I remember when I wouldn't take a 286. I needed POWER. Like a SERVER.
How 'bout a 486??? THAT WOULD LAST UNTIL THE 21st CENTURTY TOO!!! IT COULD
RUN WINDOWS 3.1 with NO RAM ERRORS!!! And then when upgrading to Windows
95, I remember the guy there specifaclly falling down laughing, resulting
in purchasing 16MB of RAM (Then at $10 a MB), to add to the 12 I had, along
with a 486 DX/2 processor. I doubt that the 432 would actually take it.
But I think that Intel aimed it at the wrong market. The Digital Alpha
(Recently aquired by Intel, with it's RISC... yes, RISC technology) has had
some success, with 600 MHz of power in a single chip and x86 "translation
software" written by Digital. Also, there is a version of Windows NT 4.0
made ONLY for Alpha's, so the translation software is not used there.
Microsoft writes programs like Internet Explorer for Alphas, but they're
usually "a month late". Intel might have just bought it to stamp it out,
but my guess is they're aiming to do something with the RISC market, they
could be attempting to lower the Alpha's power down to H/PC levels and then
WINDOWS CE. Maybe they'll take the 300 MHz version, that was avaible in
1995. If Apple can get 150 Mhz into a handheld, why can't Intel? But back
to classics. Would the 432 be capible today if it were given a second
chance?
One last thing. I remember something about a huge warehouse filled with
classics. Has anyone heard since?
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze