Hi,
I'm going through my old CPUs and there's one I can't figure out.
It's got the same pin layout as my TI 486 dx2-66 and DX2 Overdrive.
There's a heat sink glued very firmly to the top.
Underneath there's a few details:
94134186AB
MALAY
FD 427
INTEL 89 92
Searching these numbers using google doesn't seem to help.
I'm reluctant to try and lever off the heat sink (any advice for safe ways to do this would be welcome.
Before anyone suggests it, I don't have a working motherboard I can put it into in order to identify it - memories of jumpers to set voltages make me reluctant to do that anyway in case something gets fried.
Cool. I guessed in between earlier 486DX-33 (1991-1992 but usually without date-code on bottom) and later 486DX/2-66 which do have such a date-code there but usually ending with 93.
And the answer is.... a 486 sx2-50
I would never have guessed
The odd part is in the US that chip was rather uncommon and if you look in advertisements from about 1993 when the chip was entry level there were only a couple companies advertising systems with it.
The computer shopper had companies that would sell bare cpus and the Intel sx2 was never advertised as being for sale as a tray cpu from these distributors.
Amd sx2-66 could however be found as bare chips in mail-order.
Overseas I'm told everybody and their brother had sx2 systems but in my time dealer with mass numbers of used systems I noted piles of sx25 systems but never more than one sx2
In Germany, 486SX processors in consumer PCs were only usual at the very low end of the market. We had 486SX20 and 486SX25 processors, but everything faster usually came with 486DX or 486DX2 processors.
Yeah, I don’t think there is a way to tell from the back. Gotta plug in to see the type, but speed will only be printed on front I believe. So in bios it will be whatever you set/the chip supports.
Unlike new chips where you plug it in and it is what it is, back then they didn’t have locks etc. so they were what you set them to be haha
Cool. I guessed in between earlier 486DX-33 (1991-1992 but usually without date-code on bottom) and later 486DX/2-66 which do have such a date-code there but usually ending with 93.
isnt "94134186AB" the datecode? sure looks like 13 week of 1994 to me
All prices in thousands (K). Prices pre denomination, exchange rate 1 to 24400. TLDR: divide prices in the screenshots by 25 to get ~$.
December 1994 3500K = ~$144
Cheaper than Intel DX/33 and AMD DX/40. Almost half the price of DX2/66 and will most likely just work fine when set to 66MHz anyway. Three times more expensive in combination with VLB motherboard when compared to standard 386DX40 low end gaming PC at the time. Looks like great deal for gamers, reminder that no games required FPU, and the very few that had potential of using it (simcity unperceivable difference, Flacon broken "advanced" flight mode) did it poorly. The first games where you would see substantial difference between SX and DX would be Quake (doesnt load, even if it did unplayable on 486) and Duke 3D (unplayable even on 50MHz 486DX).
Last edited by rasz_pl on 2022-11-27, 17:58. Edited 1 time in total.
Cool. I guessed in between earlier 486DX-33 (1991-1992 but usually without date-code on bottom) and later 486DX/2-66 which do have such a date-code there but usually ending with 93.
isnt "94134186AB" the datecode? sure looks like 13 week of 1994 to me
Yes, I was afraid I would get that back, since date-code is not the right term. I meant the bottom most line where it says a variation of "INTEL 9x 9x". I do not know how to call that. The copyright?
There is no science here, only my quick guess after looking at a few 486 bottoms.
"secondary/black market" that is Interesting. Different times back then. Thanks for sharing.
Here is a 1993 ad originating from The Netherlands: with a 486DX2-66 in "folder b.jpg" and a 486DX2-50 in "folder d.jpg". I was just a teenager then. Randomly scanned old hardware ads from 1987-2002
"secondary/black market" that is Interesting. Different times back then. Thanks for sharing.
Open air swap meet/flea market kind of place. 100-400 vendors selling/buying/repairing computers, later also consoles. Some history and movies/pictures from 1993-1994 History of Polish computer trade fair 1986-20xx. HD video/hires images from Giełda Komputerowa na Grzybowskiej (1993).
Later on past 1999 most vendors were legit registered companies, but almost all transactions were still without receipt and taxes 😀
My favorite entrepreneurs were guys from another national parts distributor "borrowing" a van full or ram and CPUs from company storage on Friday night after closure, parking in the corner away from ordinary shoppers - you had to be in the know to buy from them, selling thru the weekend with minimal margin (something silly like 2-5%) to all the other sellers mostly in bulk so you didnt even had to have real registered company (legit distributors sold only B2B, that means taxes insurance pension fund etc), and then on Monday returning unsold inventory back to company store room while filing sold items under one of friendly companies (having lots of B2B invoices meant you could file for VAT returns). Tax evasions all around 😀
Open air swap meet/flea market kind of place. 100-400 vendors selling/buying/repairing computers, later also consoles. Some history and movies/pictures from 1993-1994
Nice photos there! I did wonder how computer parts crossed the iron curtain so well. At least you people in Poland did not miss out on the 90's computing hobby, just a bit delayed compared to the release dates in the west. I will read more of that topic when I have finished my "real life" chores...
