What Happened to Cyrix Processors? Why Cyrix Processors Disappeared

Описание: The Cyrix 6x86 sold as a P166+ while its clock ran at 133 MHz, and it matched a Pentium on office work for less money. Within four years, the company behind it had been sold twice.

Texas-based Cyrix designed x86 processors but never owned a factory. To get wafers made, it licensed its designs to SGS-Thomson, Texas Instruments and IBM, and IBM could sell Cyrix-designed chips of its own. Gross margin fell from 51% in 1994 to 26% in 1996. National Semiconductor paid about $550 million for Cyrix in 1997, then sold the processor line to VIA in 1999 for $75 million plus royalties.

In this documentary:
• 1992: How Cyrix put 486 software on 386 motherboards
• 1994: Why the IBM factory deal cost more than money
• 1996: What the P166+ rating actually measured
• 1997: How the MediaGX helped Compaq sell a $999 PC
• 1999: Why National walked away from Cyrix

If you once chose the box marked P166+ because it cost less than the Pentium beside it, tell us what you ran on it.

What remains is the MediaGX, reborn as the Geode line AMD bought in 2003.

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Sources:
Cyrix Corporation Form 10-K405 for fiscal 1996 - Cyrix Corporation, 1997: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/86...
Cyrix Corporation Form S-3 registration statement - Cyrix Corporation, 1996: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/86...
Cyrix Corp. v. Intel Corp., 77 F.3d 1381 - U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 1996: https://static.case.law/f3d/77/cases/1381-...
National Quits PC Processors - Microprocessor Report, Michael Slater, 1999: https://www.cecs.uci.edu/~papers/mpr/MPR/1...

#Cyrix #Cyrix6x86 #CyrixMediaGX #NationalSemiconductor #IntelVsCyrix #x86 #RetroPC #PCHistory #ComputingHistory #90sComputers

Disclaimer: The voiceover used in this video was generated using AI.