Compaq Introduces Fastest PC Yet : Desktop Machine Based on Intel’s New 80386 Microchip
September 10, 1986|Associated Press - http://articles.latimes.com/1986-09-10/business/fi-13177_1_personal-computer
PERSONAL COMPUTERS; What Intel’s New Chip Foretells
By PETER H. LEWIS published: July 2, 1991
THE Intel Corporation, confirming what some of its customers have already announced, last week formally introduced a 50-megahertz version of the i486 DX microprocessor. The new chip becomes the fastest and most powerful microprocessor available for personal computers, and it moves us one step closer to the day when the average PC user will have access to the computing power of a mainframe computer...
Of course, not everyone needs a mainframe on a chip, especially since computers built around it are expected to cost $10,000 or more when they become widely available later this year...
Compaq’s Deskpro 486/50L will be the Houston company’s most powerful desktop system. The 486/50L will cost $11,299 to $13,999, depending on how large a hard disk drive is included, and will be widely available “in the fourth quarter” of this year...
. The cache module shown by Intel can hold 256 kilobytes of data, which is a substantial improvement over the 8-kilobyte internal cache on the i486 chip itself. -http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/02/science/personal-computers-what-intel-s-new-chip-foretells.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MyzOP0vyi0
Just to play in the background while reading that article.
Jeepers creepers! That's a MILLION bytes. ;d
Interesting article, they were using DOS 3.3 back then. We’ve come a LOOOOONG way.
My first CD-ROM drive cost $500. You could only get one with a SCSI interface at the time.
I actually owned this very computer when I was a kid, it was my first IBM-compatible PC, and the first PC clone ever with a built-in CD-ROM drive.
It was very cool for the time, it came with a collection of CDs, including one with about 100 games of varying quality that kept me busy for endless hours.
The drawback was that they drew sales with the CD-ROM and skimped on the processor. It only had an 8088 running at 4.77 mhz (though it had a TURBO BOOST button you could push that would supposedly somehow get it up to 10 mhz). So while I had the cool CD-ROM, my buddy’s PS/2 was a heckova a lot faster with his 286 board :(
Now I have a nice HP laptop that cost me about $40 more than what I spent back then on 2 8MB 72-pin RAM chips @ $183 each.
I regret nothing, though 6 months later, I saw those same mem chips priced at $12/ea. That was my FIRST lesson... ;)
I wonder if that volume had an entry for Moore's Law.
Liquid cooled, over clocked 6 core CPU, 256Gb of RAM, 15Tb RAID array...oh the list goes on.
My 1998 IBM Aptiva sits in the garage with a 2 ton tower waiting for proper burial.