Back in the days when, commercially IBM Corp could do no wrong, the company became notorious for introducing changes into its processors between generations that users suspected were of no real benefit and were made simply to make life harder for the plug-compatible manufacturers, and after long study of IBM over the years, Intel Corp seems to have caught the infection: according to MicroScope the company plans to change the pin-out – the functions attached to each pin – in new versions of the 80386SX so that manufacturers will not be able to design a single processor board and decide according to circumstances whether to buy from Intel or from Advanced Micro Devices Inc at any given time; since Intel already does not enjoy the uncritical adoration of all its customers, the move is likely to backfire and persuade some to decide to buy their CPU chips from Advanced Micro only.
