Category Archives: PC history

Deskpro 386 at 30

Posted on September 26, 2016 by Michal Necasek

30 years ago, in September 1986, Compaq announced the Deskpro 386, a PC as revolutionary as it was conservative. Compaq decided to forge its own path and not wait for IBM to introduce a 386-based PC. At the same time, Compaq … Continue reading →

Posted in 386, Compaq, IBM, PC history, PC press | 19 Comments

Intel OverDrive Part II: Pentium OverDrive

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Michal Necasek

The Pentium OverDrive is notable for supporting three physically different sockets (that’s not counting the Pentium II OverDrive). The Pentium OverDrive product was sold in variants suitable for Socket 2/3 (486 systems), Socket 4 (early Pentium systems), and Socket 5/7 … Continue reading →

Posted in 486, Intel, PC history, Pentium | 21 Comments

Children of the Bus Wars

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Michal Necasek

In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the so-called Bus Wars raged. A few years after the PC/AT was released, it became clear that the ISA bus could not keep pace with faster CPUs and peripherals, especially graphics cards … Continue reading →

Posted in ATi, EISA, MCA, PC history, PCI, VLB | 11 Comments

Playing Football

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Michal Necasek

The Super Bowl is long over and it’s time to look at different kind of football. In Winter 1986/1987, Microsoft initiated a small skunkworks project called “Football”. The objective was to take “Sizzle”, a development branch of proto-OS/2 that would eventually … Continue reading →

Posted in 386, IBM, Microsoft, OS/2, PC history | 21 Comments

Before OS/2 Was OS/2

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Michal Necasek

After almost 30 years, several disks with ancient builds of OS/2 surfaced. In this context, “ancient” means older than the May 1987 release of the first MS OS/2 SDK. In fact these disks are so old that the one thing … Continue reading →

Posted in IBM, Microsoft, OS/2, PC history, Undocumented | 39 Comments

Lies, Damn Lies, and Wikipedia

Posted on December 26, 2015 by Michal Necasek

While researching the history of 486s for a previous article, I came across a fascinating Wikipedia entry and its associated talk page. It’s a nice showcase of inmates running the asylum, and a reminder that Wikipedia can’t be considered an authoritative … Continue reading →

Posted in 486, Intel, PC history | 37 Comments

Intel OverDrive Part I: 486 OverDrive

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Michal Necasek

Intel had a long history of offering retail processor upgrades for PCs. The last and by far the best known of those were the Intel OverDrive processors. But let’s start with the earlier history. In 1987, Intel released the Inboard 386/AT, … Continue reading →

Posted in 486, Intel, PC history | 6 Comments

Intel 486 Errata?

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Michal Necasek

There don’t seem to be any specification updates or errata lists for any Intel 486 CPU anywhere. It’s odd because there are specification updates for 386s (and of course Pentiums) from Intel, and because the embedded 486s continued to be … Continue reading →

Posted in 486, Intel, PC history | 22 Comments

The Forgotten 386

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Michal Necasek

The CPUs that fit into a 386 socket are well known: Intel’s original, AMD’s exact copy, and Cyrix/TI upgrades. There is also IBM’s 386SLC which is close to a 386 but can’t be plugged into a standard 386 socket. The photo below … Continue reading →

Posted in 386, C&T, PC history | 25 Comments

OPL3 Copies

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Michal Necasek

A while ago, a reader commented that in certain circles, it’s well known that there were “fake” OPL3 chips. This does not appear to be widespread knowledge. After a bit of digging, an interesting chapter in the history of PC … Continue reading →

Posted in PC hardware, PC history, Sound, Yamaha | 14 Comments