Non Intel CPU incompatibilities. \ VOGONS

Non Intel CPU incompatibilities.

Topic actions

First post, by Cyberdyne

Posted on 2021-08-06, 09:52

Cyberdyne Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1154
Joined: 2011-09-18, 18:45
Location: Estonia, Tallinn

I know that NEC V20 cpu can not play some versions of Lode Runner. POP CS opcode 0F which only works on 8088/8086. Well no newer CPU, even Intel does not use 0F as POP CS, but a prefix for 16bit opcodes.

I am mainly interested on Cyrix and UMC and other those kind of 386/486/586 clones. Chips and Technologies Super386 38600SX and 38600DX.

Because before 386, there were exact clones, and after Pentium you really needed the Pentium. AMD K6 remedied this a little bit. But this was NexGen.

Maybe someone have some experience, that some game or program does not work (correctly).

Because in the heyday I always feared those Cyrix and UMC 486 cpus, when I wanted to upgrade. And opted for an Intel DX/2 66MHz.

I am aroused about any X86 motherboard that has full functional ISA slot. I think i have problem. Not really into that original (Turbo) XT,286,386 and CGA/EGA stuff. So just a DOS nut.
PS. If I upload RAR, it is a 16-bit DOS RAR Version 2.50.

Reply 1 of 6, by shamino

Posted on 2021-08-12, 23:03

shamino Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2174
Joined: 2013-01-24, 13:45

When I first got NHL '97 it crashed with my Cyrix 6x86 back then, but EA had a patch on their web site that fixed it.
I was running it in DOS, don't think I ever tried running it in Windows 95 (they had separate executables for each).

Reply 2 of 6, by leileilol

Posted on 2021-08-12, 23:06

leileilol Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 12425
Joined: 2006-12-16, 18:03

Early AMD K5 and Cyrix 6x86 (pre-MX) definitely have been mistaken for 486s by some naive games, and MDK had to rework that into an internal initial profiling sequence because their "lol 486s fuck off!!!" gatekeep in their early demos were seen as intel favoring.

Also the initial release of Unreal had problems with them too

long live PCem

Reply 3 of 6, by Joseph_Joestar

Posted on 2021-08-13, 02:02

Joseph_Joestar Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 5955
Joined: 2019-10-31, 21:14
Location: Europe

Creative's WaveGuide software which comes on the driver CD for AWE64 cards wouldn't install on my AthlonXP CPU. The installer stated that it needs a "genuine Pentium".

Worked just fine on a Celeron 466 and a Pentium MMX 166.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Core 2 Duo E8600 / Foxconn P35AX-S / X800 / Audigy2 ZS
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 980Ti / X-Fi Titanium

Reply 4 of 6, by Gmlb256

Posted on 2021-08-13, 02:11

Gmlb256 Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2342
Joined: 2018-04-11, 15:33

One example of incompatibility is when Intel made the LOOP instruction slow to avoid problems with I/O delays. The LOOP instruction of AMD K6 CPUs behave the same as this:

1mov cx, 256
2delayloop:
3dec dx
4jnz delayloop

This caused issues with Windows 95 on faster AMD K6 processors and it required a patch to address this.

Reply 5 of 6, by leileilol

Posted on 2021-08-13, 02:27

leileilol Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 12425
Joined: 2006-12-16, 18:03

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-08-13, 02:02:
The installer stated that it needs a "genuine Pentium".

WaveGuide will actually work on non-Pentiums, the installer's just picky. It also accepts AMD K5s

long live PCem

Reply 6 of 6, by Joseph_Joestar

Posted on 2021-08-13, 05:27

Joseph_Joestar Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 5955
Joined: 2019-10-31, 21:14
Location: Europe

leileilol wrote on 2021-08-13, 02:27:

WaveGuide will actually work on non-Pentiums, the installer's just picky. It also accepts AMD K5s

Is there a way to bypass the Pentium check during installation?

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to Milliways