Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!mcnc!ecsvax!gas From: gas@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Guerry A. Semones) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Intel 386SX chip & its applications Summary: Intel 386SX (P9) chip as replacement for 286.... Message-ID: <5310@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> Date: 22 Jun 88 17:45:30 GMT References: <206900116@prism> Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service Lines: 26 In article <206900116@prism>, john@prism.TMC.COM writes: > > Maybe I'm totally wrong on this, but isn't this the version of the 386 chip > that you can just pop into a 286 socket and blast off at near-386 speed > and performance? And if so, wouldn't the obvious thing that everyone > would like to do be to buy one for their AT? Why build NEW systems > around the thing? If all the chips being produced are going into new > systems, it will be hard or impossible to buy one for the purpose it was > intended for originally -- upgrading from 286. A lot of us have been following the rumors about the 386SX or P9 chip for quite a little while now. If what I have read is true, the P9 is NOT pin-compatible with the 286. If the other rumors I heard are true, then it seems that all you would need is for some smart(?) company to produce a wafer-board that IS pin-compatible with the 286 socket and then mount the P9 on the wafer-board - hence a drop-in replacement for your 286. I'll leave it to the more technically-wise to say whether the 16 mhz P9 will operate in some of the older 6, 8 mhz AT's. -- Guerry A. Semones BITNET: drogo@tucc.BITNET Information Services USENET: gas@ecsvax.UUCP, semones@dukeac.UUCP Duke University My views are despairingly mine only. Talent Identification Program "We ain't gifted, we just work here."