Cyrix launches chip to compete with Intel's Pentium
CHIP maker Cyrix has released a microprocessor which the company hopes will go head to head with Intel's Pentium.
Introduction of Cyrix's 6x86 chip follows Intel's recent introduction of the Pentium Pro, or P6 chip.
The Cyrix chip, originally codenamed the M1, marks the first real challenge to Intel's domination of the IBM PC market. It will run at 100 megahertz and is said to outperform the Pentium 133 in both Windows 3.11 and Windows 95.
The chip is meant to be an extension of the successful series that began with the 8088, 8086, 80386 and the 80486.
Intel's version of the 586, patented as the Pentium, leaves Cyrix with the option of calling its new chip the 6x86. According to sources at Cyrix, interest in the 6x86 CPU has already been shown by AST, Compaq and IBM.
Vice-president of AST Bob McFarland said that although it was not impossible that AST would produce machines in the future with the Cyrix chip, he had so far heard nothing about it. 'I know of no plans currently to use a Pentium Pro-compatible chip in an AST machine,' Mr McFarland said.
The 6x86 can deliver about 2.5 times the performance of the 486. Initially the chip will run at 100 megahertz with a faster 120 MHz version to come out in November. Intel's policy was not to comment on products produced by other companies, Intel spokesman Anna Laurita said.
But Intel cannot have missed the fact that both Cyrix and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the other major rival to Intel, are finding it increasingly difficult to sell the older 486 chips. Analysts have also said that computer makers are unlikely to sell machines using the Cyrix-naming conventions. The chips are more likely to be marketed in comparison to the equivalent Intel chip.
This would make the Cyrix 5x86 equivalent to Intel's high-end 486 chips and the 6x86 would be in competition with the Pentium and the Pentium Pro. The 6x86 chip will cost US$450 in quantities of 1,000.
