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Along with AMD, another rival to chipmaker Intel is that of Cyrix. Cyrix was for many years another company producing licence built processors fo Intel until they too chose to create their own processors. This site deals with the Cyrix 6x86/6x86+ and 6x86MX/MII processors. Both these designs are good in their own right and deserve to be given some consideration when purchasing a new or used PC system. The following pages dealing with Cyrix processors are: Cyrix Processors, A HistoryCyrix like AMD produced licence built "x86" processors for Intel during the years of the 80286 and 80386. After this, Cyrix decided to make their own processors and thus created the Cyrix 486. It was with the introduction of the Cyrix 486 DX-4, that Cyrix decided to adopt their own system of naming processors, and thus gave it somewhat confusingly the name of Cyrix 5x86, although the chip was a 486 design. This naming trend was continued with the introduction of the 5th generation Cyrix 6x86 processor in 1995. This processor boasted the fastest "x86" processing core of its generation, but had numerous compatibility and overheating problems. Summer 1997 saw the introduction of the 6x86MX which added Intel's 57 new MMX instructions to the existing 6x86 core. It was during late 1997 that Cyrix was incorporated into the US chip giant, National Semiconductor. This lead to the termination of the chip foundry aggreement with IBM and leading to the withdrawal of the IBM 6x86/6x86MX, with the termination of their chip foundry production agreement which allowed IBM to sell Cyrix processors. To mark this Cyrix renamed the 6x86MX the Cyrix MII. Cyrix have been developing the "Computer on a chip" concept for a number of years. This has seen the emergence of the Cyrix MediaGX processor, which has integrated disk controllers incorporated directly onto the chip. This has been mainly due to the desire of Cyrix to capture the emerging markets for Set top Boxes and sub £500 computers. The summer 1999 saw National Semiconductor decide to sell off or close down it's Cyrix subsidiary. Luckily Cyrix was bought by Taiwanese chipset manufacturer VIA along with Centaur technologies from IDT. Although many hoped that VIA would release the often delayed range of new Cyrix processors such as the Jedi (nee "Gobi" and later "Joshua"), it emerged that all future chips from VIA would be based upon Centaur designs. The name Cyrix though does survive in the form of branding for VIA's chips, with the "Samuel" design being branded as the VIA Cyrix III. The following pages dealing with Cyrix processors are: 
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