Article View: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Article #44032Re: ALR PowerFlex 486 upgrade (was Re: Brain-dead 286 - summary)
From: John C. Archambeau
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 1990 03:56
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 1990 03:56
39 lines
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2554 bytes
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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arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!crash!pnet01!jcaShow Full Headers
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!crash!pnet01!jca 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