Hacker News Reader

My 286 was nominal 8 MHz, but the red turbo button boosted that to 12 MHz. How far did you manage to push it?

The turbo button actually was used to underclock the CPU's speed, not increase it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button

It could work either way. It would be better to phrase it as "outside of turbo mode it operated as a 4mhz 8086, with turbo it operated faster (usually the CPU's actual rated speed)".

Hah that reminds me of the way of a supermarket chain to shill rebates.

Turbo button not pressed, run at lower speed than rated

Turbo button pressed, run at rated speed

No rebate, sell at a huge margin

Rebate, sell at a minimum margin

The linked article suggests it could be both ways for button behavior. But I see what you mean for how it achieves it.

Yup, on many boards you could either jumper the direction (turbo switch closed= slow or closed = fast), or set it in the BIOS.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com