[comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware] 0.7 wait states. Any good?

mason@robots.ox.ac.uk (Ian Mason) (03/04/91)

I am posting this for someone. However he does read the
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware newsgroup. 

----------------------------forwarded message------------------------------

I am looking at the specification of a 386SX-20MHz motherboard, and
saw that it has 0.7 wait states. Other motherboard specs just say 0
wait state. Is 0.7 wait state a sign of a bad board, or are other
motherboard manufacturers just rounding down to the nearest integer
?!? Is zero wait state really zero? If not, what's the typical value?

Thanks in advance.

Delman Lee
Email: delman@sun.eng.ox.ac.uk

basker@diku.dk (Tom Thuneby) (03/05/91)

mason@robots.ox.ac.uk (Ian Mason) writes:
(Forwarded from delman@sun.eng.ox.ax.uk)

> Is 0.7 wait state a sign of a bad board, or are other
>motherboard manufacturers just rounding down to the nearest integer
>?!? Is zero wait state really zero? If not, what's the typical value?

To the best of my (non-expert) knowledge, the following is true:
The value 0.7 is an average (wait states are integers). However, most
motherboard manufacturers give you their 'best case' (zero) instead.
Some claim 'less than 1 wait state', though.

A typical value could easily be 0.7. I believe that memory reads tends
to 0.5 wait state on the average, while writes push the average up a bit.

		Tom Thuneby