Ever seen one of these?

[Doot]

I was looking on ebay the other day and found this.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...&category=1244

A dual 486 mobo, was there much need for dual systems back then. But there can`t be much advantage to two 486`s can there.

back then there was an advantage. you have to remember back in the day when it first came out it was top of the line.

[Doot]

Really, for what server? I hate to think how much it was.

[Jeordiewhite]

Wasn't it a math coprocessor back in those day's?
It did cost more, but having that did help quite a bit for performance. However that would still be quite slow even if you were to buy it.

[Doot]

I coudn`t see the point of buying it, I mean what would you do with it. I didn`t know there was a dual 486 out there.

[Agent_Embryo]

What do you mean? Having dual cpu's then would be the same as now. Higher performace, probably for servers running an OS that supported more than one CPU. They'd probably be in Fileservers, maybe mailservers etc.

[jmichna]

Originally posted by Jeordiewhite
Wasn't it a math coprocessor back in those day's?...

Naw, the '386SX needed a math co-processor, but the '386DX and up had built in math co-processors.

I had an Epson Equity 386SX/16 mHz and it cost me $395 for the '387 math co-processor add-in chip. This PC came with 2mb on-board ram, and had twelve 1mb 30-pin SIMMs sockets. The SIMMs cost around $195/each, and had to be installed in pairs.

[wju425]

The 486dx was the first to have built-in math coprocessor. Not the 386dx but there was a 387dx coprocessor for it.

\o/ Billy

[jmichna]

Originally posted by wju425
The 486dx was the first to have built-in math coprocessor. Not the 386dx but there was a 387dx coprocessor for it.

\o/ Billy

You know, I believe you're right... it's been a long time.
I do recall that the first two 486 mobos I had (both Asus, one was a 486DX/33 and the other an 486DX2/66) also had a socket for a math co-processor, but it was not for a "487" co-processor, but something like "Weitek" math co-processor, that only certain apps used.

[wju425]

Yea I remember that and that's correct. I get my info from chip geeks but they didn't cover 486s. I did a google search.

I only had a couple of 486s (dx-40 and dx2-66) but I remember those empty sockets.

\o/ Billy