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duskwuff • today at 4:34 AM • 2 replies • view on HN

A replica 386 would be impractically large - it's got around 275k transistors, compared to the 3.5k in the 6502. At the same scale as the MOnSter 6502, that'd be about a hundred square feet of PCB.

The number of layers isn't even remotely close to being a constraint. The real i386DX was manufactured on a process which only supported two metal layers, and a PCB version isn't subject to the same constraints as silicon.


Replies

geerlingguy • today at 5:01 AM

But in terms of rearranging the stack vertically; is that a possibility?

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Cieric • today at 5:01 AM

Interesting, thanks for the info.