What is the difference between 80386 and 80486?

Answer 1

They are the "techinal" names for what are usually called the 386 and 486 processors.

The orignal computer process used in PCs was called the 8086. It was upgraded to the 80286 (or 286). It was the first computer processor capable of running a version of Windows (3.0).

The 386 came on the market around 1994, and is a dinosaur by todays standards. It could run Windows 3.x, 95, 98 and ME, but nothing better.

The 486 came out about three years later. It is faster then a 386. Can usually handle Windows 2000 and XP as well as the 9x versions of Windows.

It was quickly replaced by the "586", usually called the Pentium. The Pentium has gone through four or five "upgrades" since its introduction, including the new dual core Pentiums. A Pentium is needed to run todays Windows Vista.

The 486 and the Pentium both will run 386 processor codes. It fact, on some computers the BIOS will recognize a 486 or Pentium as a "386", so they are considered to be part of the "386" family of processors.

Answer 2

the 386 chip was made in both 16 an 32 bit versions the 16 bit version was called the 386sx. the 386 ( all versions ) ran in a 1x clock mode whereas the 486 introduced clock multiplication. and could run up to 3x the motherboard speed. the 386sx,and 386sl where limited to a 16 bit bus-width,where as the 386dx,and all 486 chips were 32 bit.also the 16 bit versions were maxed out at 16mb memory,but the 386dx,and all 486 could use up to 4 gb ( provided you could find a motherboard that would support that much as well ) the 486 was also the first cpu to have over a million transistors as well.internally the 486 ran twice as fast as a comparably clocked 386,which means a 486dx-33 ran nearly twice as fast as a 386dx-33,due to better cycling inside the cpu core. the 386 would use up to 4.5 cycles for a task,whereas the 486 can do it in 2. the first version of the Pentium,which introduced dual "pipelines" was then 2x as fast as a comparable speed 486,because now the Pentium can do 2 tasks,in the same amount of time,it takes the 486 to do one.in a nutshell the main difference is efficiency,the 486 can do twice as much work,at the same speed,in half the time

Answer 3

The 80486's major improvement over the 80386 was the integration of an 80387 math coprocessor into the 80486

Answer 4

The 386 had to have a second chip installed called a Math Co processor, it wasn't designed into the 386 chip set.

Answer 5

Wasn't the 486 also the first PC CPU to run at a multiple of the clock speed?

You could also buy the DX version that had the math co processor built in or the SX, which didn't.

Answer 6

286 = dos based 386 =50mgz windows 31 - 486 windows 95 up to 133mgz

Answer 7

100

Answer 8

Processor speeds. 386 & 486 mhz respectively.
Naturally, the 486 is newer & faster.
Saying that, they are both quite old now!