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
I remember surfing the web for the first time on an Intel 386, using the Mosaic browser. This was in 1994.
Image downloads were like watching someone pull down a windowshade...real slowly.
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-09-10/business/fi-13177_1_personal-computer
....
I remember seeing my first 386. I couldn’t believe how fast the DIR command scrolled off the screen.
The first IBM clone I bought was a used 386 from a builder. It was bargain at $1500.
I remember that system to this day, it was a solid performer. I installed one at Farmland Foods in KC, IIRC, with 4MB of RAM, 4Mbs IBM Token Ring, WD-1007 ESDI controller and a Micropolis 330MB hard drive! Running Netware 3, and it was a screamer. File access on that server was so much faster than the files on their AS400 (of course, the upgrade from Twin-Ax to Token Ring helped too.)
Mark