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From: tcs@mailer.jhuapl.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.sys.intel
Subject: Re: When will the 8088 die?
Message-ID: <1990Dec6.171054.6860@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 90 17:10:54 GMT
References: <90335.202651F0O@psuvm.psu.edu> <NELSON.90Dec2213239@sun.clarkson.edu> <2842@polari.UUCP> <1990Dec5.184958.26371@cunixf.cc.colu <853@pdxgate.UUCP>
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In article <853@pdxgate.UUCP>, berggren@eecs.cs.pdx.edu (Eric Berggren) says:
>
>cy5@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Conway Yee) writes:
>
>>In article <2842@polari.UUCP> lsh@polari.UUCP (Lee Hauser) writes:
>>>The 8088 will die when you can get a 386-33 or similarly speeded 486 system for
>>>the price of an 8088 system.  
>
>>I am not sure I can agree.  If this were to happen, then the 8088 will simply
>>move onto other uses.  Today, the 8088 is too expensive to put to those
>>uses. Later, 8088 prices will drop sufficiently that they will become
>>affordable.
>
>  Exactly what uses for an 8088 did you have in mind that are impractical 
>due to the price? I can buy 8-Mhz 8088's for $8 each. Even a Nintendo uses
>more sophisticated technology.
>  Besides, by the time a 386 system comes down to the current price of an
>8088 systen ( around $450), I doubt ANYBODY would have a use for it. Our
>refridgerator uses a 186 for control (one of those fancy kind). The reason
>that's so cheap, is because the chip was so flawed for any PC system.
>
>==============================================================================
>
>     "Round and round the while() loop goes;
>           Whether it stops," Turing says, "nobody knows."

What chip was flawed? The 8088? I don't think you mean the 186, it was the
base chip for all those 3Com 3Servers for quite a while. I think that the 286
came out so quickly on the heels of the 186 is the reason that it wasn't used
much. (IMHO)

Carl Schelin
tcs@mailer.jhuapl.edu