>Speaking of which, I read in a PC repair book that the 486SX is a
>486DX with certain lines cut to disable the math coprocessor. The
>thing that went into the coprocessor socket was a rebranded 486DX
>that took over all functions of the SX when installed. Anyone know
>about this?
PC Magazine back in the early 90's had something that mentioned this. If I
remember correctly it was one of the Dvorak columns. He mentioned that the
486SX was basically a marketing ploy by Intel to allow them to get rid of
486DX chips with defective Math CoPro units.
As for a Math CoPro for the 486, I'm not sure I ever saw a 487 chip, but I
always figured that they took the chips that didn't cut it as a normal
processor but had a good Math CoPro, and sold them as 487's.
I've no idea if this is true, but it made sense to me, since why through
out a chip with a good processor, with you can just package it as a 486SX,
and sell it at reduced cost. Sounds to me like everyone won. After all,
how many people really felt the need for a Math CoProcessor in the early
90's? I added one to a 386sx laptop in January of '94 when I was forced to
go from my 486DX/33 to a 386SX/16 laptop since I was mainly using it for
Linux, and didn't want to have to emulate the math functions, still I don't
know that I needed it.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh_at_ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh_at_holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
|
http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |
Received on Fri Nov 06 1998 - 21:23:47 GMT