27 Dec
1998
27 Dec
'98
8:49 a.m.
On Sun, 27 Dec 1998, Jason Willgruber wrote:
If Intel's 8088 was stripped of half it's bus
width, why was it used so much
more than the 8086? One of the few computers that I've seen with an 8086 is
the WANG WLTC (in the SCSI drive string). With being only 4 MHz (I think),
it way out-performs my 8088 8MHz Zenith (I just wish it wasn't so dang big).
I remember someone on here saying that an 8086 and 8088 were
interchangeable. Is this true, and would there be an advantage?
When IBM ELS were designing the original 5150, 16-bit cards would have driven
the cost out of their US$4,000.00 retail target range, so they went with the
crippled 8088. A decision that, in hindsight, makes about as much sense as
including a cassette drive and (what was it???) 16K RAM on the first model.
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
--
David Wollmann
DST / DST Data Conversion
http://www.ibmhelp.com/
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