The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor introduced in 1989. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the Intel 386. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the 8086 of 1978, the Intel 80286 of 1982, and 1985's i386.

The 386 was the central processing unit (CPU) of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time. The 386 began to fall out of public use starting with the release of the i486 processor in 1989, while in embedded systems the 386 remained in widespread use until Intel finally discontinued it in 2007.

Mar 21, 2025 · The first Cyrix 486s were really 386/486 hybrids, but later Cyrix 486SX and DX CPUs were pin-compatible with Intel. They weren’t quite as fast as an AMD or Intel of the same speed, but were generally within 10 percent.

2 days ago · When compared to previous generations like the 386, the Intel 486 offered substantial advancements in processing power and efficiency. The i486’s integrated FPU allowed for faster execution of floating-point operations which were critical for graphics applications and scientific computations. Moreover, while earlier models relied heavily on ...

Sep 27, 2013 · eWEEK 30: Intel’s 386 chip brought 32-bit computing to the x86 architecture while the 486 chip brought improved performance, enabling Windows to handle heftier enterprise applications.

Apr 3, 2024 · Intel released the 486SX in April 1991 and retroactively created the 486DX to counter AMD’s new 386 clone CPU. The actual difference between the 486 DX and SX has long been a topic of debate. There is a very persistent rumor that Intel had yield problems with the 486, where the processor worked fine except for the math co-processor.

Intel closed out the 1980s with a record-breaking year fueled by the introduction of three new microprocessors: the 860, 486 and 960. The company updated its operations along with its product offerings, boosting 386 sales with a groundbreaking ad campaign aimed at consumers instead of computer manufacturers and launching a massive corporate ...

This report analyzes the feasibility of upgrading the Intel 386 a microprocessor, which has been proposed as the baseline processor for the Space Station Freedom (SSF) Data Management System (DMS), to the more advanced i486 a microprocessor.

The following topics are discussed: the i486 key elements, comparison of instruction set architecture, the i486 on-chip cache characteristics, the i486 multiprocessor support, comparison of performance, comparison of power consumption, comparison of radiation hardening potential, and recommendations for the Space Station Freedom (SSF) Data Manag...

The 386 needed two clock cycles for this. * Integrated FPU (disabled or absent in SX models) with a dedicated local bus gives faster floating point calculations compared to the i386+i387 combination. * Improved MMU performance. The 486 has …