jakethompson1 wrote on 2021-07-29, 02:43:
Not sure exactly when those boards were released, but I'd guess the Am386DX-40 is the whole reason they exist. Perhaps it was uncertain when the Am486 would get released due to all the legal issues, and 386/486 boards had the biggest market?
Would seem like it, get a board with a cheapo 386 in it now, get a 486 when they drop below $300 or something. Or for "walking" upgrades, like you could move your current CPU to a potentially faster board (if you had an early DX board and were maybe crippled by umpteen wait states on your full AT acre of 100ns discrete RAM) Kind of a thing through the years, you could find boards that let you move your P75 and SIMMs to a super-ish socket 7, and get 400Mhz and SDRAM later... or move your Duron and SDRAM to a K7S5A and pimp it out with an XP2100 and DDR next year, or move your AM2+ X2 CPU to an AM3 board and end up with an FX8x00... it was kinda like that I was still using my "original" IBM XT in 2003, "Triggers Broom" style, it had had 4 new motherboards 5 new CPUs, 2 new cases and 6 HDDs, but it was still my original IBM XT, see, there's the FRU tag on the speaker to prove it. (I actually moved that thing for a number of upgrades, then lost track of it, derp.)
Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.