NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1/NN_1993_1.iso/spool/comp/sys/intel/2916

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-07 | 3.5 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!ames!olivea!inews.Intel.COM!mipos2!rskinner
From: [e-mail] (Rod Skinner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel
Subject: Re: 486SL dropped, vendors test Cyrix
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 7 Jan 93 16:30:59 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
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In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (bill davidsen) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Rod Skinner) writes:
>
>| I think that the PC Week article states that Intel is incorporating the
>| features into its main product lines.  That would imply a stronger
>| commitment to these features than a product designed for portable
>| computing.
>
>  I read that as "most of the features." As far as I can tell from the
>two articles I've seen, these will still be 5v rather than 3.3v parts.
>Correct me if you have access to more info than I do.
>
>|
>| Another interesting article comparing the Intel486 SX processor and the
>| Cyrix SLC is in InfoWorld December 21 page 48 "Reviews/Product
>| Comparisons: 25-MHz 486 Notebooks".  InfoWorld seems to come to the
>| conclusion that the Intel486 SX processors are 35% to 40% FASTER than
>| the Cyrix parts.  They use several examples but the most powerful is two
>| machines from TI: TravelMate 4000 WinSX/25 and the TravelMate WinSLC.
>| Both weigh 6 pounds with battery.  Similarly configured machines yield
>| SYSmark92 results of 75.93 (Intel486 SX) and 47.23 (Cyrix).  They
>| indicate that Cyrix system "posted a SYSmark92 close to 38 percent
>| slower than its 486SX/25 sibling."
>
>  That sounds reasonable. There is a significant performance penalty in
>the SLC due to smaller cache and lack of burst mode memory access. That
>was one of the reasons people wanted the SL, for better performance and
>lower power.
>
If you were to compare the InfoWorld published results with Intel386 sx
and sl results published by the BAPCo benchmark organization where a
SYSmark92 of 100 is a midrange Intel486DX-33 result you see...:

Machine                Processor/MHz        SYSmark92
Compaq LTE Lite/25c        Intel386 sl-25MHz    51.90
NEC PowerMate 3x25a        Intel386 sx-25MHz    51.60
PC Brand LeaderBook 486LC/25    Cyrix 486slc-25MHz    48.69
TI TravelMate WinSLC        Cyrix 486slc-25MHz    47.23
Aspen Personal 486        Cyrix 486slc-25MHz    43.65
Keydata Keynote 486slc-25    Cyrix 486slc-25MHz    43.55
Compaq Prolinea 3/25 2s        Intel386 sx-25MHz     41.35 **
Micro Express NB486slc/25    Cyrix 486slc-25MHz    41.15
Grid 1755/486slc        Cyrix 486slc-25MHz    37.31

** no cache (on or off chip)

It just means that you need to be careful when buying a machine that has
the numbers "486" on the name plate.  The system may have 486 in the
name and may execute "all the 486 instructions" but the thing that is
missing is 486 performance.  That may change for the Cyrix 486DLC but I
don't have any application performance results that would allow me to
may any conclusions other than to expect Cyrix 486DLC performance
similar to the Intel386 DX at equivalent frequencies.

rod
>--
>bill davidsen, GE Corp. R&D Center; Box 8; Schenectady NY 12345
>    Keyboard controller has been disabled, press F1 to continue.


Rod Skinner                I speak for myself only.
Intel Corp
2200 Mission College Blvd RN4-21          PH [phone]
Santa Clara, CA 95052                     FAX [phone]