5 ms·
I can't remember, could you buy a math coprocessor for it? I know my 286 you could pair with a 287 next to it.. not sure if it really made a difference you cou
by bbarn 5mo ago
I can't remember, could you buy a math coprocessor for it?
I know my 286 you could pair with a 287 next to it.. not sure if it really made a difference you could discern outside of hyper-specific uses though.
- hypercube33 5mo agoI believe so the 487 which had a full 486 on board it and disabled your main CPU.
- dspillett 5mo agoThere were 387 co-pros, just like the 287s (ad 8087s). You could actually use a 287 to provide floating-point instructions to a 386, albeit more slowly than a 387. Very little, if any, “home” or small-business software would make use of a floating-point unit though (maybe some spreadsheet apps did?). The most common use for them was CAD/CAM, and those doing scientific modelling without a budget that would allow for less consumer-grade kit.