#clock speed doubler chip
7 messages in this thread
They will market them as 50MHz of course. Just look at tape drives –
250 meg is really 125 meg with data compression. A 487SX is really a
486DX with a different pinout. Hmm.. I wonder if there is any real
difference between a 486SX and a 487SX? Maybe they just didn't hook
up one wire on the inside. Cynically yours, Larry
Larry,
You're right about the 486SX being the same as a 487SX. Intel disabled the
Coprocessor on the 486SX, but it was STILL THERE!! At least this is how they
did it on the first 486SXs. Now they might not have a coproc. This is why
486SXs are called "Brain Dead".
How a company can take a good product like a 486, go through *extra* steps
to disable part of it, change the pin out, and slow it down, and then sell
it cheaper than it was when they started is beyond me. I think just lowering
the price of the regular 486DX would have been better.
The absolute *worst* part is when you plug a 487SX in you *disable* the
486SX!! You now have a several hundred doller hunk of silicon doing
*absolutly nothing*!!
Jay
It's good business sense for Intel.
When they test 486DX parts, those that fail the coprocessor tests get
labeled as 486SX. Essentially, Intel is selling scrap.
That just makes it sound even worse, if part of the chip is "bad" already, how
long does the rest of it have?
Jay
Fortunately, silicon is pretty stable. 486SX chips should last as
long as 486DX chips. It's the same problem with hard disk drives. At
least in that case, a bad sector can be flagged out.
If there was a flaw on the substrate under the math coprocessor, and the
CPU side tested OK, you shouldn't have any more than the normal failure
rate on the CPU side.
Jay,
This is the world of marketting not engineering. The 486SX only "did"
something worth money until you bought the 487SX. After that it has no use
and cannot be wasted. It no longer has any real value.
As to why Intel brought out the 486SX, This allows Intel to reduce the
price on SOME 486s to compete with AMD without lowering the price on ALL
the 486s. This way they can maintain market share with some systems and
still maintain profits on the others. "It ain't pretty but it works"