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Man I'm old. I remember 5 and 1/4 inch floppies and 286 CPUs that you could upgrade to be faster for certain operations by buying a math co-processor. It was literally a DIP style IC chip youd insert on your mother board.
I remember upgrading my computer back then with one. It was a store in the city that had this glass case with various IC chips in plastic cases, no box or pretty packaging but it had a sort of sterile beauty to it with a little holographic sticker on it I think.
Its weird I was pretty young at the time, barely into my double digits. Only went to that particular store once. But I can recall exactly what the inside of the store looked like and even the city block it was on.
It invokes strong feelings of nostalgia.
@freemo I remember those days well. My first PC was an IBM clone, 286 a6 MHz, the processor was fast for the time. Not an Intel part, they had moved on to promoting the newer and higher profit 386 gen processors.
I also bought and installed the math coprocessor for my machine. Needed since I wanted to use AutoCAD, and it required it.
So I ordered a 287 Intel coprocessor. It was about $300 CAD at the time, early 1991 probably. Would be a lot more today with inflation accounted for, and I was worried of damaging it during installation.
Turns out it did not work. I don't remember exactly what the symptom was, but not good. I had a $300 part, bought mail order, and might be stuck with it. 😟
@freemo Yeah, that chip is pretty.
I had to return mine, when it did not work. Ordered another Intel part. Same thing happened. 😲
After buying and returning two expensive add-on chips, I decided to go to the local store who built my computer, and place an order with them. They ordered an AMD part, and when installed, it had problems too.
Turns out the motherboard was running too fast for the coprocessor - the highest speed 286 Intel made was 12 MHz, I think, so their 80287 was designed to pair with that.
The store replaced the motherboard (lucky for me, as they would not even consider it if I hadn't bought the copro from them). And then the co processor worked.
The system was a 286-16 MHz, 40 Megabytes HDD, dual floppies, VGA monitor, etc. Cost me $2,000 on Christmas 1990.
Similar specs with an entry level 386 famiky processor were close to $3,000 then.
Here's a photo of an AMD 80287, notice that it is rated for 10 MHz on the branding ( the -10 part number).