50MHz 386/486 Chips

[James Van Artsdalen]

In <145 at mixcom.UUCP>, ggvvgg at mixcom.UUCP (Dave Fenske) wrote:

> I'm getting behind in rumors.  Wasn't there supposed to be a 50 MHz
> 386 or 486 chip to be released by Intel?  Anybody know the story on
> it?

I suggest that comp.sys.intel is a better newsgroup for this query.
But in any case:

There will almost certainly not be a 50MHz 386 from Intel.  Intel
appears poised to try the 286 -> 386sx trick over again, this time
with 386 -> 486.  Keep in mind that the 386 is an old design - it
should be much easier to make a 486 run at 50MHz than a 386.  I'm not
so sure that the marketing trick will work this time, but then there
wasn't any good reason for it to work last time either.

I've seen 33MHz 486s run at 43MHz with fan reliably, and I'm not
certain but that the memory controller quit first.  The implication is
that the .8 micron shrink of the 486 should run at 50MHz fine (whether
anyone can make it pass FCC is another question entirely).
-- 
James R. Van Artsdalen          james at bigtex.cactus.org   "Live Free or Die"
Dell Computer Co    9505 Arboretum Blvd Austin TX 78759         512-338-8789