Intel 80386 - Compatibles

Compatibles

• The AMD Am386SX and Am386DX were almost exact clones of the 80386SX and 80386DX. Legal disputes caused production delays for several years, but AMD's 40 MHz part eventually became very popular with computer enthusiasts as a low cost and low power alternative to the 25 MHz 486SX. The power draw was further reduced in the "notebook models" (Am386 DXL/SXL/DXLV/SXLV) which could operate with 3.3V and were implemented in fully static CMOS circuitry.

• Chips and Technologies Super386 38600SX and 38600DX were developed using reverse engineering. They sold poorly, due to some technical errors and incompatibilities, as well as their late appearance on the market. They were therefore short-lived products.

• Cyrix Cx486SLC/Cx486DLC could be (simplistically) described as a kind of 386/486 hybrid chip that included a small amount of on-chip cache. It was popular among computer enthusiasts but did poorly with OEMs. The Cyrix Cx486SLC and Cyrix Cx486DLC processors were pin-compatible with 80386SX and 80386DX respectively. These processors were also manufactured and sold by Texas Instruments.

• IBM 386SLC and 486SLC/DLC were variants of Intel's design which contained a large amount of on-chip cache (8 kB, and later 16 kB). The agreement with Intel limited their use to IBM's own line of computers and upgrade boards only, so they were not available on the open market.