP> jaa@sppy00.UUCP (Jeff Anderson) writes:
>In article <1990Sep16.194605.11968@ecn.purdue.edu> tlhilde@ecn.purdue.edu (Troy Hildebrand) writes:
>>
>>Can anybody help me with the difference between a 80386 and a 80386sx?  
>>I have been warned _not_ to go with a 386sx when purchasing a computer,
>>no matter what the cost difference is.  What exactly is the difference
>>between an 386 based motherboard and an 386sx motherboard?  This is in 
>>regards to third party motherboards.  Are there any particular features
>>which distinguish the 386 and 386sx boards?  
>
>386sx boards do not support 32 bit bussing.  The processor supports 32 bit
>instructions, but the memory buss (for example) is only 16 bits.  A sx is like
>a 286 with 32 bit instructions and more speed.
>

Don't confuse the 286 and 386sx, they are quite different. Basically the 386sx
is the SAME CPU as the 386(dx), except that the DATA bus is only 16 bits. This
means that when it needs a 32 bit instruction or 32 bit data, it takes two bus
cycles to do it. I also think that its address bus is limited (at least 16
Mbytes). Other than that, it can run ALL 386 programs fine, just slower.

Russ Poffenberger               DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com
Schlumberger Technologies       UUCP:   {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen
1601 Technology Drive		CIS:	72401,276
San Jose, Ca. 95110             (408)437-5254