EUROPEAN SUPPORT As the altercation between Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc over second sourcing for the 80386 generation of microprocessors continues, AMD has come out fighting with a European The 286 Lives tour. AMD’s strategy for this tour appears to be that of publicising counter arguments to the fallacy that the 80286 is dead. The problem with this strategy is that the fallacy is so obviously just that, that it seems hardly worth the effort of pursuing such an academic exercise. Anyway, AMD’s arguments run something like this: firstly, it claims that the 80286 runs MS-DOS and OS/2 software faster than an 80386SX at the same clock speed because of the number of clock cycles required by each processor for the execution of 16-bit instructions. Apparently, the Norton, Landmark, Dhrystone and PC Magazine benchmark tests found that out of 190 16-bit 80286 instructions, 74 were executed faster on the 80286 than the 80386, 66 took the same number of clock cycles, while 50 were executed faster on the 80386. Secondly, AMD argues, less controversially, that 80286-based micros are less inexpensive than 80386SX machines. For example, the Compaq 386s costs $5,000, while a similarly equipped 20MHz Dell 80286 machine costs $2,500. Finally, AMD points out that there is always a time lag between new hardware architecture and its requisite software support and the 80386 market is not yet very well served for full 32-bit software, while the 80286 application software is up and running. Consequently, when all is said and done, AMD is correct when it says that the 80286 market is not about to keel over tomorrow. In fact Dataquest predicts that 80386 sales will not match those of 80286-based boxes until 1992. Furthermore, the most likely scenario is that while the 80286 market will decline slowly over the next decade, there will be a live and let live attitude betweeen it and its 32-bit relatives. For example, the 80286 is appropriate for applications like spreadsheets or word processors, and within a corporate network such computers may very well run off a 80386 server leading to 286/386 coexistence. So, while 80286 chips can support higher clock speeds at a low price their future looks reasonably secure. To this end AMD is sampling CMOS 80286 chips at 20MHz and 25MHz. Indeed, the embarrassing fact of the 286 lives issue is that although AMD is spearheading the campaign, its most powerful chip in volume production is the 16MHz NMOS 286, while its competitor Harris already has 20MHz and 25MHz CMOS 80286s. A fact about which AMD is strangely silent. Anyway, with such chip sampling underway, AMD can still, somewhat belatedly, afford to raise a toast to the 286, although of course the company would never be embarking on such a campaign had Intel given it those 80386 masks…