Cyrix 6x86

The Cyrix 6x86 is a microprocessor 5th Generation ( 80586 series), which was developed by Cyrix.

Technical

The Cyrix 6x86 (codenamed M1 ) is a superscalar, super pipelined x86 CPU, the pin - compatible with Intel Pentium and thus into the marketing period for the common socket 5 motherboards could be used. Of 6x86 was as P90 P100 ( 90 MHz) P120 ( 100 MHz) P133 ( 110 MHz) P150 ( 120 MHz) P166 ( 133 MHz) and P200 ( 150 MHz) available. As with previous CPUs from Cyrix 6x86 of from production partners IBM and STMicroelectronics was also sold under their name.

The 6x86 has many features and design features of the Pentium Pro; its integer performance is superior to that of an identically clocked Intel Pentium. A 6x86 with 133 MHz Integer in range faster than an Intel Pentium 166 Therefore, the so-called P Rating (PR ) was used to specify the speed of the CPU. The FPU performance is, however, inferior to that of the Intel Pentium, but that was less relevant to many of the common at the time applications. The superiority of the integer performance and a much cheaper selling price than Intel's Pentium series brought Cyrix 6x86 with a considerable market share in. Cyrix had the second highest market share in the x86 range, well ahead of AMD.

However, the 6x86 is not always straightforward: in addition to the FPU weakness prepare inflexible multipliers, which are limited to x2 and x3, problems. Partly a FSB clock rate must be used, which violates the specifications of the PCI bus. This leads many PCI cards to problems. In addition, the CPUs produce - compared with other conventional processors at the time - a lot of heat. Cyrix could alleviate some of this problem with the later introduced Dual Voltage 6x86L.

Model data

  • Codename: M1, M1L
  • Sold as: Cyrix 6x86 (L ), IBM 6x86 (L ), ST 6x86 (L )
  • L1 cache: 16 KiB (unified )
  • L2 - Cache: depending on motherboard or chipset used
  • Base 5/Sockel 7 with a front side bus from 40 to 75 MHz
  • Operation voltage ( Vcore ): 3.45 V or 3.3 V ( 6x86L: 2.8 V)
  • Release Date: February, 1996
  • Manufacturing Technology: 0.65 micron (later 0.35 micron ) at IBM and ST Microelectronics
  • The Size: 394 or 225 mm ² ( 169 mm ² at 0.35 microns ) at 3.0 million transistors
  • Clock rate: 80 MHz to 150 MHz P90 : 80 MHz ( less often than 6x86 - 80GP )
  • P100 : 90 MHz
  • P120 : 100 MHz (also known as 6x86 - 100GP )
  • P133 : 110 MHz
  • P150 : 120 MHz
  • P166 : 133 MHz
  • P200 : 150 MHz
Instruction set Socket 7 P5 (microarchitecture) Performance Rating Advanced Micro Devices Heat wave Byte AMD K5 List of microprocessors Cyrix Cx5x86 MediaGX
15327
de