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The AMD 5x86 Processor
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Introduced in November 1995, the AMD 5x86 is a standard 486 processor with an internally-set multiplier of 4, allowing it to run at 133 MHz on systems without official support for clock-multiplied DX2 or DX4 486 processors. Like most of the later 486 parts, the 5x86 featured write-back L1 cache, and unlike all but a few, a generous 16 kilobytes rather than the more common 8KB.
Since having a clock multiplier of four was not part of the original Socket 3 design, AMD made the 5x86 look for a two times setting from the motherboard and interpret that as four times instead. In other words, to use the 5x86 you want to set the motherboard to the 2x setting. This will actually cause the 5x86 to run at 4x.
The combination of best-in-class clock speed and the write-back cache allowed the 5x86 to equal or slightly surpass an Intel Pentium 75 MHz processor in business application performance. Also, because it was based on a pure 486 design, it was compatible with older systems, something its slightly faster rival, the Cyrix 5x86, had trouble with. |
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