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The 386SLC was an Intel-licensed version of the 386SX (32-bit internal, 16-bit external, 24-bit memory addressing), developed and manufactured by IBM
IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
 in 1991. It included power-management capabilities and an 8KB internal cache
Cache

In computer science, a cache is a collection of data duplicating original values stored elsewhere or computed earlier, where the original data is expensive to fetch or to compute, compared to the cost of reading the cache....
, which caused it to run as fast as 386DX processors of the same speed, which were considerably more expensive. Known inside IBM as "Super Little Chip" for its initials, it was used in IBM PS/2 35, 40 56 Series and in IBM PS/ValuePoint
IBM PS/ValuePoint

The IBM PS/ValuePoint personal computer was IBM's answer to the PC clone market, where the IBM PS/2 could not compete due to price and proprietary interfaces....
, but never gained much market share.






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The 386SLC was an Intel-licensed version of the 386SX (32-bit internal, 16-bit external, 24-bit memory addressing), developed and manufactured by IBM
IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
 in 1991. It included power-management capabilities and an 8KB internal cache
Cache

In computer science, a cache is a collection of data duplicating original values stored elsewhere or computed earlier, where the original data is expensive to fetch or to compute, compared to the cost of reading the cache....
, which caused it to run as fast as 386DX processors of the same speed, which were considerably more expensive. Known inside IBM as "Super Little Chip" for its initials, it was used in IBM PS/2 35, 40 56 Series and in IBM PS/ValuePoint
IBM PS/ValuePoint

The IBM PS/ValuePoint personal computer was IBM's answer to the PC clone market, where the IBM PS/2 could not compete due to price and proprietary interfaces....
, but never gained much market share. This was mainly due to an agreement with Intel, in which IBM was not allowed to sell their CPUs if they were not part of a system or upgrade board. It was also marketed as an optional upgrade
Upgrade

The term upgrade refers to the replacement of a product with a newer version of that same product. It is most often used in computing and consumer electronics, generally meaning a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, in order to bring the system up to date or to improve its characteristics....
 for 8086
Intel 8086

The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel and introduced on the market in 1978, which gave rise to the x86 architecture. Intel 8088, released in 1979, was essentially the same chip, but with an external 8-bit bus , and is notable as the processor used in the original IBM PC....
-equipped IBM PS/2 25 Series computers.

Design and Technology

Built with complementary metal oxide semiconductor
Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material that has electrical conductivity between those of a Electrical conductor and an electrical insulation; it can vary over that wide range either permanently or dynamically....
 (CMOS
CMOS

Complementary metal?oxide?semiconductor , is a major class of integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, Static Random Access Memory, and other digital logic circuits....
) technology, the IBM 386SLC had a 161-square millimeter die
Die (integrated circuit)

A die in the context of integrated circuits is a small block of semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is fabricated.Typically, integrated circuits are produced in large batches on a single wafer of electronic-grade silicon through processes such as photolithography....
. It was available with clock speeds of 16, 20, and 25 MHz. The 25 MHz model produced only 2.5 watt
WATT

WATT is a radio station broadcasting a News radio-Talk radio-Sports radio format. Licensed to Cadillac, Michigan, it first began broadcasting in 1945....
s of dissipated power, making it specially well suited for laptops and other portable devices.

Despite the the fact that the SLC and DLC chips are bus compatible with i386SX and i386DX respectively, they can not be used as drop-in replacements as they are not pin-compatible.

IBM 486SLC

Is an improved version of the IBM 386SLC, based on the Intel core. IBM 486SLC featured 16Kb of L1 cache and the i486 instruction set. It had a 1.349 mln. transistors, 69mm² die. Manufactured in 1992. 100-pin PQFP, 33 MHz FSB. The 486SLC was also available in a clock-doubled version, the 486SLC2 (50,66 MHz), and later in a clock tripled-version, the 486SLC3 (60,75,100 MHz). It is suspscted the clock tripled 486SLC3 part did not in fact actually exist as a stand alone product. All known instances of 486SLC3 CPUs are reportedly in the 132pin PQFP packaging with the extra address lines not connected (a 486BL3 running in 16-bit mode).

IBM 486DLC (Blue Lightning)

The 486DLC is a fully 32-bit version of the 486SLC, with 1.4 mln transistors on the 82mm² die, 0.8µm CMOS. The Package is 132-pin QFP. In July, 1993 IBM produced clock-doubled and clock-tripled versions of the chip, the 486DLC2 (486BLX2) and the 486DLC3 (486BLX3) respectively. The chips were available from 50 to 100 MHz and were sold by IBM only. IBM later marketed 168-pin PGA Blue Lightning 486 CPUs, but these are technically not related to earlier Blue Lightning models as they are based on the Cyrix CPU core.

See also

  • Intel 386
  • IBM PS/2
  • IBM PS/ValuePoint
    IBM PS/ValuePoint

    The IBM PS/ValuePoint personal computer was IBM's answer to the PC clone market, where the IBM PS/2 could not compete due to price and proprietary interfaces....
  • IBM ThinkPad
  • IBM 5x86C - based on the Cyrix
    Cyrix

    Cyrix was a Central processing unit manufacturer that began in 1988 in Richardson, Texas as a specialist supplier of high-performance math coprocessors for Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 systems....
     core