IBM 486SLC

IBM 486SLC

The 486SLC is an improved version of the IBM 386SLC, based on the Intel core. IBM 486SLC featured 16KB of L1 cache and the i486instruction set. It had 1.349 million transistors and a 69 mm die. It was manufactured in 1992. It came in a 100-pin BQFP package, with 33 MHz FSB speed. 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). Clock-for-clock, it was substantially faster than the similarly named Cyrix part, yielding performance broadly comparable to a similarly clocked 486SX in the 16-bit applications of its day. However, its narrow 16-bitbus, limited memory addressing capability (16 MB) and lack of on-chip FPU would prove to be major disadvantages under the new generation of 32-bit operating systems (such as Windows 95) that would become popular in following years.