5

The ALi M1386SX is a 386 compatible microprocessor. I believe it was released around 1995, rather late for a 386 but since it was targeted at the embedded market (e.g. word processors and point-of-sale systems) I imagine stability and cost were more important than performance.

Who designed the core in this chip? It could have been ALi, but I don't think they ever had a licence for x86. Was it done in-house or did they buy it from someone else?

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    NEC and Cyrix developed earlier '86 clones - did Acer license from them? Cyrix also developed 386 and higher of course, but were limited to Cyrix production at IBM and STS by legal agreements with Intel.
    – Jon Custer
    May 31 at 14:00
  • 1
    According to Electronic News it was introduced in late 1994.
    – Stephen Kitt
    May 31 at 17:17
  • Many design sources are possible. One of the first 386 clones was from Chips & Technologies, it shipped in 1992. They also made a 387 coprocessor. Got sued by Intel right away. I owned both C&T chips for a brief time, acquired from a German distributor. In the early 1990s, around a dozen companies designed x86 processors (the plan/hope for most was to be covered under their fab's license). Many projects were abandoned (e.g. at IIT, or UMC subsidiary Silicon Plus), but some eventually shipped (briefly), like Rise mP6, IDT WinChip, Nexgen Nx586, but these were later 486/Pentium class processors
    – njuffa
    Jun 1 at 22:26

0

Reset to default

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .