Hardware quiz, part 1: Processors

[Dirk Broer]

December is halfway. Feeling nostalgic already? Here's a little quiz to lighten up your x86-mas:

1. What was the best 8086/8088 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
2. How many different 8087 (or compatible) producing companies were there? Hint: It wasn't just Intel, and not every company that sold them made them as well.
3. Name all computer systems that were build using the 80188 or compatible. Hint: there is more than one.
4. Place the 80187 in the right chronological order to its next of kin. Hint: it did not come right after the 8087.
5. What was the best 80286 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
6. What was the best 80287 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
7. What was the best 80386 compatible chip? Hint: It is not the AMD am386DX-40. Think of clock-doubled or even tripled designs with a wrong numbering, 386-wise. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
8. What was the best 80387 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
9. What was the best 80486 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
10. What was the best 80586, aka pentium compatible chip? Hint: Think of SuperSocket7. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).

And that concluded the common socket!
Next quiz will be about Video cards.

[Nflight]

The answer to #1 is a Motorola chip. Everything else I will have to take some time and I am pressed for along day at work. This is a good idea, make me think! Nice work Dirk !!!

[Dirk Broer]

The Motorola 68000 is the best 16-bit chip ever produced (like the Zilog Z-80 was the best 8-bit chip) , but it is not 8086/8088 compatible
so: close, but no cigar for question #1
It's about a chip that you could use to replace your existing 8088, or a chip (not the same, but a near relative) that you could use to replace your 8086.
You might have needed to increase the front side bus by replacing a crystal on your 8088/8086 mobo as well.
But even when you did not, and installed a Nec V20 (in the case of a former 8088 board) or Nec V30 (in the case of a 8086 board), that chip gave you more performance than it's Intel counterparts. The Nec V20 (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/V20/index.html) was also produced by Sharp and Sony. The Nec V30 (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/V30/index.html) also by Sharp, Sony and Zilog.

[Dirk Broer]

The answer to question #1 was:

a Nec V20 (in the case of a former 8088 board) or Nec V30 (in the case of a 8086 board), that chip gave you more performance than it's Intel counterparts. The Nec V20 (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/V20/index.html) was also produced by Sharp and Sony. The Nec V30 (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/V30/index.html) also by Sharp, Sony and Zilog.
Still 9 questions to go!

[Dirk Broer]

2. How many different 8087 (or compatible) producing companies were there? Hint: It wasn't just Intel, and not every company that sold them made them as well.


Intel made them (the first x86 coprocessor, but not the first coprocessor), IBM (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/8087/MANUF-IBM.html) sold them as well (just painted 'IBM' on the 8087 chips), and there is evidence that both Cyrix (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/8087/MANUF-Cyrix.html) and AMD (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/8087/MANUF-AMD.html) have cloned the 8087, as well as an yet unknown Russian company (look at 'comments') (http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/8087/MANUF-Intel.html) (Some US company is still waiting for the royalties).

BTW: The coprocessor concept is not dead. We've since had the Physics card (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_card), which is now integrated into the nVidia line of GeForce cards.
Now the inventors of the x86 coprocessor, them of the blue camp, have brought the coprocessor concept back to live, together with a rebirth of their 32-core (!) Larrabee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrabee_(microarchitecture)), 48-core(!!) Single-chip Cloud Computer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-chip_Cloud_Computer) and 80-core (!!!) Teraflops Research Chip (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teraflops_Research_Chip). The baby listens to the name 'Knights Corner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_MIC#Knights_Corner)' and is supposed to have a 50 (!?!) core processor. It is supposed to compete with nVidia's 'Tesla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Tesla)' line, and hopefully will not be as expensive. If it builds on on Larrabee and SCC it might be that the real phoenix that rises from the ashes is nothing less than the old P54C (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P54C_(microprocessor)#P54C), better known as The Pentium MMX.

Can we nudge AMD into making a 50-core Athlon coprocessor card?

[Dirk Broer]

1. What was the best 8086/8088 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
As I said before, the NEC V30 (for the 8086) and the NEC V20 (for the 8088) are the best replacements if you want to wrestle some extra performance out of computers of this vintage.


2. How many different 8087 (or compatible) producing companies were there? Hint: It wasn't just Intel, and not every company that sold them made them as well.
Intel, an-as-yet-unknown Russian company, Cyrix, AMD makes four. IBM just sold re-labelled 8087s.


3. Name all computer systems that were build using the 80188 or compatible. Hint: there is more than one.
Few personal computers used the 80186, with some notable exceptions: the Australian Dulmont Magnum laptop, one of the first laptops; the Wang Office Assistant, marketed as a PC-like stand-alone word processor; the Mindset; the Gateway Handbook; the Siemens PC-D (not 100% IBM PC-compatible but using MS-DOS 2.11 de:Siemens PC-D); the Telenova Compis (a Swedish school computer); the RM Nimbus (a British school computer); the Unisys ICON (a Canadian school computer); ORB Computer by ABS; the HP 100LX, HP 200LX, HP 1000CX and HP OmniGo 700LX; the Tandy 2000 desktop (a somewhat PC-compatible workstation with sharp graphics for its day); the Philips :YES; the Nokia MikroMikko 2. Acorn created a plug-in for the BBC Master range of computers containing a 80186-10 with 512 KB of RAM, the Master 512 system.


4. Place the 80187 in the right chronological order to its next of kin. Hint: it did not come right after the 8087.
8087-80287-80387-80187 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X87#80187)-80487. The latter is actually just a full-fledged 80486DX and placing it disables your 80486SX.


5. What was the best 80286 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
The Harris 286-25 beats all other 286 chips, and quite a lot of slower 386s as well, including all SX models of the 386.
286-6 0.90 - 1.26 MIPS
286-10 1.50 - 2.10 MIPS
286-12 1.80 - 2.52 MIPS
286-16 2.40 - 3.36 MIPS
286-20 3.00 - 4.20 MIPS
286-25 3.75 - 5.25 MIPS

A 386SX-16 only reached 2.50 MIPS and the SX-20 barely fared better. Even the 386SX-25 and SX-33 only managed 2.70 and 2.90 respectively. The 386DX-16 managed 5 MIPS, double that of the SX model with the same clock.


6. What was the best 80287 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
ITT produced a 2C87-20 that might have been the fastest 287 compatible in terms of clockspeed. Performance-wise Cyrix seems to have had an edge.


7. What was the best 80386 compatible chip? Hint: It is not the AMD am386DX-40. Think of clock-doubled or even tripled designs with a wrong numbering, 386-wise. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
The IBM 486DLC3-75 "Blue Lightning" is a disguised triple-clocked 80386DX with extra cache and some other refinements, such as a 486 instruction set, running at 75 Mhz.


8. What was the best 80387 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
Cyrix made the best 80387-compatibles.


9. What was the best 80486 compatible chip? Hint: It ain't an Intel product. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
The AMD 486DX5-133 could, using a 50 Mhz board originally meant for a i486DX50, be set to 4x50=200 Mhz, thereby beating all its opponents in the 486 field. Good cooling was essential.


10. What was the best 80586, aka pentium compatible chip? Hint: Think of SuperSocket7. Explain why (MIPS, FLOPS, etc.).
The AMD K6III-500 in terms of utter performance. Clock-for-clock the 200 Mhz Rise MP6 266 makes a very good impression.

[Nflight]

Dirk your a man with much wisdom thanks for sharing.... Wow!

[AMDave]

Thank you! I can stop banging my head now. I was really struggling with those. :P

[NeoGen]

That is quite the knowledge base in your head Dirk! :)

The earliest computers I poked around with were based on 8088 and 80386, one with black and white monitor the other with 16 color VGA. (Which was amazing at the time :))