discrete transistors

From: William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net>
Date: Mon Oct 19 08:12:58 1998

> What on earth makes you think that you could build an x86 CPU with
> PII performance out of discrete transistors? It would be very difficult
> to get even the performance of a 286 out of discrete transistors.
> The discrete stuff tends to be *MUCH* slower than ICs.

The CDC 6600 managed to get about 3 mips...not too bad. The things
would really scream (back then, that is) when everything was in the
cache. 1966 or so, not an IC in sight...

William Donzelli
william_at_ans.net
Received on Mon Oct 19 1998 - 08:12:58 BST