Inside an Intel i486-DX CPU
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- čas přidán 2. 03. 2024
- The intel i486--DX was initially released sometime in 1989. The 33MHz version, which is what this one is, was later released in 1990. Further improvements would be made, which resulted in this particular version of the silicon chip from 1992.
This CPU had approximately 1,200,000 transistors, and was made using the 0.8 micron process node. - Věda a technologie
This already looks very complicated and its only 1,2mil transistors. Its insane how they can fit billions of transistors on something the same size nowadays.
In a other decade or two, we will be matching or passing the number of neurons in our brains
How big does that make the traces? 100 atoms wide maybe? I'm really curious, if you can answer that
@@furnacego2164Minimum metal pitch at the 0.8 μm process node was around 2 μm, and about half that for trace width. The minimum distance between atoms in silicon is 0.2 nm, so a trace was ballpark 5000 atoms wide.
But nowadays traces are 20-30 nm wide at narrowest. So 100-150 atoms.
@@taktoa1 amazing
That CPU ran my childhood. Photoshop 2.0, 3D studio 2.0, WingCommader , Doom, DukeNukem 3D , Dark Forces etc etc
So many memories. This was around the time my dad bought a PC that replaced the Apple IIe
We had a DX2-66... And all the same games still needed serious config.sys and autoexec.bat fiddling to get enough memory 😂
Gaming stopped there too. We topped with doom and duke 3d 😢
@@knivesron I spent so much time making custom Doom WADs. I still have them on 3.5 discs. I have to dig them out one day
@@BubblegumCrash332 that would be awsome. I have a doom map myself its in the ramp 2023 pack check it out
That was my first CPU; 486DX-33 back in 1990 I believe! The machine cost $2,200 with 120mb HD and 4mb memory.
wow... I had the I286 in a Schneider Euro PC and my dream after that was to have a computer with that processor, but obviously my father couldn't buy it at that time because yes, was crazy expensive for him
Same
same, i486DX, 129mb hd, 4 mb ram but mine cost $1200 in 1991, that's what you got with Dell "quality"
My first was a 486 DX2-50 which ran at a blazing 50mHz .
Was my 2nd. I needed to wait several years for the prices to go down.
This needs more recognition than those foolish podcasts.
I dont think its the same audience
??
Which foolish podcasts?
yYou are right but then we have 2,343,567,499 people walking around confused..Most of them do not even know where their local library is located ,much less know about CPU chips...
@@Floris_VII can affirm that it is. Though I don't think their content is mutually exclusive, I have been looking for this content for years.
After a deadly mid-air collision over Cerritos, CA in 1986, the decision was made to equip commercial aircraft with an airborne collision avoidance system with the best technology available at the time. The TCAS system was activated in 1992 and has been protecting fliers ever since, even though its operations are rather primitive compared to the technology. available today. The first TCAS processor units installed in aircraft were based upon two 486 CPUs.
I'm a pretty big plane enthusiast, and not even I knew that!
Do you know which avionics vendor that was? Even back then there were SO many better chips for *embedded real-time* apps such as TCAS, than the klugey x86 family. :(
@@MajorCaliber which processors did you have in mind?
@@2jpu524 AMD 29k family, Motorola 68k line, MIPS, Hitachi/Zilog 64180, etc., basically standalone microCONTROLLERS vs. motherboard type microPROCESSORS such as the 486, the latter requiring all kinds of support chips, e.g. Northbridge, Southbridge, etc... not to mention the x86 CPUs have always been power-hungry, which means more HEAT to get rid of... things you might not want in a small expensive box, stacked like bricks amongst other avionics, all 8 inches from the pilot's knees.
@@MajorCaliber Convenience in programming is a big factor. Even though the timeframe likely misses the i486SL (first to run on 3.3V core voltage) as well as the i386EX (bundling all the support chips in a SoC package), this is still the era of single digit watt SBCs that you can shove into a box with a heatsink.
Fun fact, they stopped making the i386, the predecessor, in September 2007.
The chip came out in 1985.
A lot of tech is used in places that aren't PCs; there were probably some Point-of-Sale, ATMs, etc running those kinds of processors. I just recently got a new job back in September and the previous place I worked at was still using machines from the early-to-mid 00's for the two PoS units, and also the server in the back was almost as old.
@@Dhalin yeah, it's all the weird industrial stuff that used 'em for that long. I saw it when I was repairing an MRI magnetic field trim controller. Had an '06 date code, and I was absolutely shocked, had to look at the Wikipedia.
I guess if you used a 20 year old part on a 20 year old piece of equipment, it'll be 40 years old high technology still in use. Kinda cool to see computing history still chugging along.
Still though, I would have thought an FPGA would have been cheaper.
I had a pc with that as the processor
How much were they costing in the 2000s? What was their availability like in comparison to microcontrollers and other microprocessors of the time?
Fun fact: the MOS 6502 processor was created in the mid 70’s and is still produced commercially to this day
I am privileged to have precisely one entire silicon wafer of this processor.
The entire wafer was defective? Unusual.
@@raylopez99 some chips are marked with a dot as defective but not all. There are a few healthy ones.
@@Flashjacks Don't they sell the healthy ones? Or was this a wafer they decided to keep as a memento despite it having chips you could sell? An expensive paperweight.
@@raylopez99 Well, it is a whole wafer, uncut. I bought it many years ago. It is designed to be framed together with the complete CPU, which I also have. I don't know how much this could cost now, honestly.
@@Flashjacks it's priceless ;)
Intel = illuminati confirmed
Illuminintel?
Wait 486 is (6-2)(6+2)(6-0) 😮
666 😈
Why -2 +2 -0?
It's because the 'minatii love chaos 🤔
That's 🎈🤡💩
came here for the illuminati comment
Intelluminati
Mind boggling. I want to see the machines that build these things.
Look up "microchip lithography" and there's many videos that will show you.
There are videos about it, look for silicon Photolithography
czcams.com/video/dX9CGRZwD-w/video.htmlsi=lsXHDfL-3Gv_t6-e
my first pc runs on that CPU.. still keping the CPU for old days memory.
I sold my first gaming computer to a guy I knew in highschool and we lost touch shortly after. A couple months ago I got back in touch with him because my best friend died (who he also knew) AND HE STILL HAD THE COMPUTER YEARS LATER! And it all still works! I bought it back from him just for the sentimental value. Thing is though the motherboard and the GPU were both parts I bought from my best friend that had died so they really mean a lot to me now that he's gone. I spent countless hours with him playing videogames on that computer so it's really nice to have it back again. I'm thinking about turning it into some sort of art piece for my wall (non-destructively of course since I might want to use it again later). Might put it in a big shadow box or something but I'm not sure yet. If anyone has any ideas lmk!
@@NotMe-ej9yzI am sorta against the idea of letting any functional hardware being kept powered off for years and years in a row.
I am unaware how much electricity that particular machine of yours consumes, but whatever you do I think it would be more interesting if you let it running at least for some amount of time with some frequency, especially if it can be used by trustworthy people who never touched a computer from that period, or who wants to relive their experience.
In a nutshell, let the machine happily live throughout the coming years for as long as it can.
I still get fascinated by how humans even made these beautiful objects, such tiny details and how far we have came from this.
And yet we still can't stop killing each other for the most mundane reasons.
Beautiful chip layout
We had 286, 386 and 486's in our computer lab at school. Everyone rushed in to get to the 486's first. Long time ago but we learned so much on those machines
who else finds it absolutely beautiful we, humans, can build things on such a small yet technical scale??
This CPU was a monster and a game changer at the time.
I still have my i486 DX-4 100 MHz CPU. still works
Over 30 years later I still have to support x86 architecture in all my apps 😅
Had this in 25Mhz with 4MB of RAM, loved the machine.
Same here! Did have a few people say that they did not realise that they existed.
Daily driver back in the 90’s then went dx2 and dx4 after
Always good to see inside chips its a city so small you cant see the atom people working 24/7
Many, Many of these early CPUs have amazing details that can only be seen under a microscope..
I remember when the 486 DX2/66 came out they sent me a sample, the HEATSINK WAS AS TALL AS IT WAS WIDE WOW MAN LOOK AT THAT HOLY COW
yeah, I believe I replaced my original 486 33, to a 486 66.
That was my first PC, pure nostalgia with 4 MB RAM later retrofitted with a sound card and CD (with a proud 4X:) drive. Operating system with DOS 6.22 and Norton Commander. HDD 160MB and a hundred 3.5" flopies (drilled through to double capacity). My first and last game was Wolfenstein (wolf3d) and can even be played today with Raspberry PI 5 and DOSbox.
It’s now 30 years since I bought my first PC which had this as the CPU!
Had a Compaq with a 486 DX2/66. Great computer for tweaking and adding components for performance.
I find it crazy how much detail of things there are in something that small, as in all the x y and z planes
I used to own one of those, it was actually my very first PC. A DX 486/33 running Win95. Couldn't tell you anything about the rest of the PC though as I don't remember what else it had in it. I eventually got that upgraded to a 66 and then eventually a 100Mhz, and I remember the day I had the 100Mhz put in it, the difference while running Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, how suddenly the whole game ran at nearly twice the speed. Night and day difference!
⁰⁰
Maybe Windows 3.0 or 3.1 and DOS 6.0? Win 95 came 5 yrs after CPU 486dx-33 was released.
@@Brave2standalone It was definitely Win95. I was on a budget at the time as I didn't have a lot of money and wanted a PC, and at the time, Pentiums were out, but I was buying a used 486 because it was like half the price of a new Pentium-based system.
Omg. I loved that game!! Thanks for reminding me of that!
I still own a 486DX4 100 computer, simply because it is a bit different (not a normal MB but has CPU on a card), MB is just a backplane with ISA slots. Has GUS audio, internal UPS card, HD controller card, ethernet and, I vaguely recall, Trident video. Runs Win95, had some games on it (XCom, HMM, Doom...)
I also have 286 laptop somewhere, 10MB HDD. Don't recall make and model ATM. Not much on it, just DOS and some serial terminal emulator.
My first really stable computer was running Windows NT on a Dell i486-DX2 66Mhz with whatever maxed out memory was back in the day. I was astounded at having such a stable platform for engineering work.
this is what people spent their time on before Factorio came out
My first new-bought PC from my parents when I was a kid was a 486DX2/66. So, so many memories made with that machine. Lots of games, BBSes, learning the nuts and bolts of what make computers tick at the hardware and software level. Back when computers required knowledge to operate and repair.
I worked at the plant that made the PGA that you popped that out of. Alcoa Electronic Packaging. This is pre-Pentium.
I find what you do is fascinating, please keep up the excellent work
Congratulate for engineer and architect all around this world your works has been one place completely, amazing…
33 and a pyramid now that is not a coincidence.
But it has no meaning or reference to actual pyramids or any conspiracy like the illuminate as the latter is not even a real thing.
@@tbas8741 he says, guessing
This is simply amazing.
My first real CPU... 8088 before that one. So sweet. Soundblaster with MKEP optical drive. Doom. Good times.
Appreciate the focal length changing, that really helps me understand the depth since I never seen once IRL that magnified.
My first "IBM Compatible" computer had one of those in it. Before that our family computer was a Commodore 64. I miss both, honestly.
Damn I had one of those back in the day, cool video bro and RIP Packard Bell.
Just bought every single one of the coins and 5' 003 from your website because they're just fucking cool and so is this content keep going man!
It definitely wasn't my first processor (MOS 6502, Commodore 128 y'all!), but I have fond memories of building PC's with the 486DX 33/66 and 368 w/math coprocessor. I miss when computing was simple, games were made for fun not flash, and the world was simpler.
I have one of these. kept it for the memories of those days .
Yippeeeeeee this is so cool there's so much there and it's silly that there's lil Easter eggs in these too.
It is so cool to look at chips so up close.
Damn, there is so much going on inside these small chips. Also this microscope shows some sick details. I'm just amazed how people came to this point and come up with all these amazing things. Texting from a phone while watching youtube. Astonishing if you ask me
I agree! It's amazing how far we've come, and just how much is abstracted away that you don't need to think about when using a modern electronic device.
I needed one of these for such a long time. Those laggy graphics in MK2/3.
I have the DX2 in my collection. Beautiful to know it can look so amazing.
Absolutely amazing!
Crazy i never knew this existed. Cool videos i learned something new!!
It still amazes me how complex and intricate these things are, and this is a 35 y o chip
Man, that was top of the line with the built-in math coprocessor...
ahh yes, the coprocessor. That chip was great.
I had the 486DX2 and it was faster than the first gen pentiums.
I always wonder how something so complicated yet so small in size works that good! This is not but seems like a magic!
I'm from South Africa, I remember when this CPU was launched in 1992, I camped out at our computer shop for two days in order to be 1st in line to get my hands on it. What leap of technology it was back then.
This stuff amazes me.
its so beautiful looking, my first computer was a 486DX2 66Mhz
The laminated ceramic package was an amazing component itself.
Chips are so beautiful. I wish I could open different ones up all day long. Amazing things at such a tiny scale.
I’d love a documentary on the invention of the micro chip, how they work how they’re made. Etc.
HOW ?!! HOW THIS CAN FIT INTO THIS LITTLE CHIP 😱
the level of complexity here is beyond what my mind can fathom
I love all the little icons that mask designers included on the old chips. One of them has a cactus too :)
Even the fonts reflects 80's era.
Damn man, 33 mhz and features you could just about almost make out with the naked eye. Now look where we are. Still a thing of beauty.
When I was a kid, I upgraded a machine with this CPU to. DX-2 version that could clock at 66Mhz added 128 Kbs😅s of ram to the 64kbs and added a massive 2 MB Seagate hard drive(replacing it's tiny, sub megabyte HD as the primary drive). Neat thing you just showed me . Thanks.
This was the exact same CPU in my first ever computer. That machine was a hand built computer that cost me £1,200 including a 14 inch colour monitor. The PC had the 486 DX-33 CPU, a 252 Megabyte HDD, CD-ROM drive, a humongous 4MB RAM and a 1MB VESA Local Bus Graphics Card - the latter which was the icing on that digital cake. It came with Windows 3.1 pre-installed, and was the machine that catapulted me into my life long IT career. It was not a brand name machine. It was expertly cobbled together by an experienced Computer builder who knew exactly what he was doing; the machine never failed on me once, and kept running faithfully even after I upgraded and gave it away.
The 486 DX-33 chip had a maths coprocessor which made it a great CPU back in the day.
It handled all the games of the day that I threw at it and was also excellent for desktop publishing apps of the era. That CPU opened a whole new world for me!
I remember it most fondly.
That thing is like a metropolitan city when you zoom in.
Such a workhorse cpu, that and the dx2 at 66mhz were phenomenal!
Every time you show a picture like this, it’s all I can think of it. Look at the gold look at the gold.
I totally had my first self-built tower PC running a 486dx50 processor! That thing was a screamer at the time! I still have that box in my old systems closet!!
Great work bro
I always wonder what's inside this chip
Photo etching circuits and before that bread brooding . We have come a long, long way!
My first "IBM compatible" PC had the i486 DX2-66. :)
I bought it back in November '94.
Its the machines that make the machines that amazes me
I used this CPU to play my first (pirated) MP3. It struggled so much but when I can finally did it, I was so happy so does all of my friends. Ah good old days!
I still have this processor ❤
I bought a 486DX2 at the PX at Ferris Barracks, Gr -- my friend took one look at my new machine and he ditched his 386SX .. and traded up in a couple day. Ahh the memories ...
had this chip, growing up. was really solid for the time!
Great memories.
My dad got a 486DX2/66 CPU with 8MB of memory and a hard drive controller that actually had a tiny bit of solid state memory that gave him down to 0.9ms access time in certain scenarios. Combined with a Tseng Labs ET6000 graphics card, it was an incredible computer that could do anything.
I inherited his Northgate 386DX/20 at the time. I had a Tseng Labs ET4000 card and I believe 5MB of memory. I could play Doom but only at the smallest graphics window. :)
The 486 was available in 3 version. One with the processor only one with the coprocessor only and one with both. The joke was that both chips were there they were simply connected or not.
The first computer I built was a 486 dx4 with 428mb hard drive and Windows 3.1. This was the last chip made before Pentium
One of my older computers that I no longer have was a 486-DX2-66 at the time I thought it was so fast!.
After a couple of heathkit IBM style computers, ALL of my computers , I have built from scratch, that is, case , motherboard and supporting boards bought and then assembled by me, and I bought Windows and other programs to use with them. It cost a little more, but I got the hardware I wanted. Ready built PCs usually have a few cards that are substandard to lower their selling price.
Id like to see a video of how these traces and components are made.
I had one of those. Amazing tech back in the day. So much faster than the 286 and 386. It was a game changer. Now days we upgrade a PC to be able to have Windows support, but back then you did it to reduce boot times and be able to not have to wait for Word Perfect to catch up to your typematic rate. Doom and Duke Nukem played better on the Pentium when they came out but it was do able on 486 with some creative batch file manipulation to only load the drivers you had to have. Quake was not really playable on 486. Thanks for the delid.
Doom ran fine on this cpu (mine was a 486 dx2/66)
Duke Nukem 3D could run, but there was a flaw in the engine where the game woukd drastically
Mine was a 486 DX2/66
Wolfenstein 3D ran fine.
Doom/Doom II ran fine. So did Hexen and Heretic, both based on Doom's engine.
Duke Nukem 3D sorta worked, but there was a flaw in the engine where the game would suddenly get very choppy if there were too many sprite objects in view. Other Build engine games also exhibited this problem. Upgrading to a Pentium 166 fixed this.
Quake could run on it, but the experience was laggy even with the lowest screen rez and reducing the player view size and not very enjoyable. Again, much better on the Pentium.
Every 2D platformer including those from ID, Apogee, and Epic ran fine with it. Older games that were written for an 8088/XT class machine often would run way to fast because they lacked CPU speed detection and expected 4.77MHZ. Mo'Slo sometimes fixed the issue, but could cause some very weird effects due to timing/sync issues, depending on how the game was coded. Mo'Slo and other "slowdown" software didn't actually slow down the CPU but rather it acted as a "middleman" passing the game's CPU instructions to the processor, and added something like
(psudocode)
i = 0
while i < 5000
i = i + 1
next i
between those instructions, in an attempt to slow down the game, but this was a primitive, brute force solution.
One of the great things about being a Designer, is can put little Easter Eggs in.
I've got one of these in an old tower, it still runs.
I worked for a company that made that casing who also made casing with special metals that could stand the heat and cool down very fast..
Brings back memories...had a 486SX-33, bought a cache module for another $200 and later upgraded to a 486DX4-133mhz...was still slower than my friends Intel Pentium 60mhz.
Ahhh what a flashback, this was my first chip I ever had, that with a companion Math-coprocessor what a power house it was back in the day love it. I think I still have the chip somewhere.
This was my 1st cpu in 1992. Everyone was amazed by its performance. It had 4 Mb of ram with 260Mb of hard drive. With dos 6 and windows 3.1.
I find it amazing to see this and i cannot begin to understand how the hell they even got all of that into such a tiny setup. Well do i remember my first desktop pc. Running this exact same cpu. I cant remember the exact specs of the thing but it was tiny by todays standards in hdd space and ram.
still wonderful this old cpu ❤
I have one here, been running 24/7 for 30 odd years running 'stuff' around my house, nice and reliable.
That's impressive its lasted that long!
Whoooa… I‘ve never seen into a CPU like this before…
I had a DX4. I forget the clock speed but 100MHz rings a bell.
Still having some of those around
That was a beast back in its day
With my background of mechanics in radio this is fun.
one of my first cpus
My first CPU! Got it with my first PC, a Dell 486 DX 33mhz with 8 mb of ram a 512k cirrus logic video card and a 14 inch monitor that is at 640x480 but if I lowered the color to 16 bit I could go up to 800x600!
I miss those days.
I remember when the 4086 DX came out it was such an improvement. So much faster. I didn’t think I needed anything more than that.😂
What a killer chip back in the day. Miss those times.