Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caen!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!hubcap!ncrcae!ncr-sd!se-sd!cns!dltaylor
From: dltaylor@cns.SanDiego.NCR.COM (Dan Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: 486SX
Message-ID: <932@cns.SanDiego.NCR.COM>
Date: 6 May 91 20:43:14 GMT
References: <1991May2.212247.12525@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> <3645@borg.cs.unc.edu>
Organization: NCR Corp. SE-San Diego
Lines: 20

In <3645@borg.cs.unc.edu> cullip@sargent.cs.unc.edu (Timothy Cullip) writes:

>The SX is in fact a DX, but with the floating
>point unit turned off (i.e. it's on the chip, but disabled so it's just 
>as expensive to produce) but sells it for about $250. Kind of gives you 
>an idea of the profit margin on the DX.

Ah, but notice that the 486SX is only available in speeds under 24MHz.
They are probably "fallout", i.e. chips that don't run at rated speed,
or have defective FPUs.  Normally they would just be "roundfiled".
Instead, Intel sells defective (as 486DX) chips for $250.  What's the
margin on that?  THEN, they sell you the running 486DX, in a slightly
different package, for MORE than the regular DX.

I don't think the Intel marketing people are dumb, at all.  The 486SX
customers sure are, though.  Personally, I'd rather wait for AMD to
build their own 486SX, which will probably have a functional FPU.

Dan Taylor
/* My opinions, not NCR's. */