Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Sunnyvale, yesterday stepped up the heat on Intel Corp with introduction of the Am386SXL reverse-engineered version of Intel’s 80386SX, and coming out with a 25MHz version where Intel’s fastest runs at 20MHz – and also requires less power than the Intel original, making it more attractive to builders of portable computers – its static design is claimed to require 35% less power than Intel offerings at the same clock speed. It can also be put into a standby mode where it draws less than a milliAmp compared with the 140mA required by the Intel 80386SX LP at its minimum frequency of 2MHz – all of which means, claims the company, that a machine whose batteries last 2 hours 45 minutes using the 20MHz Intel part, finds they last four hours 24 minutes with the 25MHz AMD chip. The Am386SXL-25 costs $89 for 1,000-up.
