Intel 486: 30 years old and still fascinating

  • It was quite a chip. In the early 90's I had built a computer from scraps from school, a 386/40mhz IIRC. It was ok but a bit weak, at some point I came across a 486/40 and motherboard (both AMDs I think).

    It was a beast in comparison, even complex calculations I printed just went off the screen faster than could be read. Screen became a blur, Turbo Vision Pascal and C++ just screamed on it. Instant response.

    As mentioned on the site many times, my modern laptop doesn't feel appreciably faster, though the graphics are a lot prettier.

  • Compared to 386DX40, 486DX66 was a helluva strong horse.

    Of course, me being 18 or so was mostly interested in FPS of games like Duke Nukem or Doom.

  • 30 years and it's still hard to emulate using software or FPGAs.