From: root@sanger.chem.nd.edu (Doctor Math) Subject: Re: 486SXs as Unix Iron? Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1992 17:22:29 GMT
In article <1d5cs6INN838@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> brtmac@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu (Brett McCoy) writes:
>In <dpn2.37.720729603@po.CWRU.Edu> dpn2@po.CWRU.Edu (Damien P. Neil) writes:
>
>>In article <1992Oct30.194546.11090@sci34hub.sci.com> gary@sci34hub.sci.com (Gary Heston) writes:
>>>(That's right; the 487SX is
>>>a 486DX chip hacked to disable the CPU and cache....)
>>
>>No, it's much worse than that. When you plug in a 487SX, the 486SX chip is
>>_disabled_ and all CPU functions shift over to the 'coprocessor'. The 487SX
>>is really a 486DX.
>
>Okay, the question now is, can you buy a 486DX motherboard, sans 486dx
>and plug a 487sx in instead of a 486dx? The 476sx's that I've seen
>are cheaper than the 486dx's that I've seen.
Intel, in their infinite wisdom, made the 487SX and 486DX physically
incompatible, so you can't just plug the cheaper part into the faster board.
Funny thing; there is a third party (I don't know exactly who) making an
adaptor thing. You plug the 487SX into this little daughterboard, then
plug the board into the 486DX socket. For marketing reasons, the SX part
has to be cheaper... If anyone knows who's making the daughterboard, post.
I'm going to look into it myself...