Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!uunet!rosevax!marknew
From: marknew@rosevax.Rosemount.COM (Mark Newman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Brain-dead 286 - summary
Message-ID: <8696@rosevax.Rosemount.COM>
Date: 12 Mar 90 13:38:36 GMT
References: <1793@crash.cts.com>
Reply-To: marknew@rosevax.UUCP (Mark Newman)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Rosemount Inc., Eden Prairie, MN
Lines: 31

Greetings,
  As the original poster of this thread I offer my apologies for starting
a processor war. I really didn't mean to. Honest! My aim was to tap the
collective intelligence of the net (no cheap jokes please) to help me
decide what processor my home PC should be based on. 
  But as long as the war is on, I'll offer my opinion: I've decided to
buy a 12 Mhz 286, for the following reasons:
      
     1) This is a PC for the home. 
     2) It will not be running Unix or OS/2, or any other multitasking
        environment (unless you count Windows/286 as multitasking).
     3) The 286 has plenty of power for the applications I'll be running 
        (word proc., basic spreadsheet, communications, games, etc.)
     4) The 286 still has quite a bit of life left and quite a lot of 
        software available.

In summary, the 286 fits my needs with plenty of power and capacity 
available. Yes, it sure would be nice to have a SX. It would be even 
nicer to have a 33 MHz 386. But I keep coming back to the question, 
what for? Speed? 386 software? I won't be needing either *at home*.

One last thing. I went to the local Northgate factory outlet and asked 
why they don't sell a 386SX machine. The answer was that they see the SX
as a stopgap chip, something that will not be long on the market because
it doesn't offer any useful performance over a 286 and yet isn't a full-
power 386 because of the 16-bit bus. Hmmm, this sounds familiar. I hear
the words "brain-dead" coming sometime for the SX.

Regards, 
Mark Newman
marknew@rosevax.rosemount.com