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Your favorite cpu

G

gerrydoire

Veteran Member
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Aug 25, 2008
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A rather silly question, but with so many CPUs on the go over the past 25 years or so, which CPU for whatever reason - pratical or not
would you pick as your favorite CPU?

For me the i386.

Why? .... a game called DOOM was all the talk, I was on a 286 and was told I needed to upgrade to a 386 to play the game, which at that time was unlike any other game ever made before it...

When I received my 386 MB, I was impressed by the size of the CPU, the biggest I've seen so far and all the CHIPS around it, it looked so futuristic and heady duty killer motherboard, it ran at 25Mhz, a real computer at last it seemed.... :rolleyes:
 
The i386 has also been my favorite for a long time. I like being able to do things with low resources and the 386 is the lowest that will do a lot of cool stuff. I don't know a lot about code, but to me this is the first "modern" chip that will run almost anything, and it was an important turning point.

I suppose that some people would say something similar about the 8088 and in a way I would agree. I like that one too. :)

For practical purposes I like the early pentiums. As a doshead the P133 or P166 is about as good as it gets and I'm currently running a P133 just because thats what I had available and I don't think the 166 would be noticably faster with DOS, considering that the bus speed is the same. Those can also run without a fan, so slowing down my PS fan, using ramdisks, and shutting off my HDD when not needed, things are nice and quiet when I'm writing and trying to think. Anything faster or newer is just noisier.

From an emotional point of view I must add that the P60 gold tops are my favourite, specifically the Intel A80501-60 SX835, with or without the "processor" logo. Those are pretty. :) From a purely collectors standpoint I guess the SX753 or even a 50MHz engineering sample would be better. Actually the Pentium pro is pretty (perhaps even gaudy!) - and it also will run without a fan so you get to see it - especially if you have a distaste for closed boxes.
 
Processor

Processor

I think the 386 was also the first one where they got protected mode running properly.

I'd have to say my favourite CPU is the Zilog Z8000, but mainly because it was on the first sbc I built. Second favourite, the MC68008, again largely sentimental reasons. The MC68008 was the on the second sbc I built ( actually, more of a plug-in bus sort of affair, I think it was detailed in the old German magazine MC, I think it was called) and because it was in the first computer I bought for myself, a Sinclair QL.

patscc
 
For me , it has to be the Motorola 68000, from the Amiga. The Amiga was the first computer that blew me away with what it could do at the time, all on a lowly 7Mhz 68000 CPU. Compared to what PCs could do at the time, it was astonishing. I used my A500 (then an A600) for games, word processing, scanning, BBS stuff, it was my Swiss Army Knife.

That's why I have a home full of Miggies now....A500s, Pluses, 600s and 1200s. I would like to eventually get a big box A2000, like my Dad had at the time (actually it was an A1500, but had the A2000 badge underneath the A1500 one, for some bizarre reason, a lot of them were like that).

:mrgreen:
 
I'll agree that the Amiga was the first to blow me away with it's capabilities .. well ok.. it's games (I was young lol). What "pluses" are you referring to? (curious since I do collect Commodore/Amiga but don't recall a plus on any of the numbers unless that was a euro thing).

I haven't had the time I've wanted to get deep into too many architectures with assembly so I guess my favorite would still be an 8086. It's simple, I like the pinouts that are easy to use and access. I wish I had more time with the 6502, I think I'd like it but I still have yet to really sit down with a 6502 ML book and get deeper into it.
 
barythrin said:
I'll agree that the Amiga was the first to blow me away with it's capabilities .. well ok.. it's games (I was young lol). What "pluses" are you referring to? (curious since I do collect Commodore/Amiga but don't recall a plus on any of the numbers unless that was a euro thing).

I haven't had the time I've wanted to get deep into too many architectures with assembly so I guess my favorite would still be an 8086. It's simple, I like the pinouts that are easy to use and access. I wish I had more time with the 6502, I think I'd like it but I still have yet to really sit down with a 6502 ML book and get deeper into it.
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The only system I've used with an 6502 is the Atari Lynx II. It uses the CMOS variant with Static memory (hence, clock speeds lesser than 2MHz is made possible).

However, even though the Atari Lynx is a great system, my choice falls on the 8088. This is because I got my XT, and I really focused learning to write programs for it. That's why I allways use pure x86 code in my programs. so far... (what's the point in writing for 386'ses and newer when it is about impossible to find information about Windows-program headers. I know they released some kind if 5000 pages programmers reference for Windows back in the early 90's, but nobody really cared to buy it. How compiller-programmers get low-level referance information about Windows therse days is a mystery to me.)
 
Merlin said:
For me , it has to be the Motorola 68000, from the Amiga. The Amiga was the first computer that blew me away with what it could do at the time, all on a lowly 7Mhz 68000 CPU. Compared to what PCs could do at the time, it was astonishing. I used my A500 (then an A600) for games, word processing, scanning, BBS stuff, it was my Swiss Army Knife.

That's why I have a home full of Miggies now....A500s, Pluses, 600s and 1200s. I would like to eventually get a big box A2000, like my Dad had at the time (actually it was an A1500, but had the A2000 badge underneath the A1500 one, for some bizarre reason, a lot of them were like that).

:mrgreen:
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Technically speaking the Amiga was the best computer ever made...It took the PC world how long before a graphics subprocessor became mainstream? Voodoo me!!!! :confused7: I still have my A500..
 
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On my Amiga 500 I have made my first steps in assembler-programming. For me are the Motorolla 68k CPUs the best..ever!

The second was the fist AMD Athlon Slot CPU...
 
Chuck(G) said:
Since this is posted under "Later PCs", do you mean x86 CPUs? ...
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I had the same thought but ignored it because I don't have any practical experience with pre 8088 processors. There must be a number of them and no doubt some lovable ones. What did the setun use?

Chuck(G) said:
... Do the CPUs have to be on a chip or can they be spread across a few cabinets?
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None of my computers have one those... I checked. :p I guess you would need a pretty big mother board!! lol

Anyway, at some point you would have to stop calling it a Central Processing Unit.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Since this is posted under "Later PCs", do you mean x86 CPUs? Do the CPUs have to be on a chip or can they be spread across a few cabinets?
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A CPU that doesn't require a gerbel and a wheel...
 
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patscc said:
I betcha if you rigged a little motor as a generator to the wheel, you could probably run a BasicStamp or PIC off of it...
patscc
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Awlright! I can see another "$100 laptop" project comming up. This one being truly green (TM) because it needs no landfill unfriendly batteries and runs on BIOFUEL. There's a little hopper on the side where you pour pellets when the screen gets dim ....
 
patscc said:
The thought occurs to me that to make it truly vintage, we should probably try to run a TRS-80 PC1 or a Sharp PC-1500A off the gerbil...
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To make it truely vintage, you'd need a period gerbil too. Unfortunately I don't think there will be many left that are still in working order, although I suppose you could use a modern part (unless you're some kind of gerbil purist).

Back on topic, I don't think I could pick a favourite from the x86 line. Give me a PDP-11 any day ;-)
 
Favourite processor

Favourite processor

I like the original Pentium with it's FDIV bug. Mostly because of the public outcry, and general all round 'ball dropping' and attempted obfuscation by Intel.

I was working for the post office at the time, and there was a push to move forward from the 486-DX2/66 and 486-DX4/100 machine we were using at the time, but upper management didn't want to spend money on something that had already been declared 'flawed'.

My futile attempts to convince them that it was unlikely to ever affect their MS Word 2 usage on their largely Windows for Workgroups based machines brings back fond memories. We were paying MORE to continue to source those 486 machines, while they dithered.

Some funnies for you.

Paul.
 
Guess my favorite would be the 486DX2-66. Good speed, high stability, and didn't generate TOO much heat.
 
I have a soft spot for the IBM 1620. Straightforward, easy-to-use decimal architecture. Simple I/O and a cycle speed slow enough that things didn't get away on you before you finished your lunch.
 
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