Systems built around Intel's new 100-MHz DX4 CPU offer faster performance and twice the on-chip cache of 486DX2 chips. And like the high-end (90 and 100 MHz) Pentiums, the DX4 runs at 3.3 V for low-power operation.
The low power consumption, low heat levels, and fast processing power of the DX4 chip are helping to make it the high-end processor of choice for many notebook designers (you'll find performance rankings in our October portables Lab Report, which is currently in its testing cycle). A handful of vendors began offering DX4 desktop systems as we prepared this report. But the DX4 as a desktop-system CPU is in doubt. For example, Gateway supplied a DX4 system for testing, but as we went to press, the company decided to stop marketing it.
Our t
ests showed that these systems provide an excellent alternative to the lower end of the Pentium market when used as Windows workstations (see the table; systems are listed in order of Windows speed). The fastest DX4 we tested, Micro Express's MicroFlex, was equivalent to the fastest 66-MHz Pentium (Cornell's Pentium Power Pak) in our Windows tests, and it undersold that relatively low-cost Pentium by around $1100 (the MicroFlex had a 500-MB hard drive and 16 MB of memory, versus 1 GB and 32 MB, respectively, in the Power Pak).
Nevertheless, the Pentium processor does offer some performance advantages. Data buses on the 486 are 32 bits wide, compared to the 64 bits on the Pentium. Also, the 486 includes 1.2 million transistors, compared to the Pentium's 3.1 million transistors. These differences become noteworthy in more computationally intensive applications. For example, the Hewlett-Packard Vectra VL2 posted the fastest SPECint Unix score among DX4s but was slower in this test than all the 60- and 66-
MHz Pentiums (see the Roll Call for Pentium Unix scores).
DX4 Systems Compared
CASE
VENDOR/PRODUCT PRICE TYPE
Micro Express MicroFlex-PCI/100 $3174 ***
Dell OmniPlex 4100 $5360 ****
HP Vectra VL2 $3627 ****
Compaq ProLinea DX4/100 $3048 ****
U N I X
VENDOR/PRODUCT WINDOWS DOS SPECINT
Micro Express MicroFlex-PCI/100 7.34 7.36 --*
Dell OmniPlex 4100 6.46 6.74 --*
HP Vectra VL2 5.27 6.49 45.68
Compaq ProLinea DX4/100 5.06 5.30 37.68
U N I X
VENDOR/PRODUCT SPECFP BYTE BUSES
Micro Express MicroFlex-PCI/100 --* --* EISA, VL**
Dell OmniPlex 4100 --* --* EISA, PCI
HP Vectra VL2 23.13 3.26 ISA, VL**
Compaq ProLi
nea DX4/100 21.09 1.94 ISA, proprietary
RAM (MB) HARD DRIVE
VENDOR/PRODUCT STD/MAX. (MB, TYPE) VIDEO
Micro Express MicroFlex-PCI/100 16/128 500, SCSI ATI Mach64
Dell OmniPlex 4100 16/128 500, SCSI ATI Mach32 68800AX
HP Vectra VL2 16/64 340, IDE Cirrus Logic 5428
Compaq ProLinea DX4/100 16/100 525, IDE Compaq QVision
* System could not run test.
** VL-Bus
Case type:
Tower ***
Desktop ****
Photograph: Micro Express MicroFlex-PCI/100
486DX4: A 100-Mhz Alternative To Pentiums?
