discrete transistors

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Mon Oct 19 16:58:11 1998

William Donzelli <william_at_ans.net> wrote:
> As far as discrete transistor machines (2nd generation), I would think
> that a 486 would be faster in terms of both CPU and I/O horsepower.

A 486 is certainly faster in terms of CPU horsepower. But a 486
has no I/O horsepower whatsoever. Nor does any sort of Pentium.

It's certainly *possible* to add intelligent I/O channels to an x86 machine.
And there have been attempts at it. But I2O notwithstanding, the closest that
you'll find in real x86 systems is bus-mastering IDE, SCSI, and Ethernet
controllers.
Received on Mon Oct 19 1998 - 16:58:11 BST