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From: jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: ALR PowerFlex 486 upgrade (was Re: Brain-dead 286 - summary)
Message-ID: <1827@crash.cts.com>
Date: 14 Mar 90 03:56:01 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA
Lines: 39

cs4g6ag@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Stephen M. Dunn) writes:
>In article <1793@crash.cts.com> jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) writes:
>$sl197009@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Chima Echeruo) writes:
>$>I have read in Byte that there are going to be versions of the 286 at 25 Mhz.
>$>Is this true?
>$I've heard rumors that either AMD or Harris is going to produce a 25 MHz 286. 
>
>   Harris already has 25 MHz parts, and AMD supposedly will have theirs out
>soon.
>
>$That is the route I'm taking, I'm dumping my 16 MHz 286 for an ALR PowerFlex
>$and plopping a 386SX board in it.  I don't need the full 32-bit capabilities
>$of the 386 (yet), just something to run 386 software.
>
>   This brings up a question for anyone out there who has a PowerFlex with
>the 486 board (I know, not a very common configuration):  how well does it
>perform as a 486 system?  I'm personally a little bit leery of a 16-bit
>machine being given a brain transplant with a 32-bit processor.  I can see
>switching from a 286 to a 386SX as being pretty easy to engineer, but I
>have to wonder how good a job they did of designing in the capabilities
>for the 486.  Obviously, the 486 board will contain main memory (how much?),
>but how will the rest of the system perform?

From my understanding, the 486 on a PowerFlex is shoehorned into the 16-bit
data bus of the 286, but I may be wrong.  The 286 to 386SX upgrade is logical
since the 386SX has a 16-bit bus.  A very logical upgrade, but the 486, I'm
not going to try to rationalize that one.  The card may have a chipset that
takes priority over the chip set on the motherboard, who knows?
 
     // JCA

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