The Am486 is a 80486-class family of

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

processors Processor may refer to: Computing Hardware * Processor (computing) ** Central processing unit (CPU), the hardware within a computer that executes a program *** Microprocessor, a central processing unit contained on a single integrated circuit ( ...

that was produced by

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that de ...

in the 1990s.

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

beat AMD to market by nearly four years, but AMD priced its 40 MHz 486 at or below Intel's price for a 33 MHz chip, offering about 20% better performance for the same price. While competing 486 chips, such as those from

Cyrix Cyrix Corporation was a microprocessor developer that was founded in 1988 in Richardson, Texas, as a specialist supplier of floating point units for 286 and 386 microprocessors. The company was founded by Tom Brightman and Jerry Rogers. Ter ...

, benchmarked lower than the equivalent Intel chip, AMD's 486 matched Intel's performance on a clock-for-clock basis. While the Am386 was primarily used by small computer manufacturers, the Am486DX, DX2, and SX2 chips gained acceptance among larger computer manufacturers, especially Acer and

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation was an American information technology, information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compati ...

, in the 1994 time frame. AMD's higher clocked 486 chips provided superior integer performance to many of the early

Pentium Pentium is a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel from 1993 to 2023. The Pentium (original), original Pentium was Intel's fifth generation processor, succeeding the i486; Pentium was Intel's flagship proce ...

chips, especially the 60 and 66 MHz launch products. While equivalent Intel 80486DX4 chips were priced high and required a minor socket modification, AMD priced low. Intel's DX4 chips initially had twice the cache of the AMD chips, giving them a slight performance edge, but AMD's DX4-100 usually cost less than Intel's DX2-66. The enhanced Am486 series supported new features like extended power-saving modes and an 8 KiB

Write-Back In computing, a cache ( ) is a hardware or software component that stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster; the data stored in a cache might be the result of an earlier computation or a copy of data stored elsew ...

L1-Cache, later versions even got an upgrade to 16 KiB Write-Back L1-Cache. The 133 MHz AMD

Am5x86 The Am5x86 processor is an x86-compatible CPU announced in November 1995 by AMD for use in 486-class computer systems. It began shipping in December 1995, with a base price of $93 per unit in bulk quantities. Before being released, it was in ...

was a higher clocked enhanced Am486. One derivative of the Am486 family is the core used in the AMD Élan SC4xx family of microcontrollers marketed by AMD.

Features

Am486 models

WT = Write-Through cache strategy, WB = Write-Back cache strategy

References

External links

AMD: Enhanced Am486 Microprocessors

cpu-collection.de
AMD Am486 processor images and descriptions {{AMD_processors

Am486 The Am486 is a 80486-class family of computer central processing unit, processors that was produced by AMD in the 1990s. Intel beat AMD to market by nearly four years, but AMD priced its 40 MHz 486 at or below Intel's price for a 33&nb ...

X86 microarchitectures Computer-related introductions in 1992