Reverse engineers are racing against time to complete designs that are functionally equivalent to the Intel 80386 but do not infringe any of Intel’s copyrights, we wrote last July (CI No 716) – and the first such microprocessor could be just around the corner. An analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette told the Dow Jones Professional Investor Report that Chips & Technologies Inc, Santa Clara is believed to be developing an 80386-compatible microprocessor that will deliver significantly higher performance than the original. Intel has irritated customers for the 80386 by failing to get anywhere near to meeting demand for the part while steadfastly refusing to licence a second source, but if legal clones of the microprocessor start to appear, that policy is likely to rebound on the company.
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