4 ms·
I'm afraid with the 32 bit bit your're wrong, the 386 was released in 1985, and the Compaq Deskpro 386 was in 1986, so 32 bit Intel PCs were available before th
by fredoralive 5y ago
I'm afraid with the 32 bit bit your're wrong, the 386 was released in 1985, and the Compaq Deskpro 386 was in 1986, so 32 bit Intel PCs were available before the Archimedes (of course 386+ PCs weren't common for a few years after that).
- codeulike 5y agocripes you're right, I had always assumed that Pentium was a big deal because it was 32-bit, and that the previous 386 was 16-bit. In the late 80s I'd heard of IBM Pcs but didn't encounter one till the pentium era.
- bartread 5y agoThe 386 was a full 32-bit processor: the 386SX was a cheaper variant with a 16-bit data bus. In that sense the SX wasn't a million miles removed from the 68000 and 68010 processors, which similarly operated with 16-bit data buses. You may be confusing the operating system with the processors. Windows 3.x and earlier were 16-bit operating systems that were run on PCs well into the 32-bit era. Windows for Workgroups 3.11 was, I believe, the first full 32-bit version of Windows. 32-bit Windows only became widespread, at least amongst consumers, with the release of Windows 95.
- guenthert 5y agoThe Pentium was a big deal due to the incorporated FPU (which was separate and comparatively slow on 368 and 486). With the Pentium high-end PCs were nearly as fast as, but much cheaper than, Unix workstation, even for typical workstation workloads, which was the beginning of the end of those.
- forinti 5y agoThey ran DOS and most had monochrome monitors. The Archimedes was way sexier: it booted straight into a GUI and also had BASIC in ROM.