🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Aug19.132542.2667@crd.ge.com> davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM writes:

> In article <16rb6gINNt38@iraul1.ira.uka.de>, S_JUFFA@iravcl.ira.uka.de (|S| Norbert Juffa) writes:
> 
> | The cache is definitely the main source of the 486DLC's performance
> | gain over the 80386. This can be easily deduced from the performance
> | of Intel's RapidCAD chip which is basically a 486 without the cache
> | and with a 386 pin out. While the RapidCAD offers roughly twice the
> | floating point performance of the Intel 387DX, my benchmarks showed
> | it to be at most 25% faster than the 80386. Typical performance gain
> | for integer applications is more like 15% though. This definitely
> 
>   Whoa! Is this chip OEM only or available to real people. I have a app
> running on old (1986) 386-16s with 287 math chips. If the rapidCAD chip
> is a drop in I could probably get an order of magnitude boost in the FP
> performance.
> 
>   Motherboard upgrade is not available for this application.
> 
As far as I know, the RapidCAD isn't even sold as an OEM product. It is
primarily intended to be used by end users for upgrade purposes. Intel
advertises it as the ultimate coprocessor. It has been available for
about two month now. I have bought one myself about two weeks ago. It
was about US$320 (480 deutschmarks). The RapidCAD is actually a two
piece set. One chip, RapidCAD-1, contains the integrated CPU+FPU and 
goes into the 386  socket, the other chip, RapidCAD-2 contains only
some logic required for compatiblity with the 386/387 combination. The 
set includes a chip extractor to remove the 386 and an antistatic storage
box for the removed 386 CPU. RapidCAD can run at speeds of up to 33 MHz.
You might even try to push it to 40 MHz, if you are adventurous, although
I wouldn't recommend it. This thing gets as hot as a true 486, so I have
added an extra fan blowing directly at the CPU.


> -- 
> bill davidsen, GE Corp. R&D Center; Box 8; Schenectady NY 12345
>     I admit that when I was in school I wrote COBOL. But I didn't compile.


Norbert
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Norbert Juffa     email: S_JUFFA@IRAVCL.IRA.UKA.DE      Live and let live!