*BSD News Article 7805


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From: jruschme@nyx.cs.du.edu (John Ruschmeyer)
Subject: Re: 386BSD: Cyrix486/487
Message-ID: <1992Nov12.185410.4523@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
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References: <DERAADT.92Nov2140703@newt.newt.cuc.ab.ca>
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 18:54:10 GMT
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In article <DERAADT.92Nov2140703@newt.newt.cuc.ab.ca> deraadt@newt.cuc.ab.ca (Theo de Raadt) writes:
>Is anyone running a 386BSD system on a Cyrix486/487 setup?
>I'd like to know if it works, because a 386/25 is slow, and
>the above solution is cheapest.

Well, not quite but...

This past Sunday I moved by BSD/386 (beta) system to a Cyrix 486SLC-based
machine.  This appears to be a generic 385sx-25 motherboard, but with a 
486SLC-25 chip.  I also installed a Cyrix 387sx FastMath that I had from
another machine.

The results:
 
Everything appears to work correctly and is very stable.  Initial performance
results were very bad as I had forgotten to enable the on-chip cache from the
BIOS.  (BSD/386 thought it was an 8 mhz 80486 and it dhrystoned like an
803sx-16.)  Turning on cthe cache, however, produced results that were
about 1/3 faster than I would have expected with an 80386sx-25 (approx.
9000 dhrystones/sec).
 
Depending on prices in your area, though, you may want to compare the
cost of a 386-40 vs. that of the Cyrix 486.
 
<<<John>>>