My Hardware - Processors
Well, it's been a long trek since my ol' 8088. I've walked the path from DOS 1.0 (still have the manuals) to Win98SE, over a range of 6 CPU types. Sharok has grown from the x286 to the x386DX25, skipping the x486 century to drop into x586 with a 133, then a 200Mhz. I waited over the PII and crashed on the PIII 450. At that time, I assembled Falmir, adding a PIII 500Mhz in the process. Finally, buckling under the sheer strain of seeing AMD finally come through with the best CPU after a decade of bloody bickering, I released Sharok to the domination of the Athlon early this year.
Here is a time chart, for your perusal :
| Date | Element | |
|---|---|---|
| 1983 | My first IBM PC 8088 (4.86Mhz !) | |
| 1990 | Wow, the power of the x286 (8 or 12Mhz !) | |
| 1992 | Quantum leap : a 386DX25 | |
| August 1996 | Pentium 133Mhz | |
| 1998 | Pentium 200Mhz | |
| January 1999 | PIII 450Mhz Slot 1 | |
| June 2000 | Celeron 466 | |
| July 2000 | PIII 500Mhz Slot 1 | |
| April 2001 | Athlon 1Ghz | |
| December 2001 |
Athlon XP 1600 |
|
| May 2002 |
Athlon XP 2000 |
|
| January 2003 |
Athlon XP 2600 |
|
| October 2003 |
Athlon XP 3000 |
Two things are of note here. First, until Y2K, I was almost an all-Intel shop (except the 386). After that, the Athlon lured me like a seaman goes after a siren. Whatever the arguments of the competition at the time, Intel has had the dominant position for all of (the consumer market) CPU history until that fateful day when the Athlon finally shattered Intel's crown.
You will also note (or remember) that before the x386, the power of the processor was in its type, not its frequency. On that same aspect, material conforming to power specifications was a given up to the appearance of the 3D card gaming industry. Before the wonderful days of the Voodoo and other Rage cards, the basic user always thought that the only possible increase in power was to upgrade the CPU. Actually, it is the Pentium range that started people looking into bus frequency and RAM upgrades. Before, you took what you got and you stuck with it to the bitter end. Only the rich could pay for hardware upgrades whenever they came out.
I mean, look at the chart again. Over the first 13 years (gasp!) I bought 4 CPUs. In the following five, I bought an average of one per year. After that, its almost been 2 per year ! There are two different aspects to explain this : first, before 1998 I was a student, only after did I earn a salary. Next, it is only since 1995 that the PC industry has really started giving affordable prices.
On the graphics side, the tale is even more telling. Turn the page for a time chart on my video cards.