On 28 Sep 98 at 9:11, Breck Schwartz wrote:

> >I recently saw advertised in a paper a 586 133mghz computer.  I'm
> >familiar with 486 and the pentium series since.  Was there something in
> >the interim?
>
>
> It has always been my understanding that the 586 was the designation that
> Cyrix and AMD gave their Pentium equivalent chips. Just as they now
> advertise more advanced chips as 686s.

  No, it was AMD's designation for their "advanced" 486, with support
for 4x multiplier and/or 40 MHz motherboard speed, both beyond
anything Intel offered for the 486.
  [Intel was caught between a rock and a hard place -- if they tried
to trademark the "586" designation, their whole set of x86 trademarks
could unravel, which is why they left 586 un-trademarked and used the
name "Pentium" instead.]

David G

                                  -----
       **Need help with PCBUILD mailing list? Send an Email to:**
        Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]> or Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>