Cyrix Corp announced three new Intel 80486-compatible processors yesterday and dropped hints about its forthcoming Pentium competitor – the architecture of which will be unveiled on October 18. Two of the new chips – the Cx486DRx2 and Cx486SRx2 are innovative upgrades designed to enable end-users to upgrade their 80386-based machines. The third part, the Cx486Dx is a straight 80486 replacement. The Cx486Sx2, which will initially come in clock-doubled 16MHz and 20MHz version is the most unusual chip. Because 80386SXs are soldered into the mother board, rather than socketed, removing the old chip is not a job for the average user. Instead Richardson, Texas-based Cyrix has developed a small mechanical gizmo that sits the new processor on top of the old – the user simply pushes down firmly and the replacement processor drops into the existing pin holes. The new device disables the old chip – or at least it should do unfortunately early runs of the 16MHz Intel 80386SX lack the necessary disabling technology, a problem that the company says will aff-ect around one third of potential upgraders of 16MHz machines. The 486SRx2 should ship by year-end, no prices yet. The other upgrade processor, the Cyrix 486DRx2, has an easier job since full 80386s tend to be socketed. Again the chip is clock-doub-led, initially coming in 16/32MHz, 20/40MHz and 25/50MHz versions, with a 33/66MHz version promised by year-end. Cyrix reckons that it has unearthed unnecessary wait-states in Intel’s in-put-output handling and claims that in addition to the raw pro-cessor-speed improvements, users will find that their video and disk access times are improved by around 30% when they upgrade. Prices start at $300 (UKP200) for the 16/32 with the 20/40 and 25/50 models costing $350 (UKP240) and $400 (UKP270), with street prices for a 25/50 at around $300. The parts began shipping in the US a couple of months ago and 20,000 are now installed.
