Posted 04/22/2009 at 02:49:39pm

...Processing powerhouses.

Imagine dual-GPU cards in Tri-SLI, with current cards already with multiple shader units, each unit, a separate, thread for programs!

Imagine video encoding with that!

Posted 04/21/2009 at 01:24:17pm

BlueRay?  That's Sony and not likely to be unseated anytime soon... though the DVD is still close to 4 times stronger in sales, still.

Posted 04/21/2009 at 01:12:44pm

...specifically of the 386-486 era.

THe first computer I had access to was a 8088 system my father used to work from home (programmer for Gov't contractors).  I fondly remember playing Burger-Time, Alley Cat, the Zork series, and a slew of other bootable 5.25 floppy games.  Later we got an 8086 which kept us going (and King's Quest!) until about 1987 when he built a 386 system.  The 8086 went in my room: 2 5.25 floppy drives, 640KB RAM, 2MB Hard Disk, CGA graphics... a real trooper too.

That system was when I disovered COLOR GRAPHICS and 8-bit AUDIO!.  My father started a hobby with MIDI keyboard compositions.   This system was relicated to a "games" computer when he finally upgraded to a 486 system (486SX-33, I think) and then he acquired a 386SX-20 system which he promptly upgraded with a 387 co-proc so I could dabble in my 3D home design hobby.  I was 11 or 12 at the time.  The 8086 went by the wayside.  Somewhere in there I had a 286 system I had built for a bit that my friend found in his storage from his mother's work.  I had it a short while, but it allowed me to see Windows 2 for the first time.

When he upgraded to a 486DX2-66, the 486SX system became the new games computer.  We then embarked along another fond memory of turning the 386DX system into a file/print server to share all of the games we had acquired and to share the Laserjet 4M (which he still has.)  We installed Novell NetWare to run the network.  That was about 1992.  It was downhill from there because I then discovered...

DOOM shareware.  I can't count the endless hours we spent afterschool playing Doom over out nifty little IPX network... though my 387 system couldn't keep up.   1993 was a good year.

Then one day my friend and I happened across a gem of a find: someone had left a computer on the curb for pickup.  We snagged it and took it home.  Having no knowledge of troubleshooting, we had no idea what was wrong, other than it wouldn't turn on.  When my dad came home, he discovered the CPU was trashed.  When he dropped our 486SX in it, it ran like a charm.  Understanding the boon that a new CPU-less sytem was, he dropped some cash on a new 486DX-33 CPU for the games computer, and I had my very own 486 VLB system with a whopping 8MB of RAM.  It was an SX system, but WTF did I care, I could play Doom at appropriate speeds now.  More lost hours of my youth... but by now we had a pirated copy of the full Doom version and the Doom2 shareware.  1994-1995 were better years.  My brother got the 387 system.

While I've had many systems since then, those will always be ragarded as my favorites.  To this day I am still looking for a full VLB 486 board to test my extensive collection of 486 processors, a VLB video card, and an SB 16 or Pro cardso I can try to recapture those mispent days of my youth.  (Don't talk to me about DOSbox... IT'S NOT THE SAME!)

Currently, I have a Pentium III system, Pentium 4C 2.4 system, an Athlon64 3000+ system, and an Athlon64 3500+ system all in "mothballs" with some various other video and audio hardware.  I use my old Athlon64 X2 4200+ system at work and I have an C2D E6600 system at home.  I also have my Dell M1330 laptop, a Dell Latitude 400 laptop (with docking station... remember those?) A Thinkpad 365(?) and a Toshiba Satellite Pro PII laptop.  Then there's my CPU collection ranging from the Commodore64 CPU through Pentium 4 CPUs, with the bulk being 486 CPUs with a couple of DX4 and Overdrive CPUs.  (I have a lot of shit... a habit picked up from my youth... Thank dad.)

Remember when 386s were soldered directly onto the board, sometimes?

Posted 04/21/2009 at 12:45:09pm

the 8088 was an 8-bit processor: 808(8-bit)

the 8086 was a 16-bit processor: 808(6-teen bit) <-- I tried.

Posted 04/09/2009 at 04:40:53pm

Nothing wrong with a Chevy.  The Malibu is rated higher than it's competing Camry and Accord... still, it's no Benz.

But, why not buy American and stop supporting Germany's economy and laundry list of what we might call "Constitutional violations" towards its citizens.

Posted 04/09/2009 at 04:33:31pm

Pentiums were never released in 500 MHz flavors.

Pentium II's were near the end, but Pentium III's got there first.