The history of the processor, part I

Intel opens a bag of tricks

The next generation of processors was inroduced in 1989, only a year after the introduction of the 386SX. The 486DX processor is the fist processor that contains more than a million transistors, and as the 386 it is a fully 32 bit processor. there were quite a few improvements in the design, the 486 was the first processor to use pipelines, where complex instructions are being split into several simple ones that the processor can complete. Because of these pipelines the 486 only needed 2 clockcycles to finish an instruction. The 486 was also the first processor that used on die cache, Intel placed 8kb on the 486. The 486DX had an integrated coprocessor, which elimated the use of add-on ones as with the 386 and 286 processors. Al improvements meant that the 486DX was about 3 times as fast as the 386DX on the same clockspeed. The processor was introduced on a clockspeed of 25MHz, but later a 33MHz model was released and in 1991 a 486DX on an insane clockspeed of 50Mhz was introduced. I

As with the 386 Intel did release a budget model of the 486 two years after its introduction. Teh 486SX processor was identical to the DX version, however the SX meant that this version did not have a co processor. The 486SX was released in clockspeeds of 16, 20, 25 and 33 MHZ.

In 1992 Intel changes the internal workings of their processors, in stead of keeping the internal and external speeds of the processors the same, they seperate the internal clockspeed from the speed that the processor communicates with the rest of the PC (the external bus speed). Because of this change they are able to increase the actual clockspeeds of the processor without any consequences for the rest of the hardware in a system. The 486DX2 is born, and the first model, the 486DX2 50 works on an internal clockspeed of 50Mhz, but the busspeed stays the same at 25MHz. This made the processor a perfect upgrade opportunity for people that owned a 486DX or SX processor. Later on a model that ran at 66MHz (2x33) was introduced, and especially for upgraders Intel introduced an "Overdrive" processor based on the DX2. The overdrive processor had to be placed on a seperate socket on the motherboard, but never actually took off as most users repelaced their original processor in stead of purchasing an extra one.

In 1994 Intel conjured the 486DX4, based on the same principles as the DX2, but the internal speed ran at 3 times the external busspeed. A DX4 75Mhz therefore had an external busspeed of 25Mhz, the DX4 100 at 33Mhz. In the DX4 processor the internal cache was increased to 16kB.

When the 486 was the most popular processor there was a shift in the way users looked at their computers. Where the 386 was not really quick enough to run a graphiic interface OS, the 486 was quick enough. A few years after the 486 is introduced Microsoft released the Windows 95 OS, and it seems the DOS prompt is history.

Intel 486 processors: SX, DX, DX2 en DX4.

Intel Inside!

At the end of the eighties a lot of clone processors hit the market, something that Intel was not too happy with. The "Intel Inside " campaign startedm, telling the consumer to watch for PC's with a genuine Intel Processor to ensure stability and compatibility, The campaign is a big succes, and Intel is one of the best known brands in the word today, comparable to the likes of McDonalds and Coca-Cola.