This is a CPU I like because of two reasons: it's quite basic and noticeably faster than a 8086 / 8088. Secondly it's the packaging. We all know today's Land Grid Array (LGA) CPU's like the Core 2, i7 and second/third generation Opteron CPU's but most people don't know that 2004 wasn't the first time LGA-like CPU's were produced. The 286 processor can be seen in three types: PGA (with pins), CLCC (ceramic leadless carrier chip) and PLCC (plastic leadless carrier chip). CLCC is the one that looks a bit like today's LGA sockets.
The first 286 (running at 6MHz) was introduced in 1982 and was used several years after. The last 286 CPU's probably shipped in early 90's and featured clock frequencies of 16MHz, 20MHz and even 25MHz! The last two are very hard to find as newer CPU's like the 386 and 486 were already available at the time. Though I always wonder if a 386 at 20MHz or 25MHz is much faster in normal DOS applications. Hopefully benchmarks will tell us.
Compared to the 8086 / 8088 the 286 had more performance per clock cycle, a 24-bit address bus to address up to 16MB RAM and the 286 could run in protected mode. Unfortunately the 286 could not get out of the protected mode (back to real mode) without resetting the CPU. This caused that programmers didn't start to use the protected mode until the arrival of the 386 in 1985. > Read more
Intel R80286 8 'N/A'
