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Personal computer

Intel 80286 PC

A representative 12.5 MHz 80286 desktop configuration with 512 KiB of DRAM and a period display adapter.

Manufacturer
PC industry
Released
1982
Region
Worldwide
Record status
provisional

Configuration

12.5 MHz reference configuration

Component Role Count Clock Capacity
Intel 80286 Main CPU 1 12.5 MHz Nominal clock not applicable Peak clock —
IBM PC display adapter GPU 1 unknown Nominal clock —
Early PC dynamic RAM System memory 1 — 512 KiB

Figures for the whole machine

Intel 80286 PC: system figures

provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.

Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Memory capacity whole-system provisional 512 KiB Confirmed Vendor-rated Design capacity Stated by the vendor This figure remains provisional until the cited source is corroborated for the exact configuration.

Figures for its components

Intel 80286

provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.

Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Clock frequency cpu 12.5 MHz Confirmed Vendor-rated Nominal clock Stated by the vendor Intel's speed-grade table lists three variants. This reference configuration uses the fastest one; it is not a single, named PC model.
Dhrystone MIPS per MHz cpu provisional 0.135 DMIPS/MHz Reported Measured Benchmark run Published independently dhrystone 2.1 A named historic Dhrystone 2.1 result, normalized by the run clock; the one-source result remains provisional.
3 documented absences
Intel 80286: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Clock frequency cpu provisional not applicable The 80286 predates dynamic turbo modes. Not stated Vendor-rated Peak clock Stated by the vendor This figure remains provisional until the cited source is corroborated for the exact configuration.
Peak FP32 rate cpu provisional not applicable The 80286 has no integrated floating-point unit; an 80287 would be a separately fitted coprocessor. Not stated Vendor-rated Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor This figure remains provisional until the cited source is corroborated for the exact configuration.
Thermal design power cpu provisional unknown The absence is real and now documented, and this is the one period x86 part whose datasheet does print a wattage: 3.3 W. It prints it under ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM RATINGS, beside a warning that these are stress ratings only and that operation beyond the Operating Conditions is not recommended — a limit past which the part is damaged, not a target a cooling solution is designed to. The operating specification for what this processor consumes is a current: 600 mA maximum at a 0°C turn-on. Not stated Vendor-rated Rated power Stated by the vendor Kept unknown deliberately rather than for want of a document. Recording 3.3 W here would publish an absolute-maximum stress rating as a thermal design power, which is the same error as reading a power-supply rating off a nameplate and calling it a draw. The figure is not even independent of the current beside it — 600 mA at the top of the 5 V ±5% tolerance is 3.15 W — so it is that ceiling rounded up. Anyone who quotes 3.3 W for an 80286 is quoting this line.
2 documented absences
IBM PC display adapter: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Clock frequency gpu provisional unknown MDA and CGA boards use distinct timing crystals; this display-adapter class has no one GPU clock. Not stated Vendor-rated Nominal clock Stated by the vendor This figure remains provisional until the cited source is corroborated for the exact configuration.
Peak FP32 rate gpu provisional not applicable These raster and text display adapters have no floating-point execution hardware. Not stated Vendor-rated Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor This figure remains provisional until the cited source is corroborated for the exact configuration.
1 documented absence
Early PC dynamic RAM: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Memory bandwidth memory provisional unknown The cited processor documentation does not specify a sustained or peak byte-transfer rate for the chosen early-PC memory configurations. Not stated Vendor-rated Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor This figure remains provisional until the cited source is corroborated for the exact configuration.

Editorial notes

This entry has no photograph, and that is a decision rather than a gap: it describes a processor in a typical machine of its era rather than a model anybody sold, so there is no object to photograph. A picture of some particular case would attach a claim about that computer to a record which deliberately makes none.

Sources