Help OC a 386

[JLK03F150]

Personally, I would. You never know when you might come across a matching system missing the cpu that’s on its way to a landfill & you can save it.

I have a complete system that I can plug my 486 DX-50 or 486 DX2-66 into. I’ll run benches on both at some point when I can find the time.

 

[Tank Geek]

I got it trimmed...Thanks JLK!

 

[WrkBoot]

We had a 486DX266 back in 90-91-ish,the computer came with (this is just my memory and it could be wrong) 4megs of ram soldered to the motherboard. My wife's company bought a bunch of new computers and needed more memory. They took all of their stick to a computer store in Atlanta and swapped them out for higher memory sticks. We went downtown and bought some of the sticks. We spent 300 dollars on 12 megs. We knew nothing about computers at this point, but we read that more memory was better.

 

[JLK03F150]

We had a 486DX266 back in 90-91-ish,the computer came with (this is just my memory and it could be wrong) 4megs of ram soldered to the motherboard. My wife's company bought a bunch of new computers and needed more memory. They took all of their stick to a computer store in Atlanta and swapped them out for higher memory sticks. We went downtown and bought some of the sticks. We spent 300 dollars on 12 megs. We knew nothing about computers at this point, but we read that more memory was better.

Yes, RAM was stupid expensive back in those days.

 

[Niku-Sama]

speaking of ram and thinking back to how it was...
I am thankful we arent jamming chips into DIP sockets any more.

What CPU is next? 8086\8 or the industrial werido 186?

 

[Tank Geek]

I have an 8086 and a 486 in the mail.

 

[don256us]

Protected from what? I wouldn't foresee ever using them so.....

I would think that if the issue was a working collection, you'd first have to test each CPU. I don't think that's in your agenda so I would think that the goal is to have a nice looking display at the potential expense of usability. Just a thought.

 

[Zerileous]

I think you could find a foam to mount in the back of the case, and just press the pins in to keep the CPU's in place (if all will be PGA). It would give a more uniform look and mostly secure the CPUs in place.

 

[Celeron_Phreak]

I personally prefer to keep the pins protected, both physically and from ESD, but it is primarily because I also use my CPU collection in my vintage PCs from time to time.

The black foam you get with brand new ICs is a conductive dense foam, that dissipates static charge from the components so they are not killed from ESD in transit.

Being in the electronics industry, I have always had some amount of this conductive foam on hand, and just about all of my vintage CPUs have them pins buried in them, but I am certain that you can buy some from digikey or mouser.

One day I will do a shadow box of CPU history with my collection, but I'm not sure that ESD protection will be high on the list, as I will likely be done tinkering with the chips I end up displaying.

 

[Tank Geek]

I think you could find a foam to mount in the back of the case, and just press the pins in to keep the CPU's in place (if all will be PGA). It would give a more uniform look and mostly secure the CPUs in place.

I am considering this method...Thank you!

 

[Tank Geek]

I got the 8086 in today.

 

[Tank Geek]

So? What came after the 486?

 

[magellan]

The 486 sx was a crippled 486 dx. The 486 had the co-pro. 386 SX was 16 bit where the DX was 32 bit. Both needed an x87 coprocessor.

I had thought the 386sx had 32-bit internal registers but a 16-bit I/O bus?

I remember installing a 30387sx math coprocessor once when I was in IT for the finance department. They used it for perhaps the most important program of the day: Lotus 1-2-3. The accountant I installed it for told me it reduced the time it took to recalc his spreadsheet from 4 hrs. to less than an hour. It was funny how the people who least needed the most powerful computers and rarely used them were inevitably the people who had the best in corporate IT.

 

[JLK03F150]

So? What came after the 486?

The pre-MMX Pentium was next IIRC.

 

[don256us]

Intel Pentium 60MHz. Then 66, 75, 100, 166 and I think 200MHz. I worked for a company that had two servers. a 60 MHz and a 66 MHz. This was about the time Pentium 2 and maybe the Pentium 3's were out already. The owner said that he wanted to replace them but they just wouldn't die. One was called "Death Star" and the other was "Bobba Fete". This was the first time I realized that networks could have fun names. Thus, my network has names like Mal, Shepard Book, Wash, Zoe, etc. You can tell what my favorite Sci-Fi show is if you know those names.

Note: The Pentium 60 and 66 had a simple math problem. Like sometimes 2+2=5 kind a' thing.

 

[magellan]

I remember a contemporary joke about the 1st problematic Pentiums was that the Intel Inside stickers were warning labels.

 

[Archer0915]

I had thought the 386sx had 32-bit internal registers but a 16-bit I/O bus?

I remember installing a 30387sx math coprocessor once when I was in IT for the finance department. They used it for perhaps the most important program of the day: Lotus 1-2-3. The accountant I installed it for told me it reduced the time it took to recalc his spreadsheet from 4 hrs. to less than an hour. It was funny how the people who least needed the most powerful computers and rarely used them were inevitably the people who had the best in corporate IT.

You could be correct about the bus but... Hell I gotta look it up now.

Yeah, 32 bit internal. Effectively a 286 in most cases. Just a precursor to what Intel did with the 486.

 

[Archer0915]

The pre-MMX Pentium was next IIRC.

Don't forget the DX2 and 4... 4? Also Cyrix had the Media GX

 

[magellan]

You could be correct about the bus but... Hell I gotta look it up now.

Yeah, 32 bit internal. Effectively a 286 in most cases. Just a precursor to what Intel did with the 486.

I believe the 80286 only had a 24-bit address space -- not 32-bit. There were some other differences too, I think the 80286 only had two modes of operation that couldn't be changed on-the-fly: flat, 24-bit address mode and the 16-bit DOS, segmented address space mode. The 80386 had both these modes and could switch between them on the fly (thunking I believe it was called, and it was necessary in order for windows 98 to function).

 

[Archer0915]

I believe the 80286 only had a 24-bit address space -- not 32-bit. There were some other differences too, I think the 80286 only had two modes of operation that couldn't be changed on-the-fly: flat, 24-bit address mode and the 16-bit DOS, segmented address space mode. The 80386 had both these modes and could switch between them on the fly (thunking I believe it was called, and it was necessary in order for windows 98 to function).

Yeah, but it was still crippled by the bus. Sure there were differences but the 32 bit era effectively killed the SX and lower processors.