On 20 May 99, at 15:17, Setyo Nugroho wrote:

> Does anybody have experience in using non-Intel Pentium processor based
> PCs (e.g: AMD K6, K6-2 3D, IBM M6, M7)?

  I've used the Cyrix/IBM 6x86 PR166, 6x86-L PR200, and 6x86MX PR233, and the
AMD K6-2 300.  [I also used the AMD 386SX-40 and NEC V20, amongst pre-Pentium
CPUs....]

> Are non-Intel processors reliable and fully compatible with Intel's?

  Reliable:  I've never had one fail.
  Compatible:  Most software can't tell the difference.

> Can they work well with all operating system and software designed based on
> Intel's machine language?

  In theory, yes.  In practice, an occasional nit arises.  Most recently, it
turns out that Microsoft included some poor code in Win95(B?) that doesn't
like K6-2 faster than 300 MHz; it's fixed in Win98, or you can download a
patch from MS or AMD that fixes it.
  Note that because AMD and Cyrix have done their own implementations against
the x86 architecture ("machine language"), and have varied the size and
organization of on-chip cache, they have their own timing characteristics.
Cyrix, for instance, excels at common desktop applications, but lack of
pipelining for floating-point operations makes it a poor choice for playing
Quake.

  The prime value of these CPUs is as an upgrade path for Pentium systems
using Socket 7.  If you're willing to buy a new motherboard as well as a new
CPU, you might prefer to stick with Intel and buy a Celeron.


David G

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