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From: felsenst@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu (Joe Felsenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: 80386 versus 80387
Summary: Do 80386's work with 80287's?
Keywords: 80386, 80387, 80287
Message-ID: <1427@uw-entropy.ms.washington.edu>
Date: 12 May 89 04:39:39 GMT
Reply-To: joe%uw-evolution@entropy.ms.washington.edu
Organization: Dept. Genetics, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 19


I have heard that there is a sporadic nasty interaction between 80386's
and 80387 numeric co-processors, owing to a design flaw in the 80386,
and that it is not cleared up yet.

On a Zenith Z-386 I may be having this problem; when the 80387 is used
there are sporadic unpredictable crashes or operating system
paralysis (I happen to be using Unix, but if this is the problem that
may be irrelevant).

Question: are there 80287's fast enough to work with a 16 MHz 80386
(I think the answer is yes)?  If so, would they suffer the same
nasty interaction (i.e. can I cure this by replacing the 80386 by an
80387, or is that just jumping from the frying pan into the fire)?
--------
Joe Felsenstein, Dept. of Genetics SK-50, Univ. of Washington, Seattle WA 98195
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