What is an 80486 Processor

[GamingMouse]

I found a program which requires an 80486 processor. Do the new Athlon's qualify? The description of the 80486 at wikipdedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80486) seem to suggest they do, but I want to make sure.

Thanks for any info,
gm

 

[SynthDude2001]

The 80486 (usually referred to as just the "486") was in widespread use about fifteen years ago (before the introduction of the original Pentium)...in any case, it's just an x86 chip, and as such, any current Athlon will work with code "requiring" a 486.

 

[vegetation]

80586 = Pentium, or generation after the 80486; just that Intel lost a case (and rightly so) trying to trademark '586' so they switched to the name Pentium. The rest is history.

Edit: If Intel had it their way, the Pentium II would have been named the 80686, P3 the 80786, and P4 80886.

 

[imported_Kensai]

That is so old school! Intresting but stupid.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: vegetation
80586 = Pentium, or generation after the 80486; just that Intel lost a case (and rightly so) trying to trademark '586' so they switched to the name Pentium. The rest is history.

Edit: If Intel had it their way, the Pentium II would have been named the 80686, P3 the 80786, and P4 80886.

The P4 should have been the 80786, seeing as the P-iii still used the P6 architecture.

 

[xsilver]

if there's a program that requires a 486 processor, it probably wont work very well on an newish athlon
it will just run too damn fast --- you'll need a program to manually degrade the cpu to an appropiate speed

you should have seen an ega version of frogger on a p2 machine run --- even deep blue wouldn't have had a chance --- frogger = roadkill

 

[imported_Kensai]

You mean those games that were timed by the CPU clocks?
I remember my friend trying to play some old DOS game on an A64 and got "pwnted" within 2 seconds.

 

[Spikesoldier]

Originally posted by: Kensai
You mean those games that were timed by the CPU clocks?
I remember my friend trying to play some old DOS game on an A64 and got "pwnted" within 2 seconds.

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: vegetation
80586 = Pentium, or generation after the 80486; just that Intel lost a case (and rightly so) trying to trademark '586' so they switched to the name Pentium. The rest is history.

Edit: If Intel had it their way, the Pentium II would have been named the 80686, P3 the 80786, and P4 80886.

The P4 should have been the 80786, seeing as the P-iii still used the P6 architecture.

Marketing could care less about the architecture in naming convention. Intel simply wanted more sales.

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: Kensai
You mean those games that were timed by the CPU clocks?
I remember my friend trying to play some old DOS game on an A64 and got "pwnted" within 2 seconds.

Yeah, even on an Athlon XP 2100+ games like that ran so horribly for me. If that's the game requirement, even if it's a classic, I suggest putting it on another system to see how it'll run.

 

[xsilver]

Originally posted by: Kensai
You mean those games that were timed by the CPU clocks?
I remember my friend trying to play some old DOS game on an A64 and got "pwnted" within 2 seconds.

yup -- but you would already get pwned on a p2, let alone a a64!!!
the graphics were moving so fast, it looked liked it was skipping frames
even back in the day, you had to turn your 486 dx2 to turbo "off" for half speed (25/33mhz) otherwise the game would already be super hard (eg. 50/66mhz = too hard)

there are programs though that fix this problem
the other option is to get the game via mame emulator, if classic pacman or 1942 is your thing

 

[imported_Kensai]

As usual, nobody really *reads* the post. My friend plays DOS, I play WoW.

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: Kensai
As usual, nobody really *reads* the post. My friend plays DOS, I play WoW.

How were we supposed to pick that up from the context of your post? I mean honestly, in a thread having to do with 486 processors it's not out of the question that you meant DOS.

 

[xsilver]

Originally posted by: Kensai
As usual, nobody really *reads* the post. My friend plays DOS, I play WoW.

huh? I understood what you said
I just thought we were having a bit of a flashback to 486 days
sarcasm is a bit hard to fathom through type sometimes though

and lol - I dont think you can get pwned in 2 secs in WOW anyways....

 

[hopejr]

Microprose F19 seems to work on newer processors at the correct speed (even though it was written back in the days of the 286).

 

[odbasucanc]

i remember when 486s came out. i wanted one... i got a cyrix upgrade chip for my 386sx... lol slow

 

[ElFenix]

i never thought i'd see the day when someone asked what that is....

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: odbasucanc
i remember when 486s came out. i wanted one... i got a cyrix upgrade chip for my 386sx... lol slow

I was an Amiga user at that point.

 

[0roo0roo]

no by 486 times games weren't clock based..he's playing something much olde

 

[TStep]

Originally posted by: hopejr
Microprose F19 seems to work on newer processors at the correct speed (even though it was written back in the days of the 286).

That game just amazed me. That must have been late 80s, no? I think I had a 386/16mhz or 25mhz at that point

 

[Sithtiger]

Originally posted by: xsilver
if there's a program that requires a 486 processor, it probably wont work very well on an newish athlon
it will just run too damn fast --- you'll need a program to manually degrade the cpu to an appropiate speed

you should have seen an ega version of frogger on a p2 machine run --- even deep blue wouldn't have had a chance --- frogger = roadkill

Ya never know, I still have my original Doom diskeetes and it runs fine on my P4 3GHz and Radeon 9800P running WinXP Pro. I imagine it would work on the yet to be released A64 X2 dual core processors too. I doubt it would work on the 64-bit WinXP though.