From: dmcquaid@csws19.ic.sunysb.edu (Devin McQuaid) Subject: Re: 486SXs as Unix Iron? Date: 2 Nov 1992 18:52:27 GMT
In article <1992Nov2.050547.13873@news.stolaf.edu> johnsonm@lars.acc-admin.stolaf.edu (Michael K. Johnson) writes:
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>1) 486 is 32 bit bus and 32 bit data, in both the DX and SX
> implementations. The only 16/24bit implementation is cyrix's
> 486SLC, which is really a 386slc with a few add-ons, and is
> inappropriately named.
Well Yes and no. While it is true that all real intel 486
chips are 32 bit processers and do use a 32 bit internal bus what the
original poster was refering to was the external bus which on most
clones is ISA(industral Standard Architecture) which is 16 bit. The
original poster favored the EISA(Extended Industry Standard
Architecture) Which is a 32 bit bus. While EISA is certainly better
then ISA it is significantly more expensive and that is the reason
most clones are ISA. As an alternitive Local buses are becoming
popular which has a seperate path for the most demanding peripherals
(like your video card and disk controllers) As I understand it the
local bus is alot faster since both the ISA and EISA buses run at a
really low speed (under 10Mhz I think). I don't have all the
imformation as to the preformance hit you take from the different
buses but there have been numerous artical written on the subject and
it of course matters a lot on what your doing, some applications
benifit more then others with faster buses (CAD, graphics, ect.)
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>michaelkjohnson
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I think this is fairlly acurate if someone who knows more
wants to give more details please feel free but please don't flame me
as I have a very low self esteem and a flame would probably send me
into a depresive spiral that would end with me doing something
desparate and then you probably couldn't live with youself then before
you know it we will have mass suicides and the entire country if not
the world would collapse ...
-Devin