Alas, poor 486, we knew you well...

I hope that everyone who needs to know already knows that Intel has discontinued just about all of their embedded processors.

In case you don't, you can read it at

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I have a product with an embedded board using a 66 MHz 486DX2. It was supposed to go out of production soon, but now management has decided to keep it in the line for as much as another 7 or 8 years.

The board was designed ten years ago to accept every 486 and compatible processor on the market, including the Cyrix 5x86 and even the Intel Pentium Overdrive.

For the last several years, we've used Intel's 486DX2 in the 168 pin PGA package as all the other manufactures (TI, Cyrix, AMD, ST, etc.) had discontinued their 486 class processors.

My question is: is there anyone else still making a 486 CPU? I think not, but I'd like to confirm.

TIA

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Jack Klein
Home: http://JK-Technology.Com
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Jack Klein
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What is it about parts going obsolete that make management want to continue making products?

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Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
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Tim Wescott

If you mean "... continue making products with the obsolete component(s)?" then I'd say that either they're content with their product, as-is, or they remember the blood, sweat, and $$$ that it cost to develop it and don't want to go through the process again.

The 486-DX2 is a good c*ck-a-roach and well understood by now. My backup 'puter is a 486-DX2-66 and runs Netscape and all my other apps. just fine under OS/2. My laptop is a 20 MHz 486-DX and also runs OS/2. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

IMHO Windows code bloat is one major reason for the need for faster and faster uP's. Recently a NG poster strongly implied that Win-XP needs more power than a

500 MHz Pentium Whatever can deliver. 500 MHz. That "inadequate" speed is 50% more than this particular OS/2 'puter has. I say eschew code bloat and run the old iron 'til it rusts. (As long as it still does the job, that is.)
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Michael
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Michael

Hi Michael,

My 486DX2-66 backup is still going strong... on OS/2. The newer (9 year old) Pentium III 500Mhz XEON running OS/2 shines even in todays world. My network server is a lowly 400Mhz linux machine that was rescued from a scrap heap death due to the obsolete Windows software on it.

I live in the Windows world at work and was rather vocal last year, saying something like my 500Mhz OS/2 machine is better than my

2Ghz Windows development machine. They had me bring in the big iron so they could see it on similar tasks. They were suprised at how well the OS/2 apps behaved compared to modern Windows counterparts. PMMail blew away Outlook. They didn't even understand how ProNews compared to that hidden newsreader in Internet Explorer. Netscape and Firebird behaved much better than Internet Explorer. They were impressed with how well IBMs VisualAge C++ compared to Microsoft Visual C++ when they were developed years apart. They also got a bit upset when I compared the timelines and told them Microsoft was part of the OS/2 effort and had most of the NT or 2000 technology before Win 95 was released.

My other embedded group at work has an industrial 1Ghz CPU that was recently converted to linux handling all kinds of peripherals. They keep buying new hardware and software to improve their team's productivity.

My embedded stuff uses a 23 year old copy of a Forth compiler for a 6800. It runs on DOS and Win 98, but not on modern Windows OSes. When I have to replace the dead Win 98 machine I'll let them know what OS/2 can still do that Windows never could. However, I get the same redesign issue once in a while. The 1980s CPU and hardware is reliable and works, but they'd like a cheaper SoC or whatever solution but won't fund the cost of even a simple change to the board.

I've also raised a few eyebrows from my Windows customers. They have software that controls the embedded products and provides some functionality with the internet. Each release seems to get faster and smaller, because I keep rewriting the tools to Unix-standards instead of using the Windows-standards. Windows can be reliable, but it sure takes effort to get there given how they 'teach' their developers to work.

I'm getting way off topic so its time to stop.

Take care everyone,

David

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David

Well ... A fellow WARPed person. Quite a rare find for me. And you, too, rescue from scrap heaps. All of my PCs except the laptop were found on the curb. I'm both amazed and joyful at the expensive stuff people throw away, apparently don't try to sell. While happy with the performance of the previous #1 machine, a 150(?)MHz Pentium I, I moved its cards and peripherals to this 350 MHz Pentium II when it appeared on the curb because this BIOS and drive controller are better.

Rave on!

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Michael
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Michael

I can easily buy an 800 MHz PC for $30. I don't call that expensive, but I still consider this to be junk!

Recompiling a full Linux distribution will take a number of days, so I just spent $800 (private money) on a 3,4MHz PC and installed Linux. At nights, it will second as a PVR, something the 150 MHz junk will not do. Tax deduction may reduce actual cost to $300 which is lower cost than a PVR.

End result is that I earn money by using a 3 GHz + machine compared to the "free" machine from the junkyard.

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Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
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Ulf Samuelsson

Following this move by intel, I see this news item

formatting link

Innovasic Semiconductor, are fishing for customers.

If your volumes are enough, they'll make you what you need :)

Since this was trailing-edge fabs, you'd think intel could have spun out the old machines to some employees, if the revenue stream was sufficent. Seems more efficent than re-inventing the devices ?

-jg

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Jim Granville

Old fab is generally sold to the third world.

Ian

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Ian Bell

(snip)

Too bad that a $30 box would not meet your needs. You'd still have $770 in your pocket.

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Michael
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Michael

Life's too short to spend on waiting on computers...

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Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
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Ulf Samuelsson

350

You need to move to a better neighborhood. I picked up two 2GHz PCs off the curb not so long ago. I am considering putting two 667MHz Pentium III machines with CD-RW and Zip drives back out on the curb as they are gathering dust here :)

Never laptops, though - no matter how old. Strange how people hang on to these.

Reply to
larwe

It never ceased to amaze me what fantastic gear could be found curbside in Downtown DC in the late 80's and early 90's when I worked there; I don't know the situation since then.

I wish that there was an IT equivalent to a consequence of the Second Law of Thermodynamics; high end excess technology will naturally flow to areas deficient in it. The last curbside computer I have found in our forsaken outpost of the frozen north was a 128K Mac. However, it is known that late model PCs are routinely taken to one of our dumps (a.k.a. materials recovery centers) simply because an XP install went south.

Regards,

Michael in it

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msg

(snip)

Wow. Not even the business computer store up the street throws those away. From the point of view of curb watchers, such as I, people throw away Pentium I and below, 350 MHz and slower.

You're right; better neighborhood would serve. There is an up-scale town just across the river that I could haunt but it gets very hilly very fast. Since I do my reconn. on a bicycle ...

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Michael
Reply to
Michael

Well, I live in a (squalid, to my mind) suburb of New York City. I joke with my wife that I'm going out shopping for a TV set on trash evenings. I've got several 14" TVs around my bedroom - I never watch TV, but I picked them up to use with my vintage computer collection. Every VCR in my house was acquired this way - some were very kindly placed, with their remote and manual, in the box from the new device to which the owner had upgraded.

Lots of CRT VGA monitors out there, but I rarely bother to pick them up as I already have a garage full of this sort of equipment.

I am not looking forward to foaming-at-the-mouth-greenie legislation that prevents people from putting this equipment out for the trash.

Reply to
larwe

Unfortunately these things are hazardous, in the trash. However, there is a better way available. Investigate freecycle (.org, .com?) and you can get on a mailing list local to you that puts these things up for collection. I have seen everything from fertilizer to houses.

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CBFalconer

The answer is to reuse them rather than trashing them. But the most effective distribution method - which is to say the cheapest - is to let people leave them out on the curb for others to pick up.

I signed up for the Queens list aeons ago - never saw a single message although they claim to have 1,921 members.

Reply to
larwe

There is some sort of confirmation mechanism - I forget what and how - after which you can be on a mailing list. This corner of Maine runs about 5 to 10 per day. Maybe Mainers are more reluctant to throw things out.

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 Some informative links:
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Reply to
CBFalconer

I just tried to resubscribe (God, I hate Yahoo). I got an email saying it would take up to two weeks to confirm my information after I sent in the ZIP code and cross street where I live.

Reply to
larwe

I probably never noticed that, since I have been using Yahoo and Yahoo email for a spam-trap since Daisy was a pup. If they have my address it is thoroughly out of date!

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Reply to
CBFalconer

Hello Ulf,

I don't.

I didn't :-))) (guess you meant GHz)

Life's too short to waste time on ever increasing crashes of bloatware. It's simple: The more executions have to run per second the higher the chance that the dang thing freezes up on you. Especially in the days of "project time's up - ship it!"

Writing this on a 10 year old Pentium PC with a whopping 64MB. Works just fine.

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Regards, Joerg

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Joerg

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