its something you have to decide for yourself. I feel like i "abandoned" my 200/1m pentium pros for some "flashy overdrives" and I still don't feel right. I still consider 586 chips "486 class" because they were designed specially to work in 486 boards and not pentiums.
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would it be "cheating"?
- Thread starter JDT
- Start date
DonutKing
Experienced Member
Of course, nothing is "cheating".However I think it is about whether you call this a 486 or not. Would you call a Pentium Overdrive 80mhz a 486?
I personally wouldn't call a POD CPU a 486... since its a Pentium core, even though its running in a 486 class computer.
I'd call an Am5x86 a 486 since that's basically what it is.
The Cyrix Cx5x86 is different though, i probably wouldn't call that a 486 either, since its design is closer to the socket 7 6x86 than a 486.
But you could still call it a '486 class' machine I guess.
RE: the Evergreen upgrade chips. I recieved a Kingston Turbochip in a batch of CPU's from a generous member of another forum. I believe these are Am5x86's with integrated fan and 5v->3.45V convertor.
I stuck it in my IH-4077C board mentioned in this thread and it POSTed but wouldn't go past the memory test screen. Seems to be some limitation of this board/chipset that it doesn't like CPU's with more than 8kb of cache since its working with the Am486DX4-100 (8kb cache) but not an Intel DX4 (16kb cache).
Chuckster_in_Jax
Veteran Member
I did the same thing with my IBM Model 360 (Dual Pentium Bro 200 Mhz). The computer was such a snail I upgraded the CPUs. I still have the Pentium Bro chips so I can put it back like it was originally.
Tetrium2
Experienced Member
Of course, nothing is "cheating".
You surely got a point there
I don't think POD83 is a 486, but for some reason I personally do see the Cyrix 5x86 as a 486, but that's just personal and less a rational choice.
Personally I call such a computer a "Socket 3 computer" instead of a "486 computer" or a "586 computer".
But in the end it's your own choice how you approach it. I prefer to approach a computer by what motherboard it has and less by what processor core is in it.
"Slot 1" and "Socket 370" instead of "Pentium 2" or "Pentium 3", etc.
I do it this way also because "a Pentium" doesn't really tell you anything in a way. It could be a Pentium Overdrive 63 or it could be an overclocked Tillamook at 400Mhz.
Lol, it's kinda confusing
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
THe POD was "designed" as an enhancement for the 486 because there was so many of them out there. It was just a stop-gap until the Pentiums took over the market. Look at it as an upgrade much like an IDE HD over the MFM/RRL.You surely got a point there
I don't think POD83 is a 486, but for some reason I personally do see the Cyrix 5x86 as a 486, but that's just personal and less a rational choice.
Personally I call such a computer a "Socket 3 computer" instead of a "486 computer" or a "586 computer".
But in the end it's your own choice how you approach it. I prefer to approach a computer by what motherboard it has and less by what processor core is in it.
"Slot 1" and "Socket 370" instead of "Pentium 2" or "Pentium 3", etc.
I do it this way also because "a Pentium" doesn't really tell you anything in a way. It could be a Pentium Overdrive 63 or it could be an overclocked Tillamook at 400Mhz.
Lol, it's kinda confusing
JDT
Veteran Member
I've decided to find a voltage adaptor to use one of my am5x86 133 chips on my 5v board.
Dave Farquhar
Experienced Member
And they promised the upgrade for a long, long time, before the POD was available. I know the Pentium 60/66 hit the market before the POD, but I think the POD may have been announced, and the sockets in place, before the Pentium 60/66 hit the market--I can't remember that. The upgradeability to a next-generation CPU was a big selling point for the 486, or at least the marketers wanted it to be. The Intel rep who periodically visited the store I worked at sure pushed it. But if I remember right, a true Pentium running even at 60 MHz usually outperformed the POD 83, because of the wider and faster bus.
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
The way I remember it was the POD was a fairly expensive project at the time. As for myself, I went with the Pentium Pro @ 166 MHZ in '97 or '98.
Dave Farquhar
Experienced Member
I remember it being really expensive too. In 1995 when I was ready to upgrade, I just bought a low-tier Pentium motherboard (Epox if I remember right) and a Pentium-75 CPU and there wasn't a lot of price difference between doing that and buying a POD 83. I think the motherboard was a little more expensive, but the P75 was faster. Of course, within a week or two I wanted a new PCI video card to replace that nasty, slow ISA card.... Upgrades can turn into such a money pit.
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
You're binging back some old memories. I think it was around '99 or so that I climbed onto to AMD bandwagon and thought that Matrox was the video card. Remember when you could do a DIR and everything seemed instantaneous? FWIW, I bought a NIB POD83 late last summer for $40.00. I can get it up and running okay but can't seem to get to go full blast. It runs WIN 95 okay but stubs its toe on WIN98. That project's for another day.
Anonymous Coward
Veteran Member
I think POD83 is fair game on an ultimate 486. It may have a pentium core, but it runs on a 486 bus. Plus it doesn't perform like a pentium, and even some other 486 chips kick its butt. If you can get the stupid thing working properly on a 486 board, then you definitely deserve to run it.
There were a lot of reasons why POD5V didn't catch on. Price being the main one. But you should also consider the fact that it was *really* late to market, it ran way too slow at the time of release and very few people owned boards that would have supported operation with both L1 and L2 cache enabled. Not to mention, a lot of people with older 486s that wanted the upgrade (such as myself) only had 168-pin sockets. From what I recall other members posting on here in the past, the only reason Intel ever released the thing was in order to avoid a lawsuit (they promised that socket3 users were be able to upgrade to Pentium technology).
I still think Intel could have done a lot more with this upgrade. As far as I can tell there is nothing that would have stopped them from putting out 100 and 133MHz models, other than the fact that they didn't want to do it. But intel rarely ever pulls through on promised upgrades, so it's no big surprise.
There were a lot of reasons why POD5V didn't catch on. Price being the main one. But you should also consider the fact that it was *really* late to market, it ran way too slow at the time of release and very few people owned boards that would have supported operation with both L1 and L2 cache enabled. Not to mention, a lot of people with older 486s that wanted the upgrade (such as myself) only had 168-pin sockets. From what I recall other members posting on here in the past, the only reason Intel ever released the thing was in order to avoid a lawsuit (they promised that socket3 users were be able to upgrade to Pentium technology).
I still think Intel could have done a lot more with this upgrade. As far as I can tell there is nothing that would have stopped them from putting out 100 and 133MHz models, other than the fact that they didn't want to do it. But intel rarely ever pulls through on promised upgrades, so it's no big surprise.
Ole Juul
Veteran Member
Now we're getting somewhere. Using the name 486 to describe the bus instead of the processor makes sense.
k2x4b524[
Veteran Member
following your logic, could it then be fair to call a 386-486 upgrade chip a 386 bus machine? or a 486 in 386's clothing, some of those 386-486 in a 386 socket chips were pretty snappy after all
I think the point is, you have to draw the line somewhere. There were ways to put a 286 in an 8088, now put a 386 upgrade into that 286. then a 486 into the 386 adapter. *mind boggle*
anyway, just make what makes you happy, thats all that matters.
anyway, just make what makes you happy, thats all that matters.
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
As a side note, I'm presently putting a 486 ("Rev to 486" from Evergreen Technologies) in a new 286 project. Also, it will have a beefed-up BIOS. Doesn't everyone need a fast 286? I suppose that's cheating just a little bit.
k2x4b524[
Veteran Member
and THEN put a PDO83 into that 8088-486 chain and see what happens.
You'd have an 8-bit pentium, or an 8088 @ at least 100 times the stock 8088 *old diags programs would tell that one* **Norton SI is a good example of that**
Agent Orange
Veteran Member
Dammitt "k2x4b524[", you just gave me an idea!!! (lol)
k2x4b524[
Veteran Member
the big question is would that same box run windows xp? 8088-pod83??