🚀 go-pugleaf

The following are just my opinions and not Intel's.

Daniel Moran (daniel.moran@pcb.batpad.lgb.ca.us) wrote:
> jas37876@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (John A. Slagel) writes:
>> I can, all things considered, upgrade my non-coprocessed 386-33,
>> to the Cyrix 486-33 for ~$150.
>> Is there problems with this chip ??
> Ditto on that request. I'm extremely interested in this chip. My
> understanding is that it does not have an on-board math coprocessor; but
> I'm more interested in the cache and pipelining anyway. I'm running a
> clone motherboard with a very recent AMI BIOS. Any comments? Anyone
> who's done this upgrade?


From what I've read, the Cyrix chip:

1) Has a hardware multiplier instead of a full-blown math co-processor
2) Has a 1K cache instead of the 8K on an Intel 486
3) Is pin-compatible with Intel 386's, although you can't just pop out your
   i386 and plop in the Cyrix chip; you will have to replace at least the
   BIOS and probably the motherboard too.

	If you've got a new BIOS, you're in better shape than someone
who doesn't.  But I, personally, wouldn't count on anything working
exactly like it used to.

(Naturally I'm a tad biased.  But I've formed this view after reading
around, and I think it's about as un-biased as it can be.)


--
D. J. McCarthy <dmccart@gomez.intel.com>
"You'll find that people will forgive truly huge mistakes when they are
 freely admitted, and pursue tiny transgressions with fury when
 they are lied about."                  --Jerry Anderson, alt.security, 6/24/92