Texas Instruments Inc duly announced its well-flagged agreement with Cyrix Corp, Richardson, Texas that gives it the right to fabricate and market Cyrix’s generality of microprocessors, including the new Cx486SLC, which combines features from Intel Corp’s 80486 and 80386 and future derivatives and products not yet announced. The agreement also calls for Texas to fabricate parts under contract for Cyrix to market. The partners hope that by virtue of Texas’ broad-brush patent cross-licence agreement, they will be free from the danger of any copyright infringement suit, but observers believe that Intel will be able to find other grounds on which to get its day in court. Texas also wants to use the Cx486SLC core as a standard cell in applications-specific circuits, but it is not flinching from a head-to-head fight with Intel – it is sampling its TI486SLC version of the part to some of the world’s larget personal computer manufacturers, and plans volume production for September; the part can be used in a board designed for Intel’s 80386SX without the need for a redesign. No prices or clock speeds given.
