🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1iimlfINN7b1@hpscit.sc.hp.com> matthias@nsr.hp.com (Matthias Kamm) writes:

>Intel is making tons on the 486, so may not be motivated to release
>the 586 immediately, but they won't cancel it!  The 586 may be delayed
>to be a more effective "AMD buster" or "Cyrix Killer."  They're probably
>stockpiling, or enhancing it somehow.  Remember, there were working 586
>systems running at Comdex.  Intel would RUIN it's relations with it's
>customers to cancel the chip now. 
>
>Absolutely won't happen...

Never say never. Intel announced it was phasing out the i486SL, and moving
that technology to all it's i486 family. That minor product reordering
ticked off a number of major customer's (NEC, Compaq, etc) who were
designing notebooks around the SL. I've read where they're even looking
now at Cyrix because of it (although I tend not to believe everything I
read :). Intel will do whatever is in the best interests of Intel. If
Intel decides at the highest levels that it makes better sense to continue
to stretch the i486 architecture and quietly bypass the Pentium and release
the P6 (which is derivative of the P5, I'm sure), Intel could stomp
Cyrix, AMD, NextGen, and anybody else chasing after the P5. It would make
one hell of a marketing coup to be able to stay well ahead of NextGen's
rollout of their P5 clone by releasing the P6 when NextGen releases their
P5 clone. And Intel could re-establish themselves as the pre-eminant
X86 manufacturer _again_. AMD and Cyrix/TI would wind up being in the
commodity 386 chip game, with very low margins. That would be good for
Intel in the long run, since it would further spread 386 architecture
systems, bolstering software development for that platform, and
assuring continued support for some time to come.

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