Intel 486: 30 years old and still fascinating
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Re: Intel 486: 30 years old and still fascinating
#230 years and it's still hard to emulate using software or FPGAs.
Re: Intel 486: 30 years old and still fascinating
#3It was quite a chip. In the early 90's I had built a computer from scraps from school, a 386/40mhz IIRC. It was ok but a bit weak, at some point I came across a 486/40 and motherboard (both AMDs I think).
It was a beast in comparison, even complex calculations I printed just went off the screen faster than could be read. Screen became a blur, Turbo Vision Pascal and C++ just screamed on it. Instant response.
As mentioned on the site many times, my modern laptop doesn't feel appreciably faster, though the graphics are a lot prettier.
Re: Intel 486: 30 years old and still fascinating
#430 years and it's still hard to emulate using software or FPGAs.
The ao486 core is available since 2014: https://opencores.org/projects/ao486
It's only a 486SX (so no FPU), but it can at least run Linux (kernel 3.13.1 tested) and Windows 95.
Re: Intel 486: 30 years old and still fascinating
#5Compared to 386DX40, 486DX66 was a helluva strong horse.
Of course, me being 18 or so was mostly interested in FPS of games like Duke Nukem or Doom.