🚀 go-pugleaf

th...@aloha.cc.columbia.edu (Tom  Hong) writes:
>In article <3as49j$5...@harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au>,
>GM Enierga <gme...@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au> wrote:
>>>You mean HP+Intel = a really nice CPU?  Btw, what improvements will the 686
>>>have over the 486 and 586 class processors?

>	Yes, according to the industry paper PC Week, HP and Intel will team
>together to develop a wholly RISC processor for personal computers based on
>HP's PA-RISC designs.

	Ok - can someone please clue me in here: is the Intel/HP baby going to
be the 686 or 786?  If the answer is the latter (ie 786) then what on earth
is the 686 supposed to improve on?


>	Neither is an IBM-made PowerPC personal system available here in the
>states yet.  The only PowerPC machine made by IBM that I know of would be
>the RS/6000 AIX workstation.  They keep claiming, "any day now..."  But it's
>getting pretty comical.  =)  Kinda like, "How much farther, Papa Smurf?"
>In addition, any IBM-made PowerPC personal system made before the unified
>PPC Reference Platform between Apple and IBM is not going to sell well.
>The users seem to want to be sure of the PowerPC's direction before
>committing.

	I'm beginning to wonder if they will EVER release the PowerPC... I mean
if Intel releases its next generation chip (see above) supposed to be out end
of '95, then it would be kinda useless of the blue giant to do it.  Why buy a
Concorde now when a passenger stratospheric jet is going to come out any day
now?


>	Nope...  I put together clone machines and have built up DX4
>systems for several clients.  One does not need special motherboards for DX4
>OverDrives.  Regular DX4s without the voltage regulators don't need anything
>really special either; there are motherboards out there that can accept 3.3
>or 5-volt CPUs by simply setting the appropriate jumpers.  Regardless of
>processor speed, be it DX4-100, DX2-66, or DX-33, they all can use the same
>motherboards (except for the voltage considerations I mentioned).  There is
>no *VLB motherboards* out there for Intel 486 chips (AMD and Cyrix is another
>matter) which exceed 33mHz bus speed, and that is due to the limitations of
>the VESA Local Bus, which has a top speed of 40mHz.  That's why the Intel
>486DX50 (not the DX2-50) was never popular; its 50-mHz bus speed is just too
>fast for VESA Local Bus and consequently DX50s are sold in ISA or EISA
>systems.  Newer VLB boards have 50mHz speed restrictions, but these are not
>very prolific as yet.
>TRH Sends

	Ok... Q.#2: if that remains the case, which as I understand you wrote
above as being "any kind of motherboard can handle a DX4 chip provided the chip
socket has the right amount of pinholes in it...", why is it that there are
motherboards out there which have, using the DX2 chip for example, been
"optimised" to run a DX2?  Yes, I DO realise that all DX based chips run 33Mhz
extrnally no matter what their internal speed is, so I guess what I am really
asking is "why are there motherboards out there which say they can run a DX2
chip for example?"  Is it just the amount of pinholes and that's it, or is
there something more?

	And a general question: assuming Origin survives a year from now - and
I guess this has to do with a lot of other soft. companies as well, including
EA who have released a Pentium-only playable US Navy Fighters (or whatever) -
will they still be releasing software for ye old 486s?  IF so, please give me
reasons why you believe so.  Oh, and don't email me either - a post will do. :-)

							- Falcon