Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!samsung!mips!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!gvlf3.gvl.unisys.com!lock60!dsowa From: dsowa@lock60.UUCP (Dave Sowa) Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms.programmer Subject: Re: 486sx Message-ID: <695@lock60.UUCP> Date: 8 May 91 19:04:54 GMT References: Reply-To: dsowa@lock60.Schuylkill.Canal.Org (Dave Sowa) Organization: Lock #60 on the Schuylkill Canal, Mont Clare, PA, USA Lines: 25 The 486sx is a very funny chip, and is a total win for Intel in all aspects. Intel needs a chip to fend off the the fast clone 386 chips so they take the cast offs from the 486 production process, the ones where the math section fails the test process or ones that fail the tests at 25MHz and repackage them as 20MHz 486sx chips. The chips have the full 32-bit bus width so will be the same speed as a 20MHz 486 for integer operations. Should make for nice desktop windows machines. The funnier part is the 487sx chip. Intel didn't want to slow things down, so if you plug a 487sx chip into a 486sx motherboard. The 487sx takes over all processing functions from the 486sx. ie. the 487sx is really a fully functional 486 chip in a new package. This is why the 486sx chip is $258 in quantity and the 487sx is $799 in quantity. A total of $1057 for the equivalent of a slow 486 which costs $588. But as has been said many times, theres one born every minute. (The above facts are from an April 29, 1991 INFOWORLD article so if they got it wrong don't blame me. The rest is just my person opinion.) -- David Sowa Internet: dsowa@Canal.ORG UUCP: ...!uunet!cbmvax!gvlv2!lock60!dsowa