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Date:      Thu, 20 Jun 1996 13:33:32 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Howard Lew <hlew@sequence.Stanford.EDU>
To:        Bill/Carolyn Pechter <pechter@shell.monmouth.com>
Cc:        "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" <michaelv@HeadCandy.com>, freebsd-hardware@freefall.freebsd.org, freebsd-chat@freefall.freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Cyrix and AMD chips
Message-ID:  <Pine.OSF.3.91.960620133154.10028A-100000@aeffle.Stanford.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <199606191216.IAA24229@shell.monmouth.com>

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On Wed, 19 Jun 1996, Bill/Carolyn Pechter wrote:

> > 
> > 
> > >Can anyone comment on the stability of these chips?
> > >It will be running FreeBSD-stable 2.1.0
> > 
> > AMD chips are awesome.  They will work correctly with every
> > motherboard that runs correctly with Intel chips.
> > 
> > The new Cyrix 6x86 (Pentium replacement) is supposed to be a great
> > chip from all I've read.  It's definitely faster than a Pentium at the
> > same clock speed (don't be fooled by the P-rating, though).  I'm
> > pretty temted to get one since it's a good alternative to Intel.
> > 
> > AMD's K5 (their "6x86-ish" chip) is behind and is just coming out in
> > 100MHz versions.  I'm sure it'll be a great chip too when they can
> > finally produce fast versions of them in large quantities.
> > 
> > The Cyrix 5x86 sounds nice too.  It actually has some design
> > enhancements beyond a normal 486.  (The "5x86" chips are designed for
> > a 486 socket and motherboard.)  The AMD 5x86 is just a 486DX4 with a
> > 16K write-back cache and quad-clock instead of tripled clock.  Still,
> > it's a hellishly fast 486.  The AMD 5x86 133MHz is supposed to be
> > ~75MHz Pentium in performance.
> 
> OK -- sounds great to me... I've got two 486/33's on older ISA Micronics
> motherboards that need a shot in the arm (or a kick in the butt)
> speedwise.  These are 5 volt motherboards designed around the 486/33
> clock speed.  Is there any guarantee that any of these chips will work
> correctly.  I've been told that the only thing that should work for sure
> is the Intel 486DX2/66.
> 
> I'd love to go to the AMD 586 -- anyone have any experience with these
> in older motherboards with the Voltage Regulator sockets?
> 
> Bill
> 

I believe the 486DX2/66 is a 5V CPU.  I believe the 5x86s are all 3 volt,
so there's a potential problem.  Need an adapter for that.  Might also
need to flash the bios.



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