A sociologist's take on Intel monopoly

[Tony Hill]

That's not right, the Pentium was puttering around 133Mhz when the K5
PR100 was released. Then when the Pentium 166 came out, K5 was just
trying to reach out to PR133. So it was maybe a speed level back, but
not as big of a jump back as 100 vs. 200.

According to www.sandpile.org, we get the following numbers:

K5 Pentium
March '94 P90 and P100
March '95 P120
June '95 P133
Jan. '96 P150 and P166
March '96 PR75 and PR90
June '96 P200
Oct. '96 PR100,120,133
Jan. '97 PR166

Actually, when the Pentium reached 200Mhz, it was greeted with a real
(no-PR) 200Mhz K6. I remember the K6 launch pretty well, the K6 was
launched at 166, 200, and 233Mhz. However that 233Mhz was pretty much a
paper-launch.

233 was definitely a paper launch, but it wasn't until April of '97,
almost a year after the Pentium 200 was released and only one month
before the PII233, 266 and 300MHz chips were released (albeit at a
MUCH higher cost for both the chip and platform than what AMD was
charging, hence the reason why the K6 was a decently good success
story for AMD).

Here are the press releases for those two chips:

K6 at 166, 200 and 233MHz:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543_555~972,00.html


PII at 233, 266 and 300MHz:
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/DP050797.HTM


Unfortunately neither company has press releases on their websites
from before '97, but Sandpile is a rather reliable source of info for
these chips.

 

[Ed]

That's not right, the Pentium was puttering around 133Mhz when the K5
PR100 was released. Then when the Pentium 166 came out, K5 was just
trying to reach out to PR133. So it was maybe a speed level back, but
not as big of a jump back as 100 vs. 200.

Actually, when the Pentium reached 200Mhz, it was greeted with a real
(no-PR) 200Mhz K6. I remember the K6 launch pretty well, the K6 was
launched at 166, 200, and 233Mhz. However that 233Mhz was pretty much a
paper-launch.

Yousuf Khan

Price flash backs (in stock)
http://tinyurl.com/5ysj6

Ed

 

[keith]

It's worth noting that floating point performance was a niche market
until Quake hit the market. Suddenly FP was for the masses. Plus the
"free" FXCH Quake's inner render loop favored the Intel chips. Of
course shortly after, everthing then went OpenGL, and perhaps (but only
perhaps) became a little less FP sensitive.

It's also worth noting that Cyrix started out in the 8087 FP business, but
no one cared about FP at the time.

 

[Robert Myers]

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 19:31:40 -0500, dale wrote:



It's also worth noting that Cyrix started out in the 8087 FP business, but
no one cared about FP at the time.

*No one*?

AMD introduced the world to floating point coprocessors for
microprocessors in 1979 with the 9511, and I believe they were making
non-x87 coprocessors into the 1990's. Floating point was definitely
not for the masses, though.

RM

 

[Robert Redelmeier]

It's also worth noting that Cyrix started out in the 8087
FP business, but no one cared about FP at the time.

No one? Shortly after getting my first 8088 PC, I got
an i8087. All our work machines had them. They made
large Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets workable. For us, 1-2-3
was the killer PC app.

I don't rememeber Cyrix 8087, but I do have one of
their 287 chips. Also very nice.

-- Robert

 

[George Macdonald]

No one? Shortly after getting my first 8088 PC, I got
an i8087. All our work machines had them. They made
large Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets workable. For us, 1-2-3
was the killer PC app.

I don't rememeber Cyrix 8087, but I do have one of
their 287 chips. Also very nice.

I got a 80Cx87 the day it was announced as "available" - I believe it's
still lurking in the basement somewhere... along with a couple of Definicon
cards. It was nothing special in the way of performance improvement
over an i8087, on our stuff. As often happens with those kinds of things,
they had added a memory mapped mode (if I recall the specs accurately)
which was obviously inaccessible to anyone using a compiler. I dunno why
they bothered.

 

[Guest]

It's also worth noting that Cyrix started out in the 8087 FP business, but
no one cared about FP at the time.

And then Cyrix went on to make the M1, notoriously weak in the FP
department. (I still have an M1 running, though I've offloaded all
the work, and will pull the plug when I get a round tuit and decide
I don't mind if the 3.2G Deskstar gets a case of stiction.)

Dale

 

[keith]

No one? Shortly after getting my first 8088 PC, I got
an i8087. All our work machines had them. They made
large Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets workable. For us, 1-2-3
was the killer PC app.

Well, almost no one. ;-) I had one, mainly because I didn't have to pay
for it (they, along with more memory chips than you could count, were
going in the trash by the bucket-load;-).

I don't rememeber Cyrix 8087, but I do have one of their 287 chips. Also
very nice.

Finger cramp. I meant to type x86.

 

[keith]

And then Cyrix went on to make the M1, notoriously weak in the FP
department.

E=Precisely because "no one" cared about x87 performance. ...(as you
pointed out), until Quake.

(I still have an M1 running, though I've offloaded all
the work, and will pull the plug when I get a round tuit and decide
I don't mind if the 3.2G Deskstar gets a case of stiction.)

I think I gave my last one away (though perhaps have an M2 somewhere). I
should have kept it for the "archive". If I can find one laying around,
perhaps I should put it in the 1590 I have sitting on the shelf. I think I
have a couple of SP-97s laying around here somewhere too.

 

[Guest]

E=Precisely because "no one" cared about x87 performance. ...(as you
pointed out), until Quake.


I think I gave my last one away (though perhaps have an M2 somewhere). I
should have kept it for the "archive". If I can find one laying around,
perhaps I should put it in the 1590 I have sitting on the shelf. I think I
have a couple of SP-97s laying around here somewhere too.

If I can find it, I've got a spare M1 laying around somewhere. What's
an SP-97?

Dale

 

[keith]

If I can find it, I've got a spare M1 laying around somewhere. What's
an SP-97?

My fav M1/M2 board (Asus SP-97V). I don't *think* I thew it out, but it's
not up here in the new "computer room" (my son is gone ;-).

BTW, I picked up a new 160GB drive at Staples (So. BTV) today. $70, no
rebates. This one (and Linux) crashed over the weekend, so I gotta get it
all coppied off before it gets lost again. What a PITA.