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54-830: Netzero bought FreeInet around 1998. FreeInet was the first free national internet service provider. NetZero was launched in October 1998, founded by Ronald T. Burr (original CEO), Stacy Haitsuka, Marwan Zebian and Harold MacKenzie. NetZero grew to 1,000,000 users in six months. NetZero's model was free Internet access to attract an audience for highly targeted advertising. NetZero was the first company to invent real-time URL targeted advertising based on surfing patterns under US patent 6,366,298 Monitoring of Individual Internet Usage. The founders raised $ 60 million in venture capital in four separate equity financings. Venture investors included idealab , Draper Fisher Jurvetson , Foundation Capital , Clearstone Venture Partners and Compaq . NetZero signed

108-523: A 386 to be set up to act like it had a flat memory model in protected mode despite the fact that it uses a segmented memory model in all modes was arguably the most important feature change for the x86 processor family until AMD released the x86-64 in 2003. Several new instructions have been added to 386: BSF, BSR, BT, BTS, BTR, BTC, CDQ, CWDE, LFS, LGS, LSS, MOVSX, MOVZX, SETcc, SHLD, SHRD. Two new segment registers have been added (FS and GS) for general-purpose programs. The single Machine Status Word of

162-656: A Linux version of the NetZero software advertised as being for Linspire , however the software could be installed on any Debian -based i386 or x86-64 Linux distribution , NetZero can also be installed on any RPM -based Linux distribution as long as Alien is used to convert the NetZero Debian package into an RPM package. In addition, the Linux version requires the Java Runtime Environment to be installed prior to use of

216-427: A complete simulation of system board. This die contains the 386 CPU core, AT Bus Controller, Memory Controller, Internal Bus Controller, Cache Control Logic along with Cache Tag SRAM and Clock. This CPU contains 855,000 transistors using one-micron CHMOS IV technology. It was available for USD $ 176 in 1,000 unit in quantities. The 25-MHz version was available in samples for USD $ 189 in 1,000-piece quantities, that version

270-431: A critical constraint at the time. Performance differences were due not only to differing data-bus widths, but also due to performance-enhancing cache memories often employed on boards using the original chip. This version can run the 32-bit application software at 70 to 90 percent compare to the regular Intel386 DX CPU. The original 80386 was subsequently renamed i386DX to avoid confusion. However, Intel subsequently used

324-460: A distribution deal with Compaq and was the only ISP to be included in the out-of-box experience (OOBE). In September 1999, NetZero went public on the NASDAQ exchange with the symbol NZRO. Mark Goldston was hired as CEO, Charles Hilliard was hired as CFO and Ronald Burr took the position of President and Chief Technology Officer. NetZero's most prominent advertising placement was as part of NetZero @

378-424: A double sigma (ΣΣ), and affected processors were marked "16 BIT S/W ONLY". These latter processors were sold as good parts, since at the time 32-bit capability was not relevant for most users. The i387 math coprocessor was not ready in time for the introduction of the 80386, and so many of the early 80386 motherboards instead provided a socket and hardware logic to make use of an 80287 . In this configuration

432-474: A home wireless broadband service which is intended to provide wireless access in the home or office. In 2013, it debuted NetZero DataShield, a personal virtual private network which encrypts and protects users’ data when they connect to the Internet via any WiFi connection, including public WiFi access points. The company offers NetZero Hotspot. Ronald T. Burr Ronald Terry Burr (born September 30, 1964)

486-521: A leading pay-per call internet company targeting local business. As of 2010, Westlake Venture Partners has funded over 15 companies 5 with successful exits, one pending and two on the horizon. In 2009, Burr became Chief Operations Officer for WebVisible, a Software as a Service (SaaS) company based in Southern California. In 2010, Burr became the chief executive officer for WebVisible. He held this position until December 27, 2011, when he sent

540-406: A note to his employees stating the company was to close due to unpaid debts. I386 The Intel 386 , originally released as the 80386 and later renamed i386 , was the first x86 32-bit microprocessor designed by Intel . Pre-production samples of the 386 were released to select developers in 1985, while mass production commenced in 1986. The processor was a significant evolution in

594-530: A permanent toolbar or on a "banner" that was shown when online. NetZero sued them for infringing on a banner ad patent. After the dot-com bust in early 2000, NetZero acquired its competitors as each went bankrupt. In addition NetZero acquired AimTV which displayed full video quality 30 second ad spots as well as Simpli and RocketCash. Starting in January 2001, NetZero began charging for access time over 40 hours per month. Users who exceeded 40 hours were directed to

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648-650: A wide range of upgrades, for both SX and DX systems. The most popular ones were based on the Cyrix 486DLC/SLC core, which typically offered a substantial speed improvement due to its more efficient instruction pipeline and internal L1 SRAM cache. The cache was usually 1 KB, or sometimes 8 KB in the TI variant. Some of these upgrade chips (such as the 486DRx2/SRx2) were marketed by Cyrix themselves, but they were more commonly found in kits offered by upgrade specialists such as Kingston, Evergreen Technologies and Improve-It Technologies. Some of

702-494: Is a daughtercard with 20-MHz 386SX and 16-Kbyte direct-mapped cache SRAM memory. It directly plugs into the existing 286 socket with no cables, jumpers or switches. In the winter of 1992, an additional to this module now supported to IBM PS/2 Model 50 Z , 30 286 and 25 286 systems. Both modules were available for USD $ 495. A specially packaged Intel 486 DX and a dummy floating-point unit (FPU) designed as pin-compatible replacements for an i386 processor and i387 FPU. This

756-501: Is an American Internet and media entrepreneur, based in Los Angeles, CA. He is the holder of nine internet patents and the co-founder and original chief executive officer of NetZero . During his career he has created over $ 1 Billion in value for shareholders. Burr was named by InfoWorld as one of the Top 50 IT executives at xSP's, by Interactive Week as one of the 25 Top Unsung Hero's of

810-633: Is assumed, specifically, that the DS and ES segments address the same region of memory. The first PC based on the Intel 80386 was the Compaq Deskpro 386 . By extending the 16/24-bit IBM PC/AT standard into a natively 32-bit computing environment, Compaq became the first company to design and manufacture such a major technical hardware advance on the PC platform. IBM was offered use of the 80386, but had manufacturing rights for

864-457: Is copied one byte (8-bit character) at a time. The example code uses the EBP (base pointer) register to establish a call frame , an area on the stack that contains all of the parameters and local variables for the execution of the subroutine. This kind of calling convention supports reentrant and recursive code and has been used by Algol-like languages since the late 1950s. A flat memory model

918-564: The Intel 80286 , the 80386 added a three-stage instruction pipeline which it brings up to total of 6-stage instruction pipeline, extended the architecture from 16-bits to 32-bits, and added an on-chip memory management unit . This paging translation unit made it much easier to implement operating systems that used virtual memory . It also offered support for register debugging . The 80386 featured three operating modes: real mode, protected mode and virtual mode. The protected mode , which debuted in

972-455: The x86 architecture, extending a long line of processors that stretched back to the Intel 8008 . The 386 was the central processing unit (CPU) of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time. The 386 began to fall out of public use starting with the release of the i486 processor in 1989, while in embedded systems the 386 remained in widespread use until Intel finally discontinued it in 2007. Compared to its predecessor

1026-451: The "DX" suffix to refer to the floating-point capability of the i486DX. The 387SX was an 80387 part that was compatible with the 386SX (i.e. with a 16-bit databus). The 386SX was packaged in a surface-mount QFP and sometimes offered in a socket to allow for an upgrade. The 16 MHz 386SX contains the 100-lead BQFP. It was available for USD $ 165 in quantities of 1000. It has the performance of 2.5 to 3 MIPS as well. The low-power version

1080-521: The 286 grew into eight control registers CR0–CR7. Debug registers DR0–DR7 were added for hardware breakpoints. New forms of the MOV instruction are used to access them. The chief architect in the development of the 80386 was John H. Crawford . He was responsible for extending the 80286 architecture and instruction set to 32-bits, and then led the microprogram development for the 80386 chip. The i486 and P5 Pentium line of processors were descendants of

1134-423: The 286, was extended to allow the 386 to address up to 4 GB of memory. With the addition of segmented addressing system, it can expand up to 64 terabytes of virtual memory. The all new virtual 8086 mode (or VM86 ) made it possible to run one or more real mode programs in a protected environment, although some programs were not compatible. It features scaled indexing and 64-bit barrel shifter. The ability for

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1188-401: The 386DX remained the high-end variant used in workstations, servers, and other demanding tasks. The CPU remained fully 32-bit internally, but the 16-bit bus was intended to simplify circuit-board layout and reduce total cost. The 16-bit bus simplified designs but hampered performance. Only 24 pins were connected to the address bus, therefore limiting addressing to 16  MB , but this was not

1242-413: The 80286, was extended to allow the 386 to address up to 4 GB of memory. With the addition of segmented addressing system, it can expand up to 64 terabytes of virtual memory. The all new virtual 8086 mode (or VM86 ) made it possible to run one or more real mode programs in a protected environment, although some programs were not compatible. The 32-bit i386 can correctly execute most code intended for

1296-406: The 80386 to debut at 16 MHz. However, due to poor yields, it was instead introduced at 12.5 MHz. Early in production, Intel discovered a marginal circuit that could cause a system to return incorrect results from 32-bit multiply operations. Not all of the processors already manufactured were affected, so Intel tested its inventory. Processors that were found to be bug-free were marked with

1350-587: The 80386's mainstream adoption. The first personal computer to make use of the 80386 was the Deskpro 386 , designed and manufactured by Compaq ; this marked the first time a fundamental component in the IBM PC compatible de facto standard was updated by a company other than IBM . The first versions of the 386 had 275,000 transistors. The 20 MHz version operates at 4–5 MIPS . It also performs between 8,000 and 9,000 Dhrystones per second. The 25 MHz 386 version

1404-514: The CPU being unaware, which caused problems on CPUs with internal caches. Overall, it was very difficult to configure upgrades to produce the results advertised on the packaging, and upgrades were often not very stable or not fully compatible. Original version, released in October 1985. The 16 MHz version was available for 299  USD in quantities of 100. The 20 MHz version was available for US$ 599 in quantities of 100. The 33 MHz version

1458-601: The FPU operated asynchronously to the CPU, usually with a clock rate of 10 MHz. The original Compaq Deskpro 386 is an example of such design. However, this was an annoyance to those who depended on floating-point performance, as the performance advantages of the 80387 over the 80287 were significant. Intel later offered a modified version of its 486DX in i386 packaging, branded as the Intel RapidCAD . This provided an upgrade path for users with i386-compatible hardware. The upgrade

1512-611: The Half for the NBA on NBC ' s halftime show in the early 2000s, replacing Prudential . In late 1999 several other companies began to copy the NetZero free access model including Juno Online Services , (which since August 1996 had offered E-mail but not World Wide Web access for free), Spinway launched with Yahoo! and AltaVista , Freei and BlueLight Internet , which was originally owned by Kmart . They claimed to offer free Internet service forever, in exchange for displaying ads, either on

1566-581: The Net and was a finalist for Ernst & Young 's Entrepreneur of the Year award. Burr was also the chief executive officer of online advertising company WebVisible, Inc. until its closure in 2011 due to unpaid debts. In 1983, Burr landed a position at Vault Corporation, an early pioneer in the software industry and creators of the Prolok Disk . Burr eventually became Vice President of Software Development. In 1989, Burr

1620-540: The NetZero dialer. However the current Linux version of the dialer no longer functions properly with the service since 2009. While continuing to provide nationwide dial-up access service (and DSL broadband service) in March 2012, NetZero launched a mobile broadband service for users who purchase their hardware, using the Clearwire network. It has since expanded the service across the nationwide Sprint 3G network, and also launched

1674-837: The areas of online advertising and market research. NetZero went public in Sept of 1999 and formed United Online in a later merger. Interactive Week named him one of the “25 Top Unsung Heroes of the Net”, InfoWorld named him in the “Top 50 IT executives at xSP’s” and he is on Response Magazine's list of the “21 people leading us into the 21st Century.” In 2001, Burr co-founded Westlake Venture Partners with Stacy Haitsuka, Harold MacKenzie and Marwan Zebian . Westlake Venture Partners invests in emerging companies providing both hands-on management and capital investments. Through Westlake Venture Partners, Burr has served in operational and advisory roles for various companies including of Layer 2 Networks, and Jambo,

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1728-524: The chip for embedded systems . Such systems using an i386 or one of many derivatives are common in aerospace technology and electronic musical instruments, among others. Some mobile phones also used (later fully static CMOS variants of) the i386 processor, such as the BlackBerry 950 and Nokia 9000 Communicator . Linux continued to support i386 processors until December 11, 2012, when the kernel cut 386-specific instructions in version 3.8. The processor

1782-512: The chips in significant quantities commenced in June 1986, along with the first plug-in device that allowed existing 80286-based computers to be upgraded to the 386, the Translator 386 by American Computer and Peripheral . The 80386 being sole sourced made the CPU very expensive. Mainboards for 80386-based computer systems were cumbersome and expensive at first, but manufacturing was justified upon

1836-453: The company's "Platinum" service, which provided unlimited access for $ 9.95 per month. With the income statement reinvigorated through charging heavier users of the system, NetZero merged with its rival Juno Online Services and created a new holding company, United Online which traded on NASDAQ under the symbol UNTD until Netzero was acquired by B. Riley Financial in July 2016. NetZero later lowered

1890-469: The earlier 80286 . IBM therefore chose to rely on that processor for a couple more years. The early success of the Compaq Deskpro 386 played an important role in legitimizing the PC "clone" industry and in de-emphasizing IBM's role within it. The first computer system sold with the 386SX was the Compaq Deskpro 386S , released in July 1988. Prior to the 386, the difficulty of manufacturing microchips and

1944-442: The earlier 16-bit processors such as 8086 and 80286 that were ubiquitous in early PCs . As the original implementation of the 32-bit extension of the 80286 architecture, the i386 instruction set, programming model, and binary encodings are still the common denominator for all 32-bit x86 processors, which is termed the i386 architecture , x86 , or IA-32 , depending on context. Over the years, successively newer implementations of

1998-500: The fastest CPU upgrade modules featured the IBM SLC/DLC family (notable for its 16 KB L1 cache), or even the Intel 486 itself. Many 386 upgrade kits were advertised as being simple drop-in replacements, but often required complicated software to control the cache or clock doubling. Part of the problem was that on most 386 motherboards, the A20 line was controlled entirely by the motherboard with

2052-413: The i386 design. The following data types are directly supported and thus implemented by one or more i386 machine instructions ; these data types are briefly described here. : The following i386 assembly source code is for a subroutine named _strtolower that copies a null-terminated ASCIIZ character string from one location to another, converting all alphabetic characters to lower case. The string

2106-553: The i386DX. The i386SL was first available at 20 MHz clock speed, with the 25 MHz model later added. With this system, it reduced up to 40% foot space than the Intel386 SX system. That translate to lighter and more portable cost-effective system. Dave Vannier, the chief architect designed this microprocessor. It took them two years to complete this design since it uses the existing 386 architecture to implement. That assist with advanced computer-aided design tools which includes

2160-585: The limits of 56k modems , the service does not increase transmission speed. Instead, the service prefetches HTML markup, JavaScript and other small files and compresses them. Video, images, and other non-text files are not compressed. This technology also utilizes the user's cache to prevent redownloading. A newer service, "NetZero DSL" was released soon after. In 2012, the company said they still had about 750,000 dial-up subscribers. NetZero has versions of its proprietary dial-up software for computers running Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X . NetZero previously offered

2214-640: The maintenance burden around SMP primitives, the Linux kernel developers cut support from the development codebase in December 2012, later released as kernel version 3.8. Among the BSDs , FreeBSD 's 5.x releases were the last to support the 386; support for the 386SX was cut with release 5.2, while the remaining 386 support was removed with the 6.0 release in 2005. OpenBSD removed 386 support with version 4.2 (2007), DragonFly BSD with release 1.12 (2008), and NetBSD with

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2268-646: The processor as second sources . This decision was ultimately crucial to Intel's success in the market. The 386 was the first significant microprocessor to be single-sourced . Single-sourcing the 386 allowed Intel greater control over its development and substantially greater profits in later years. AMD introduced its compatible Am386 processor in March 1991 after overcoming legal obstacles, thus ending Intel's 4.7-year monopoly on 386-compatible processors. From 1991 IBM also manufactured 386 chips under license for use only in IBM PCs and boards. Intel originally intended for

2322-412: The same architecture have become several hundreds of times faster than the original 80386 (and thousands of times faster than the 8086). Development of i386 technology began in 1982 under the internal name of P3. The tape-out of the 80386 development was finalized in July 1985. The 80386 was introduced as pre-production samples for software development workstations in October 1985. Manufacturing of

2376-429: The threshold for their free service to 10 hours per month. In June 2005, the company released a new client that replaced the advertising bar with an Internet Explorer Browser Helper Object . In July 2005, NetZero introduced a service called "3G," standing for the "third generation of Internet." The company vaguely claimed it was so fast, "you wouldn't believe it wasn't broadband ." As dial-up connections are subject to

2430-418: The uncertainty of reliable supply made it desirable that any mass-market semiconductor be multi-sourced, that is, made by two or more manufacturers, the second and subsequent companies manufacturing under license from the originating company. The 386 was for a time (4.7 years) only available from Intel, since Andy Grove , Intel's CEO at the time, made the decision not to encourage other manufacturers to produce

2484-459: Was a pair of chips that replaced both the i386 and i387. Since the 486DX design contained an FPU , the chip that replaced the i386 contained the floating-point functionality, and the chip that replaced the i387 served very little purpose. However, the latter chip was necessary in order to provide the FERR signal to the mainboard and appear to function as a normal floating-point unit. Third parties offered

2538-774: Was a significant evolution in the x86 architecture, and extended a long line of processors that stretched back to the Intel 8008 . The predecessor of the 80386 was the Intel 80286 , a 16-bit processor with a segment -based memory management and protection system. The 80386 added a three-stage instruction pipeline which it brought up to total of 6-stage instruction pipeline, extended the architecture from 16-bits to 32-bits , and added an on-chip memory management unit . This paging translation unit made it much easier to implement operating systems that used virtual memory . It also offered support for register debugging . The 80386 featured three operating modes: real mode, protected mode and virtual mode. The protected mode , which debuted in

2592-660: Was an embedded version of the 80386SX which did not support real mode and paging in the MMU. System and power management and built in peripheral and support functions: Two 82C59A interrupt controllers; Timer, Counter (3 channels); Asynchronous SIO (2 channels); Synchronous SIO (1 channel); Watchdog timer (Hardware/Software); PIO . Usable with 80387SX or i387SL FPUs. Transparent power management mode, integrated MMU and TTL compatible inputs (only 386SXSA). Usable with i387SX or i387SL FPUs. Transparent power management mode and integrated MMU . Usable with i387SX or i387SL FPUs. Windows 95

2646-505: Was available on April 10, 1989. The military version was made using the CHMOS III process technology. It was made to withstand 105 Rads (Si) or greater. It was available for US$ 945 each in quantities of 100. In 1988, Intel introduced the 80386SX , most often referred to as the 386SX , a cut-down version of the 80386 with a 16-bit data bus, mainly intended for lower-cost PCs aimed at the home, educational, and small-business markets, while

2700-575: Was available on April 10, 1989. This version that uses 20 to 30 percent less power and has higher operating temperature up to 100 °C than the regular version. The 80386SL was introduced as a power-efficient version for laptop computers . The processor offered several power-management options (e.g. SMM ), as well as different "sleep" modes to conserve battery power. It also contained support for an external cache of 16 to 64 KB . The extra functions and circuit implementation techniques caused this variant to have over 3 times as many transistors as

2754-432: Was capable of 7 MIPS. A 33 MHz 80386 was reportedly measured to operate at about 11.4 and 11.5 MIPS. At that same speed, it has the performance of 8 VAX MIPS . These processors were running about 4.4 clocks per instruction. In May 2006, Intel announced that i386 production would stop at the end of September 2007. Although it had long been obsolete as a personal computer CPU, Intel and others had continued making

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2808-477: Was finally made available in production by the end of 1991. It supports up to 32 Megabytes of physical address space. There was a 20-MHz cacheless version of Intel386 SL microprocessor, at the press time samples of this version were available for USD $ 101 in 1,000-piece quantities. In May 1991, Intel introduced an upgrade for IBM PS/2 Model 50 and 60 systems which contain 80286 microprocessors, converting them to full blown 32-bit systems. The SnapIn 386 module

2862-593: Was recruited as a senior technology consultant for IBM's OS/2 . In 1992, Burr co-founded Impact Software, with Stacy Haitsuka, Harold McKenzie and Marwan Zebian, an international IT consulting firm. In 1998 they sold Impact Software to another IT Consulting firm. In 1997, Burr co-founded NetZero , with Stacy Haitsuka, Harold McKenzie and Marwan Zebian. In 1998, NetZero received initial venture capital from idealab and Bill Gross and later Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Compaq . Burr managed NetZero through its early growth. Burr holds nine Internet technology patents in

2916-525: Was the only entry in the Windows 9x series to officially support the 386, requiring at least a 386DX, though a 486 or better was recommended; Windows 98 requires a 486DX or higher. In the Windows NT family, Windows NT 3.51 was the last version with 386 support. Debian GNU/Linux dropped 386 support with the release of 3.1 ( Sarge ) in 2005 and completely removed support in 2007 with 4.0 ( Etch ). Citing

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