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National Semiconductor Selling Cyrix

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the no-chips-for-you dept.

Rob Miller writes "National Semiconductor has announced the sale of Cyrix. " So if you have half a billion dollars burning a hole in your pocket...

4 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. I think Cyrix is going away by Bryan+Ischo · · Score: 3

    I don't think Cyrix is going to survive in the x86 market. Everyone who is trying to compete with Intel is doing so by losing money. The only company making money in the x86 market is Intel. Companies like Cyrix cannot survive in this environment.

    I remember hearing a year or two ago about Cyrix's "Jalepeno" core, but after a while I came to realize that it just isn't going to happen. Cyrix is too far behind now to catch up. I've been wondering what they have been doing for the past 18 months when they have introduced no new designs.

    I put a Cyrix PR200 into a computer I built for my sister almost two years ago. It is still going strong and still meeting all of her family's modest needs. At the time, it was far and away the best value in the x86 market. Now I think AMD has surpassed Cyrix in bang:buck ratio. You can get a K6-2 350 for about the same price as a MII-333, and the AMD chip will beat the Cyrix chip in every way.

    This didn't stop me from putting a Cyrix PR300 (overclocked to PR333, although I suspect that Cyrix is selling the exact same chip as 300 and 333 just to try to differentiate the "top end" of their product line a little bit) into a computer that I built for my next-door neighbor for use at his business. That level of performance will be more than enough for the simple real estate management package he needs to run, and combined with a super-cheap built-in audio & video socket 7 motherboard, I was able to keep the price of the computer very, very low (sub-$450).

    I guess that if Cyrix goes away I will miss them, because their chips have always done very well for me. I just don't think that they're keeping up with the market at all. And they're at the lowest of the low end, where it's nearly impossible to make a decent profit.



  2. Title misleading... by slothbait · · Score: 3

    From the National posting, it sounds like National is selling a fab and giving up on x86 pin-compatible architectures (ie: MII and Jalapeno). They will continue to develop the MediaGX line of systems. Further, they will refocus on information appliancs (like that web pad thing that Cyrix is developing).

    --Lenny

    //"You can't prove anything about a program written in C or FORTRAN.
    It's really just Peek and Poke with some syntactic sugar."

  3. Meaning of this for AMD? by andrewchen · · Score: 3

    The result of this for AMD is pretty interesting, as they are now the major competitor for Intel (not that they haven't been for the past year or so). Even though it is conceivable that Cyrix could be bought and rematerialize as a strong company, as another poster pointed out, that's extremely unlikely.

    Research takes a *lot* of money, and because of this news that Cyrix is being sold, it seems extremely obvious that they are short on cash (and probably ideas).

    So has Intel won? It's interesting to think that Intel has established such a strong brand and product line that they've done what many predicted they wouldn't be able to do: defeat their competitors.

    Hopefully this'll wake some people up over there at AMD, that all the patting on the head they've been giving themselves due to their moderate success doesn't mean much-- they haven't really beaten Intel, but rather just established a niche for themselves. But Intel isn't stupid, and they're fighting back with their own lines of cheap relatively fast processors (Celerons), which can potentially eat away at AMD's little niche in the market.

    Anyway, it would be extremely pleasant if AMD's K7 did well. When I read the false reports against their machines, I was extremely disappointed, since it would definitely nice to see AMD do well against Intel. Diversity is always good.

  4. 3D graphics, mainly? by Breace · · Score: 3

    "The few functions that made their way onto the main chip -- 3D graphics, mainly -- were put there by National's rivals: AMD with 3DNow! and Intel with Katmai."

    What a load!
    The MediaGX has CPU AND Memory controller AND VGA AND PCI built into one single chip. That's hardly to be called trivial and I still think that's pretty neat. A chip that comes close is the STPC from Thompson, but they don't mention that. Good journalism. NOT.

    This chip is still a great device for wearables and other embedded applications. If only the support would have been better (try to find a real datasheet, or try to speak to someone) I would have probably used this chip in new designs.

    (Off topic) Open Source Software is one thing, but wouldn't it be great if chip manufacturers would _finally_ be a bit more open about their designs, 'Open Datasheets'? Pffw...

    Breace.