The Deskpro 386 was a line of

desktop computer A desktop computer (often abbreviated desktop) is a personal computer designed for regular use at a single location on or near a desk due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuration has a case that houses the power supply ...

s in

Compaq Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...

's Deskpro range of

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones ...

s. The computers featured

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

's 32-bit 80386 microprocessor. Introduced in September 1986, the Deskpro 386 was the first implementation of the 80386 processor in a computer system for sale to the public. It also marked the first time that a major component of the

IBM Personal Computer The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a tea ...

''de facto'' standard was updated by a company other than IBM themselves—in this case, upgrading from the

80286 The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non- multiplexed address and data buses and also th ...

processor of the Personal Computer/AT. The initial models of the Deskpro 386 were developed by a team of 250 people, led by Gary Stimac. It was released to high praise in the technology press and widespread adoption in enterprise and scientific engineering. Compaq continued releasing updated models of the Deskpro 386 as faster revisions of the 386 chip were introduced by Intel.

Specifications

The Deskpro is a line of

desktop computers. The Deskpro 386 line features the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

identical to that of the IBM Personal Computer/AT. While the Personal Computer/AT has an 16-bit

Intel 80286 The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non- multiplexed address and data buses and also the ...

microprocessor, the Deskpro 386 features

's then-cutting-edge 32-bit 80386 processor. The initial three models in the Deskpro 386 line—the Deskpro 386 Model 40, the Deskpro 386 Model 70, and the Deskpro 386 Model 130—differ only in the amount of storage in the included

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magn ...

s and in the number of

ISA Isa or ISA may refer to: Places * Isa, Amur Oblast, Russia * Isa, Kagoshima, Japan * Isa, Nigeria * Isa District, Kagoshima, former district in Japan * Isa Town, middle class town located in Bahrain * Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia * Mount Is ...

expansion slots on their motherboards. The models otherwise all come with at least 1 MB of RAM and a 16-MHz

Intel 80386 The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistorsESDI hard drive and features six ISA expansion slots—three eight-bit slots and an equivalent amount of sixteen-bit slots. The Models 70 and 130 are equipped with 70 MB and 130 MB ESDI hard drives, respectively; both feature five expansion slots—three eight-bit slots and two sixteen-bit slots. Externally, the design of the Deskpro 386's case is identical to that of its predecessors, the original

8088 The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and ...

-equipped Deskpro and the

-equipped Deskpro 286. Each model of the Deskpro 386 features four 5.25-inch half-height drive bays, and all models are equipped stock with one 1.2-MB 5.25-inch floppy drive. The hard drives in the Models 40 and 70 are half-height units, while the Model 130's hard drive is a full-height unit. Instead of integrating memory on the motherboards, Compaq put the RAM chips on a daughtercard that plugs into a 32-bit bus slot on the motherboard. This slot is bespoke to the Deskpro 386 and allows the transfer of information to and from the bus in 32-bit

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consen ...

s. For the initial models, the daughtercard carries 1-MB of RAM stock, able to take up to 2 MB (half of its RAM sockets are unpopulated). The daughtercard itself contains a slot that can hold a special "piggyback" card that carries 4 MB of RAM stock, upgradable up to 8 MB. The highest amount of RAM that Compaq offered in this daughtercard-and-piggyback-card arrangement on the initial release of the Deskpro 386 was 10 MB. Additional RAM may be installed as upgrade cards in any of the sixteen-bit ISA expansion slots—with the understanding that this imposes a speed bottleneck because of the ISA's 16-bit data path.

Development

The Deskpro 386 was developed in large part by Gary Stimac, Compaq's vice president of engineering and the company's fifth employee hired. Stimac lead a team of people who eventually grew to 250 in the middle of 1986. Development of the Deskpro 386 was a close collaboration between Compaq, Intel, and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

, who each signed a three-way

non-disclosure agreement A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wis ...

. The Deskpro 386 project officially commenced in March 1985, after Intel shared Compaq the first block diagram for the 80386 processor architecture. Stimac described this diagram as a listing of the 386's new and upgraded features, as well as a schedule of milestones for its development and eventual production runs. In June 1985, Intel delivered to Compaq detailed specifications of the 386, after which Compaq laid out a block diagram of future product lines to integrate the processor. Shortly after, Microsoft was brought on board as a consultant for potential software compatibility issues with the plethora of

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...

-based software on the market. As well, Compaq asked Microsoft what other operating systems they could provide that had better 32-bit support for the 386. By the time of the Deskpro's release, the most advanced operating system that Microsoft offered was Xenix System V/286, which Compaq offered as an optional pack-in for selecting buyers. A 32-bit version for the 386 was promised in the first quarter of 1987. The Deskpro 386 had the full support of

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

, chairman of Microsoft at the time. Speaking retrospectively in 1997, Gates expressed:

A big milestone
n the history of the personal computer industry N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
was that the folks at IBM didn't trust the 386. They didn't think it would get done. So we encouraged Compaq to go ahead and just do a 386 machine. That was the first time people started to get a sense that it wasn't just IBM setting the standards, that this industry had a life of its own, and that companies like Compaq and Intel were in there doing new things that people should pay attention to.

Early prototypes of the Deskpro 386 featured were designed around the 12-MHz clock speed of the earliest production batches of the 80386 and so featured a 6-MHz bus clock. By the time the Deskpro 386 came out, yields of 16-MHz 386's had reached acceptable numbers, and so the bus clock was upgraded to 8 MHz. Regarding RAM, four different paths were taken by Stimac's team to determine the best memory configuration for both performance and cost. A static-column DRAM design was chosen as the winner, against pure page mode DRAM, traditional asynchronous DRAM, and DRAM backed with cache. On the mass storage front, the use of

SCSI Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...

hard drives was considered early on but abandoned due to a performance penalty incurred with SCSI drive controllers over the ISA bus. They found a vendor of ESDI drives that were able to put the controller hardware onto the drive itself, leading to acceptable performance.

Release

released the Deskpro 386 was released on September 9, 1986, concurrent with a formal announcement at a gala hosted at

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Gates attended, as did Compaq president Rod Canion and chairman

Ben Rosen Benjamin "Ben" M. Rosen (born March 11, 1933) is the former chairman and former acting chief executive officer of Compaq and a co-founder of Sevin Rosen Funds. Early life Rosen was born to a American Jews, Jewish family in New Orleans, Louisiana ...

. The Deskpro 386 was the first implementation of the 80386 processor in a computer system for sale to the public. The Model 40 retailed for US$6,499 (equivalent to $ in 2022), the Model 70 for $7,299, and the Model 130 for $8,799 (equivalent to $ in 2022). While relatively steep, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' noted that Compaq set the prices "in the lower range of what industry analysts have been predicting such machines would cost". Journalists immediately latched onto Compaq's status as a compatible maker revising a major component of the

''de facto'' standard, with ''

InfoWorld ''InfoWorld'' (abbreviated IW) is an information technology media business. Founded in 1978, it began as a monthly magazine. In 2007, it transitioned to a web-only publication. Its parent company today is International Data Group, and its sister ...

'' running the headline on the cover page of their September 15, 1986, issue: "Compaq Introduces 386 PC, Challenges IBM to Match It". In the article, Canion was quoted warning IBM that they had within six months to respond with a 386-based machine of their own lest they lose serious market share, while also attempting to quash uncertainty over the Deskpro 386's potential incompatibilities that IBM might try to convey. IBM eventually released their first 386-based PC—the Personal System/2 Model 80—in August 1987, nearly a year after the Deskpro 386's release.

Sales

Despite overall sales of 386-based personal computers not ramping up until 1989, Compaq had sold 25,000 units of the Deskpro 386 by February 1987. This was barely six months after its market introduction, which '' Dun's Business Month'' said represented "extraordinary acceptance" for a over-$6,500 computer based on a cutting-edge chip, with no operating system on the market natively supporting it yet. Journalist Laton McCartney wrote that the Deskpro 386 was popular among corporate executives and financial analysts who needed number-crunching power. During the second quarter of 1987, Compaq sold another 90,000 units of the Deskpro 386, according to a technology industry analyst. Compaq reported selling out of the Deskpro 386 by the end of 1987, and in 1988 the lineup generated the most revenue out of any Compaq's products, despite the older Deskpro 286 actually outselling the Deskpro 386 in terms of quantity.

Reception

The Deskpro 386 was warmly received by the technology press. In ''InfoWorld'', Stephen Satchell called it the "hottest IBM PC compatible now available. The Deskpro 386 is twice as fast as any AT-style machine we've tested, and its price is not out of line for such a powerful machine." Bill Howard and William Wong of '' PC Magazine'' summarized: "Well-built and exceptionally PC compatible, the first 386-based PC is a screamer. It makes most ATs look like slugs." Tom Hill of ''

The Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Ca ...

'' wrote that the result of its increased processing speed and fast hard drive "is a high-quality, quiet-running personal computer of unmatched performance and potential." Writing retrospectively in 2006, ''

PC World ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tec ...

'' called the Deskpro 386 the second greatest personal computer of all time, behind the original

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-mold ...

Later models

Compaq continued releasing updated models of the Deskpro 386 as faster revisions of the 386 chip were introduced by Intel. In 1987, the company released the Deskpro 386/20, based on the 20-MHz 386 and one of the first microcomputers to use that revision of the chip. It was the fastest IBM PC compatible that ''InfoWorld'' had reviewed up to that point, in November 1987. In 1988, the company released the Deskpro 386/25 and the Deskpro 386S—the former based on the 25-MHz 386 and the latter based on Intel's lower-cost

386SX The Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistorsinga new performance standard for 386 computers", albeit at a steep price of US$10,000. One of the last entries in the Deskpro 386 line was the Deskpro 386n and Deskpro 386s/20n, which bore smaller, thinner cases (described by ''InfoWorld'' as "trimline") and 386SX processors. These Deskpros were meant for local-area networking and featured less expansion slots but were much lower-cost.

References

{{Compaq Computer-related introductions in 1986 X86 Compaq computers