i487SX - hard to find? \ VOGONS

i487SX - hard to find?

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First post, by Subjunctive

Posted on 2017-01-27, 00:45

Subjunctive Offline

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I recently acquired a Compaq ProLinea 4/25s, and there's an upgrade socket for an "i487SX", basically a rebadged 486DX:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_80487SX

Haven't seen any show up on eBay, though, and I'm itching to stretch this system as far as it can go.

So tell me: am I SOL in wanting to obtain one of these?

Reply 1 of 10, by Tetrium

Posted on 2017-01-27, 01:03

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I've never seen many of these in the wild, even back when 486 CPUs were still very common.

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Reply 2 of 10, by brostenen

Posted on 2017-01-27, 01:18

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If the 486sx is a socketed one, you might be able to upgrade it this way, instead of getting a 487.
Though a 486sx + 487 would look a bit more awesomme.

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Reply 3 of 10, by Ampera

Posted on 2017-01-27, 02:07

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All the 487s were basically 486DXs that disabled the main CPU and took over everything.

The only reason to have them is for upgrade of a soldered CPU system, or for collecting purposes.

Reply 4 of 10, by Subjunctive

Posted on 2017-01-27, 02:43

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Yeah, the 486SX in this system is soldered, with a big fat ol' upgrade socket next to it for the "487".

Reply 5 of 10, by Anonymous Coward

Posted on 2017-01-27, 07:46

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Not super common, but not super rare either.

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Reply 6 of 10, by Deksor

Posted on 2017-01-27, 08:59

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Isn't that possible to just solder a wire to the additionnal pin to the ground and put a regular 486DX. IIRC this works. I've never tried that though, so make sure that it won't destroy anything if I'm wrong

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Reply 7 of 10, by Errius

Posted on 2017-01-27, 09:05

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There's a guy in Russia with 5 of them for sale:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Intel-A80487SX-B … 1UAAOSwRoxXnm8d

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 8 of 10, by brassicGamer

Posted on 2017-01-27, 10:19

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Original story on the 487 from InfoWorld

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Reply 9 of 10, by Subjunctive

Posted on 2017-01-27, 10:32

Subjunctive Offline

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Errius wrote:
There's a guy in Russia with 5 of them for sale:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Intel-A80487SX-B … 1UAAOSwRoxXnm8d

Excellent, thank you! Not sure how this didn't show up in my previous searches. Bought. Will be very interested to observe the performance difference...

brassicGamer wrote:
Original story on the 487 from InfoWorld

"At $799, the 487SX is more than 30 percent more expensive than the similarly featured 25-MHz 486. Combining a 486SX and 487SX costs $1,057, as opposed to $588 for a 25-MHz 486."

🤣

I'm happy with the 95% discount on my 487SX, at least.

Reply 10 of 10, by Jed118

Posted on 2017-01-27, 15:07

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I have one in my shadow box wall mounted CPU collection 😉 I don't think I've ever seen one before or after that.

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