🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep11.211028.5649@midway.uchicago.edu> wort@midway.uchicago.edu (Don Wortham) writes:
>Although IBM swears that its 386 and 486 SLC are fully Intel compatible, 
>I'm curious if this is so.  Anyone know if the long-awaited NeXTSTEP
>port to Intel 486 platforms will run on the IBM 486SLC chip?  Rumors are
>acceptable.

The head of NeXTSTEP 486 development dropped by the WaNUG meeting last
Wednesday, and gave us a short presentation on the upcoming product
and there was a Q&A session afterwards.

The answer to your question is that NS 486 uses a few 486 only instructions
for speed.  Therefore any 486 that implements *all* of the Intel 486
instruction set will work.  This means that the Cyrix 486SLC will not,
since that's just a 386 with a built in cache (several PC columnists
have mentioned this, and the confusion it causes).  If the IBM
fully implements the 486 instruction set, then it will work.  If not,
then it won't.  I know that IBM has the license to alter/manufacter
the 386 chip... I don't know if IBM has rights on the 486.  It sounds like
the IBM 486 isn't a real 486.

I haven't had a chance to post a report on our Q&A session... I might get
around to it tonight.  (hopefully)

--
Bill Chin, NeXTSTEP Developer, PRC Inc.
VP Communications, WaNUG - ANDI Technical Staff
bchin@is-next.umd.edu (WaNUG, home) - bchin@redwood.prc.com (work)
NeXTmail welcomed