The 80s and 90s were a crazy time for the desktop computer market. No one really knew what was going to catch on so companies would just show up out of nowhere, release some niche item and have some success but then not be able to follow up and disappear a few years later.
With all the patent trolling and anti competitive behavior of the current landscape it near impossible for us to see innovation emerge out of the blue like before. AMD has done a good job but all these cpus and technology just feel the same.
@@durdy911 That's partly because while they'll improve in high demand tasks, the only way people see an improvement on casual tasks is when a company releases a new, even less impressive, OS that drains more resources for little to no discernible benefit to the user
@@InfernosReaper I think you are talking about Windows 7 vs 11. I do agree with you since Windows 11 sucks ass in terms of resource management but his comment makes sense. Capitalism failed when innovation was strictly bound to 3 companies in the PC space- AMD, Intel and Nvidia. Capitalism is supposed to be a system to coax companies out of their comfort zone and put innovation at the forefront for competition and market share, but instead, these companies have become complacent and incompetent. It's kind of ridiculous if you think about it. The only reason Intel's recent CPUs even managed to get some performance boost between generations 11 and 12 was because of Apple's M1 series chips which were much more powerful than the 11th gen Intel laptop chips. Till that time, for whatever reason, Intel had the majority market share for laptop chips, and AMD too wasn't too better off. It would have been amazing to see maybe 5-10 companies designing hardware instead of the normal 3, maybe 4. In the mobile Android market we see, or at least used to see a lot of companies creating their own chips for their own phones. A lot easier to do since the company can dictate everything from the motherboard to the SoC to the camera hardware, but still, this could have been done with the correct legislation on the PC side, but hasn't been done yet. With RISC-V and ARM on Windows (which still sucks ass app compatibility wise), there is some potential for other companies to start creating chips for PCs, although those will be limited to laptops mostly. But that also applies to the PC OS market. I would have liked to run Ubuntu or some version of Linux as my main OS but the driver and app support simply does not exist. In the current landscape it simply is pick your poison and deal with it.
To tie this into your recent short: Because DVD players were so expensive when they appeared, I built my folks a machine with an Cyrix processor, a DVD-Rom, and RGB out, because it was cheaper than a DVD player!
I had a Cyrix CPU in my second computer when I was in High School. It was fantastic until Quake became popular. It took forever to figure out why it wouldn't run Quake well (or usually at all). It was before the internet was hugely popular, so finding information to solve my problem was very difficult.
I played Half life (Quake engine) on Cyrix M II just fine back then. Well tbh I also play (NOW!) Quake quite fine on a 486 (@160MHz) with a Riva TNT :)
Cyrix M1 ... AKA Cyrix 6x86 or IBM 6x86 or ST 6x86 - this CPU had weak FPU - lack of MMX - lack of some Pentium 586 instructions (hence some SW incompatibility and patches needed) Cyrix M2 .... IBM 6x86MX - improved FPU (as fast as AMD K6, still slower than Pentium) - added MMX For that reason the game play on M1 vs. M2 was huge difference in Quake. People tend to mix all Cyrix CPU into same bag. # There was also simplified M1 into 486 socket: Cyrix 5x86. M1 was the world's 1st CPU with Out Of Order speculative execution (few months before P6 Intel Pentium Pro arrived, predecessor of PII and PIII which were also P6 family). Cyrix 5x86 was basically Pentium Pro/ Pentium II into 486 socket (while Intel Pentium Overdrive into 486 was just old In-Order P5 CPU architecture). # There was also AMD K5, 1st AMD's developed CPU (all previous from Am8088, 386, 486 and 586 were cloned Intel). K5 was RISC Am29000 with x86 decoder glued on - probably 1st x86 CPU ever (since then every x86 CPU is internally RISC based). # There were also NexGen CPUs into Socket 7 .... later bought by AMD and so K6 was born. AMD bought Cyrix Media GX which was first x86 System on Chip (named AMD Geode). # There were also Rise MP6 .... very advanced uarchitecture (OoO), similar to Cyrix. It had in INT exe the highest IPC from Socket 7 CPUs. However it came too late in 1998 when Intel had Pentium II and AMD was introducing Slot A and iconic Athlon K7 in 1999. # I must not forget the cheapest Socket 7 CPU which was the IDT Winchip - simple In-Order CPU with high clocks but low/tragic performance. An incompetence was that later VIA bought IDT and Cyrix, and management decided to focus on IDT outdated dead-end in-order architecture instead modern Cyrix's OoO. This decided their future and they burried also S3 GPUs and huge motherboard chipset business (VIA had majority in chipsets for both Intel and AMD). That management was really something. Anyway, it's fascinating that in 90's anybody could get x86 license and develop it's own CPU into one universal and common Socket Super 7. I hope somebody will bring open source socket and ISA to do it again in the future.
My first computer was in the 80s, a 8088 CPU at 5 MHz, with a whopping 64Kb of RAM. It came with double 5.25" floppy disks, and an amber screen. It had DOS, a beautiful operating system. Still today I mistype CLS when clearing the screen in Linux. Oh, and because of my old interaction with DOS, I find using Linux' command line interface easy.
@@savagepro9060 based old man. I've got a lot of respect for those who ventured into the PC world back in the the old days. Those were some hardcore times. Screwing with jumpers alone was a major pain, let alone trying to make sure your parts are compatible as they did not have any kind of compatibility checkers back then. AND THE SOFTWARE ISSUES (which could be caused by hardware issues, or both at the same time. fun!). If you built a PC pre internet, you couldn't just download a patch to fix a malfunctioning piece of software, and you definitely couldn't be sure you were getting the latest version. you would have to wait till they could mail you a floppy or memory card with the patch/latest build and that could take months, if they even bothered to at all! I've gotta say we have it waayy easier nowadays with PCs. Though they still come with their frustrations as it seems like there's always something screwed up on your computer that you have to fix and troubleshoot. such is the life of owning a PC in any era.
They should do a follow up video. There's Motorola, MOS, PPC, and SPARC to cover as well. While this video primarily focused on CPUs that could run the x86 instruction set, it's important to note that there were other architectures competing at the time too and some of them are still around today and it's not just RISC and ARM either.
Motorola 680x0 was the architecture of choice for Unix workstations, until RISC came along and completely blew it away. The Zilog Z8000 also had some presence in this market, pre-RISC. Anybody else remember the NatSemi NS32000 series? And there were the WDC 65816/65832 chips, which aimed to be like the 6502, only better.
The Motorola 6800 was quite the chip when it came out but was absolutely trounced in cost by the MOS 6502. It's really pretty crazy chips originating in the 70s still have a role today in embedded systems, with the WDC 65C02 being a CMOS improvement of the 6502 and the Zilog eZ80 still being binary compatible with the Z80.
@@edstar83 so many arcade machines were also based on 68k cpus with zilog z80 for handling sound. Kind of cool that many arcade games were multicore back in the 80ies :D Just a game like Segas OutRun had 2 68000 cpus and one Z80 cpu running at the same time, so basicly a 3 core setup :O
@@theseob I don't remember a TI x86. IBM basically cross-licensed Cyrix's part and made it in their fabs. Nexgen... I don't remember whether they shipped a product before being acquired by AMD (and turned into the basis for the pretty K6 if I remember). Chips and Technologies... erm... Well, you got me there, I have a vague recollection. Via is actually sort of still out there if you google them. IDT, which was acquired by VIA eventually. Man, time passes.
Yep a FPGA wasn't it? he also forgot the PowerPC, and eh well most of apples custom jobs (get it? jobs bwahahahahah I slay me!) anyway, from what I recall apple was using semi-customised CPUs built on the RISC architecture. Which, on paper at atleast, would spank intel stuff for anything that mattered. But history happened.
You mean leaders at the high end, there's plenty of competition at the mid and lower end parts of the spectrum. Including Arm which now powers Apple and Windows PC's, and Risc-V which looks to have it's first devices arriving soon too.
@Float Samples Bharath " Coz they are the only companies who produces CPU for desktops and laptops meanwhile others companies might produce for consoles or something" AMD pretty much dominate the Console market in terms of hardware, they have their hardware in the latests consoles PS4-PS5 Xbox One-Xbox series S/X, Steam deck The only exception is the Nintendo switch with their ARM Nvidia Chip The only reason they are the ones producing CPU for Desktops and Laptop is because of the patents on X86/X64 architecture, Intel hold the patent but was forced to share it by IBM (In the times where IBM computers dominated the market) so the only surviving company that still as the patent share is AMD, the other ones have all been buyed or gone bankrupt, or both. "Why don't people use other architecture?" The thing is that X86 was here for so long that it's gonna take a lot of time for people to transition for something like ARM and it's gonna cost a lot of money, so why bother when X86 processor are still pretty good?
@Float Samples Bharath AMD is the last competitor standing that has the permission to design and produce x86 CPUs. Intel gave these out to a number of comapnies, but they all went out of business.
@@jayhill2193 AMD and Intel have had a cross licsencing agreement forever it seems. Since Intel created x86 and AMD created x86-64 they basically need each other.
I have never seen a complete ownership timeline but I think VIA Technologies now own all the Cyrix IP. Their C3 and C7 CPUs were derived from it with production still going on for the market in China. VIA also have the old S3 Graphics IP so could probably produce a complete x86 / x64 platform if they wanted (and as they did with EPIA line up until about 10 years ago)
The high end of Cyrix went to VIA while the low end went to National who then resold it to AMD. The most famous used of the AMD Geode (from Cyrix) was the first "One Laptop Per Child" machine.
The VIA C3 and C7 were NOT based on Cyrix's designs. VIA bought another small company named Centaur Technology, which was responsible for the IDT Winchip line. The C3 and C7 are based on Centaur technology, nothing of Cyrix was used besides the moniker. By the time VIA got to Cyrix, it was a hollowed out shell of a company, being mismanaged to oblivion by NSC before it. It wasn't quite the death of Cyrix's technology though. During the liquidation of NSC, AMD ended up with the IP for the Cyrix MediaGX, which was a Cyrix 586 system on a chip. AMD renamed it to the Geode GX and did some minor development with the architecture into the late 2000s and early 2010s. The final culmination would be the Geode LX, which AMD sold into the late 2010s before discontinuing. The subsequent Geode NX is based on the old Athlon XP-M architecture and isn't related. I have a Geode GX in one of AMD's failed "50x15 initiative" PCs, it's quite dreadful. While AMD did increase the clock speed, they didn't do anything else to improve the efficiency of the architecture, or do anything to bring it into modern times with newer instruction sets. It's basically a really fast 586, still stuck in limbo architecturally between a 486 and Pentium. The FPU sucks and it barely runs Windows XP. The 50x15 PC originally came with a locked BIOS and locked down Windows CE, but there's a payload you can run to unlock Windows CE and reflash the unlocked BIOS to run other operating systems. Centaur Technology on the other hand still lives on today. It made its way into Chinese x86 CPUs "Zhaoxin" and was recently bought up by Intel, though that will probably the end of them.
One more interesting competitor was the Transmeta Crusoe which was a RISC CPU that emulated x86 on-the-fly to run Windows, while using one tenth of the power a similarly powerful native x86 CPU would take. Sony used them in the Vaio U1 notebook.
Also left out PPC in general, while not exactly obscure, anyone who came onto the scene after a certain point didn't even know about it outside of Apple products
Transmeta Crusoe was VLIW CPU design. The second-generation Transmeta Efficeon design has a 256-bit-wide VLIW core versus the 128-bit core of the Crusoe. The Crusoe is a VLIW microprocessor that executes bundles of instructions, termed molecules by Transmeta. Each molecule contains multiple instructions, termed atoms. The Code Morphing Software translates x86 instructions into native instructions. The native instructions are 32 bits long. Instructions that meet a set of conditions can be executed simultaneously and are combined to form a 64- or 128-bit molecule containing two or four atoms, respectively. In the event that there are not enough instructions to fill a molecule, the software inserts NOPs as padding to fill out empty slots. This is required in all VLIW architectures and is criticized for being inefficient, which is why there are molecules of two separate lengths. In terms of X86 efficiency, Transmeta Efficeon was superior when compared to VLIW-EPIC-based Intel Itanium.
You need to do a segment on memory limitations of these early processors. People will laugh at the need for LIM EMS (Lotus, Intel, Microsoft Expanded Memory System). With the original PC only supporting 1MB of addressable RAM and Spreadsheets (the first KillerApp) needing much more memory (DOS was not a virtual memory OS) - they created a memory paging scheme that allowed you to put more memory on an expansion card and select a page at a time for use. Future processors expanded the addressable RAM to 16MB and the EMS died a natural death. The original PC was so deliberately cobbled by IBM that anything that needed resources became an add-in card. For example if you wanted to run CAD you bought the software and a full blown secondary computer plug in card to run it - just using the host PC as an IO processor really. Servicable 2D and 3D graphics started this way as they pre-dated Windows and the GUI. (Although CP/M's creator was first to market with a GUI called GEM. IBM released TopView.) In fact, another fun Teckquickie would be a recap of the Great GUI Wars! (Note Apple was not first - not by a long shot.)
Yes! Lets hear about Extended and Expanded RAM and how they interacted with the first1MB of RAM (minus the ROM holes). And how the 8086, 80286 and 80386 had different memory access capabilities and hence different memory capacities and access methods. HIMEM.SYS anyone?
Remember the LH (load high) command for drivers? I actually worked on one machine that was running Windows 1.0. I say machine, because it was not a PC, but rather a machine at a water yard, and this was around the time that Windows 95 was out.
I had a VIA C3 (they owned Cyrix at the time), back in the day. The lack of an FPU absolutely slaughtered the CPU's performance, even on pre-Quake games. :(
C3 has an FPU it's just dog slow. C3 also has some of the first incarnations of power and turbo clock states, as well as a dedicated AES and RNG cryptography chip.
Takes me back--I remember, with much trepidation, easing out the CPU to fit a V20. I think that was after I installed my first HDD: after much deliberation, I decided I'd go big, and bought a 20MB unit.
I worked in a clone shop in the 1980s, and we built systems, first Apple 2, then IBM PC, and finally IBM ATs. Towards the end of the PC/XT days, NEC's V20 parts helped extend the live of the PC/XT archetcure. In fiddling around on a day with no customers, I played around with the XT 10MHz system, benchmarking 8088 vs V20 chip. And I found out that the 8MHz V20 CPU actually ran *Faster* than the 10MHz part when running the system at 10MHz...I guess I am, technically, one of the first CPU overclockers...running an 8MHz part at 10MHz...And it was fast! It was on par, or better than IBM AT 6MHz or 8MHz! I had built one of these super XTs for myself, and eventually ended up selling it SF writer S.M. Stirling. Fun times!
Had a Cyrix 6x86 back in the day... it was fine doe Doom / Duke Nukem 3D etc., but the moment that FPU was needed, not a good time. That was the last pre-built I ever got, if I'm going to make a compromise in any of the components of my setup, I want to be the one making them.
Like GeoStreber said, you left out a lot. You mentioned the 8080 chips but ignored Zilog and the Z-80. I also worked for a company called NexGen that made an 8086 or pc compatible chip. They were eventually bought out by AMD.
Hands-down weirdest x86 board and CPU I ever worked on. 1995 felt like I was working on alien technology. Alaris boards and CPU fab by IBM microelectronics. Had to replace an SMT resistor on the first batch of NxPCI boards, good times!
I was in the PC business during the Cyrix CPUs era (the dark times). They also made 386/486 "upgrade" chips... They were all nightmares. Huge compatibility issues.
My immediate family had a PowerSpec PC from the mid-1990s that ran on a Cyrix MediaGX, which was one of the first modern APUs at the time. Meanwhile, I had an AST Bravo P series from the mid-1990s that ran on an Intel Pentium CPU and an integrated ATi GPU.
Forgot to mention NexGen and their NX5x86 and NX6x86 (RISC86 tm) processors. They were a RISC CPU that ran x86 CISC software. NexGen, the company, was acquired by AMD.
If AMD had not acquired NexGen, then they probably wouldn’t be anywhere near where they are nowadays as they scrapped the K5 successor that they had designed in-house for the NexGen RISC architecture CPU that they rebadged as the K6.
This video gave me a trip down the computing memory lane. I knew all those things that Anthony was talking about. A blast from the past you might say. 😃👍
I'm quite familiar with all those CPU's, but I still enjoy hearing about them. The second laptop I ever owned back in 2001 was a Sony Vaio Picturebook with an 867MHz Transmeta Crusoe CPU. My first laptop was a Toshiba Libretto with an overclocked Pentium I, but that Crusoe processor plus an aftermarket quad-size battery give me an insane 14 hour battery life! I've never had another laptop that could do that.
forgot to mention IDT Winchip and 486SLC that were made in the mid 90s for the budget builds. Also there was NEC V30 that was almost as fast as 286 but way cheaper.
Excellent video Anthony! I remember when I got my first 8088 processor, Epson Equity I+ (the plus was for turbo). I bought it brand new and I think I payed about $2.500 for it. It was not my first PC though. The first PC that I owned was a Ti-99/4a and I still have it and it still works!
My history of microprocessors you young'uns have apparently never heard of; 6809, 6502, Z80, Motorola 6800/1/2/3/4, IBM Power PC, Itanium and various Mips processors that eventually ended up in Silicon Graphics. You missed a few Anthony. And yes, I know there are a load more but I never played with them.
Without NexGen, AMD wouldn’t be where they are now. If they had not have bought the company & rebadged the RISC architecture of the next generation NexGen processor as the K6, then they would probably be lagging behind Intel further than they were in the Bulldozer days until Ryzen.
Interesting tidbit - as part of USSR chip program back in 70s-80s there was a separate institute in Kyiv, Ukraine for designing chips. They were different, not compatiable with x86 architecture. Chiefs in Moscow admitted that they had made a mistake of trying to make chips different and not compatiable with x86 and cut funding for alternative program. But Kyiv branch literally rebelled in secret and continued their development. USSR fell, 90s came and lack of funding ended the story with no traces of chips or documentation. What is interesting is that the chips were not powerful enough, not x86 and SUSPICIOUSLY looked like ACORN, ARM1, ARM2. As they proved to be comercially unsuccessful and could not compete with dominating x86, domestic clones/copycats were killed off not to waste money. I saw documentary/interview on TV abot two decades ago, could not find it on the net. I tried to get my hands on some documentation/chips as a rare collectible that could be resold but ended up empty handed
Go back further. Zilog and the Z80, that dominated micros for close to 5 years - with it's main competition being the 6502 (and the 6510 offshoot) in Apples and Commodores and "lesser" known stuff. Yes, Intel WAS around - trying to push the 8086 as "the real upgrade path" from it's fallen-behind 8080.
I remember the Zenith PC compatibles. At the time the Air Force was had a contract and thousands entered service. They also didn't have a what you would call a mother board. It was a backplane board with nothing but power and other connectors. A full length card plugged into the backplane board and had a 286 CPU and memory chips on it. You also had to have other boards, one for the 10 MB and later the 20 MB Hard Drives with support for 2 floppy disks. A third card, the I/O or input/output card that had both small and large serial ports along with a parallel or printer port. Then last but not least was a video card. We eventually upgraded a few to 386 CPUs by simply replacing the CPU card. I believe we also upgraded the drive card for the larger 20 MB HDD and the 3.5 inch 1.5 MB floppy disk that had the hard plastic shell some weird people called stiffys. My first personal computer was a tower and I believe a Cyrix processor that was the equivalent of a 386.
Anthony is a fantastic host. He is extremely knowledgeable, comes off as very confident and relaxed. Which all make for and very pleasant viewing experience.
Well, NEC and Cyrix are pretty well known though. The Mach 10 and 20 a bit less so. But I was kinda hoping to see the WinChip and the mP6. Those two are quite fascinating. :)
@@poofygoof Gee, thanks... now I have a few more processor to add to my collection :D but nah, thanks genuinely. I had forgotten about some of these. Geode in particular. I don't remember Vortex though but sounds interesting.
The Cyrix CPUs also was sold under IBM and SGS Thompson ("It's ST") brand. You have not mentioned IDT Winchip, Rise mp6, Nexgen 5x86 and the never completed 6x86 prototype, which became the AMD K6 later. Also VIA and Transmeta CPUs were on the market. Earlier 486 CPUs was manufactured and sold under license from Intel by many brands: AMD, Cyrix, IBM, SGS Thompson, Texas Instruments, UMC. There were much more than NEC and Cyrix.
@@stephanking681 Nuh-uh. I still got this thing around somewhere. It was a *Pentium-Rated PR200+ clocked at 166 MHz with a 66 MHz FSB.* Back then it was an actual upgrade from my Intel Pentium-S 133MHz. These clock speeds are absolutely hilarious these days. 😂
I think you forget viatech and zhaoxin, but nice the v20 got a another appearance. some part of nec got spun off into renesas, but nec still makes vector engines.
When I watch this, I think about how I'm so glad that computers have come to the place that they are today. We might have some struggles today (why can't I play cyberpunk in 4k with RT at 240 FPS????!!!!) but man has technology evolved. I am fascinated by early day computers and appreciate coverage of this. Thanks, Anthony ^_^
I upgraded my first PC (Tandy PC1000 w/AMD-manufactured Intel 8086-2) with an NEC V30. It was 12Mhz (over 8Mhz) and had a partial 286 instruction set. It was enough to allow me to run Wolf3d on that same system--once I upgraded to 640k at least.
The Z80 was the start for a lot of us Tech Guys. Booting Dos, getting your Novel Net card drivers sorted and then running WordPerfect or Spreadsheet Apps etc a windows install you had to run on top of DOS and constantly tweak to get to that upper ram, all with No TCP/IP 😁 Now its a 128gb desktop with the power of a server just to run a web browser ....
Trip down memory lane here, nice work Anthony. My first Computer I ever built predates CPU's, the Motherboard was a Pro286 with ISA sockets, it had 8 bit sound card, 2mb video and 28k modem was all considered fast back then. No windows just a very early version of DOS as I remember.
I had a Cyrix in my main machine up till 2004 (when I built a "Barton" AthlonXP based system). While it may have sucked at Quake, I spent *so* many hours playing Starcraft and RollerCoaster Tycoon on it!
Bought Cyrix as a second machine for my networking school. It run doughnuts around Intel's Pentium. That's when I stopped believing Intel's marketing. And never came back. I was shocked how much cheaper and better Cyrix was. Loved it.
I had a couple Cyrix systems in the mid 90s, one with a 686 200+ and another with an MII 333. I guess I never tried to play Quake, because they worked great for me. But we upgraded so fast back then due to CPUs doubling in speed almost every year. I probably only ran them for 18 months each.
You didn't mention the fully 16 bit NEC V30, a direct replacement for the Intel 8086. The V20 and V30 emulated the Zilog Z80 with 22NICE, enabling a PC or clone to run stock CP/M for a Z80, without any modifications. I had a PCjr with a V20 and it ran CP/M faster than a Xerox 820-II. A 12Mhz 80286, despite the clock speed advantage, couldn't keep up because it relied on 22NICE's completely software Z80 emulation mode.
A little bit lackluster but I think we forgot Motorola, they had really good cpus, we had MIPS which was used in Playstation, Nintendo 64, Silicon Graphics just to name a few. Hitachi made the cpu for Sega saturn, we had NEC, Sharp that ive seen in synthesizers etc. We had VIA x86 cpus, IBM PowerPC, Zilog, Arms own risc cpus used in the Acorn, we had MOS Technology which was used in C64 to name a few.
Forgetting Centaur/VIA/Zhaoxin as the third x86 license holder is quite surprising imho. The WinChip series was a low-power Socket 7-based x86 processor designed by Centaur Technology and marketed by its parent company IDT. Later on VIA bought Centaur, and with this deal VIA became the third of only three licensed x86 manufacturers (intel, AMD, VIA) till today. Centaur's / VIA's license still gets used till today by the only chinese x86 cpu manufacturer Zhaoxin. Copy&paste from wikipedia-article : "Zhaoxin is a joint venture between VIA Technologies and the Shanghai Municipal Government.[1] In 2021 it was reported that VIA has a 14.75% shareholding in the company.[5] China has a domestic policy to "replace all foreign hardware and software from its public infrastructure with homegrown solutions" by 2023 (the so-called 3-5-2 policy).[6] VIA holds a x86 licence which allows its subsidiaries to produce compatible microprocessors; this allows Zhaoxin to develop x86 computer chips."
The thing about quake was it used the FPU so well, it effectively made a pentium (or AMD equivalent more weakly) a dual core. IE running game code across the CPU and FPU in parallel. Quake was hyper optimized for intel Pentiums though. Dual core nearly a decade before dual core. Cirix's weak floating point ment it was left in the dust.
You forgot the NexGen class of processors that were created to compete directly with Intel. They created the MMX instructions that Intel licensed from AMD after AMD bought out NexGen. So when you see the Pentium w/MMX this was created by NexGen and licensed to Intel by AMD. I had a NexGen P90, and it was a really good machine to run Win95 through Win 98 SE.
missed out several others as well from around the same time as Cyrix (who started with 486 processors thru to chip’s rebranded with IBM & VIA including the 686Mx/M2). What about the Centaur WinChip was another budget oriented x86 cpu that was not too bad price wise for running simple Windows & office tasks. Can also remember building a NT Workstation running a PowerPC processor as well that was faster & more stable than the typical x86 machines running NT Workstation for CAD/Design tasks. Also the RISC based NexGen NX586 CPU’s as well that were later acquired by AMD & became the K6 CPU with AMD scrapping their in-house designed successor to the K5 family in favour for this! There are also several more that I have forgotten details on now such as pre-286 CPU’s from Chips & Technologies, Rise & Texas Instruments.
The Cyrix 6x86. I remember my roommate and I went to Fry's Electronics to pick up parts to build his computer. I can't remember exactly why he chose the Cyrix, but it was probably price, since we were both paid pretty low. It ran well enough for 1997, and it wasn't a driver nightmare like we both expected it to be.
I can't believe you didn't include IBM-Motorola because it is extremely relevant. Apple deciding to switch chips and locking people out of software updates is an oldie that has since become a hit today.
I remember when Cyrix was the third option back in the late '90s, and early 2000s. Just a shame they never really had the popularity after the 64-bit era started up.
Back in '98, my first computer has Cyrix PR 166! PR is - Pentium Rating - the Processor speed has actually 133mhz, but is equivalent to 166mhz compared to the Intel Pentium! :)
And Via... and Transmeta Crusoe... And the Motorola 68000.... And IBM PowerPC... And Sun Spark... And MIPS RISC in SGI workstations... (and those are just the Desktop/Workstation CPUs I know of off the top of my head!) We needed QuickBits for CPUs!
That kinds of episodes is why I'm subscribed to Techquickie. Excellent! I do wonder, though: why did the shape of CPUs change from a "centipede" rectangle to a (non-legged) square?
I wish my dad had bought an NEC V20 for our Turbo XT we got in 1987. I had that PC from 1987 to 1997. I wish he got an Adlib card more though. Living with PC speaker sound from 5 to 15 years old was rough.
Was going to argue because I moved to a Cyrix 6x86 from my old 100 MHZ 486 and remember playing Quake around that time with no problem. But it didn’t reign long I remember switching it out for an AMD K6 chip, so I could be wrong. I remember it being so crap I couldn’t watch DVD’s on it and required a separate decoder card. Thank you RealMagic ❤
When I first started getting into computers i remember seeing a magazine that listed various semiconductor manufacturers and there was one called "Austin Power". When the Austin Powers movie came out the name made me laugh.
I'm pretty sure that the wording of the OS/2 on Mach20 is wrong. I think it was likely 11 licenses, not copies because I know our facility had several dozen of those Mach20 cards running that horrid OS/2 release for at least a year while we were moving to a different back office. And they were all legal copies, because we had a site license.
4:00 I had a Cyrix processor for a couple of years. It was competent. The one noteworthy thing I remember about that CPU was Cyrix threatening to sue Warner Brothers because the 1997 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Eraser had a technology company named "Cyrix." Warner's had to use CGI to change all the Cyrix labelling to read "Cyrez" to avoid getting sued. I think it's only shown in a few shots though.
In the late 90s, I upgraded my Pentium 75 MHz with a CPU from some company called Evergreen Technologies. Can't remember a single thing about it, but it did extend the life of that old Gateway 2000 for a bit.
Evergreen Technologies as well as Kingston and a few others sold upgrade solutions that still used one of the big name vendor's chips. Evergreen in particular used IDT, Cyrix, and AMD chips in their upgrade solutions. Usually with Evergreen's own naming put on top.
My first PC was an Epson (yes the printer company) that had a Cyrix 50Mhz 486 in it which I replaced with their 75MHz version. I upgraded the 8MB of SIMM RAM to the PC's max of 64MB which solved Windows 95's constant BSOD when closing a window. Although that original 8MB could have started to go bad causing those BSODs which is why my Aunt's boss gave it to her and she gave it to me. To match that PC I spent $200 of my own money on an Epson printer. That was before I built my first PC in 1997 when I was 10 and went with team RED for that build and all future builds.
oh i remember the Cyrix 686.... i had one and upgraded later, it was easy because at this time there was Socket7 and you could put in a Cyrix,AMD,Intel on those boards... i bought a P200 and did my first overclocking lol it was all done with alot of jumpers on the mainboard
It was necessary to tell more about VIA, which once bought Cyrix. And VIA, by the way, still releases its processors, for example, their latest eight-core CPUs are manufactured at TSMC facilities.
Ironically I build PC's from 286 and on. First two Pc's with 8088 and 8086 were IBM PS1 and PS2. Built my own PC's ever since. Rock on. However my first "PC" was a Tandy TRS-80 clone. Like so many. Then had almost every Commodore through Amiga.
Our first home PC had a Cyrix Cx486DX2 66 cpu with 4MB of ram and around a 300MB HDD, me and my brother upgraded it to 16MB after a while which seemed crazy.
I had the Cyrix 6x86, and that was the first cpu I overclocked. Their tech got bought out by another company, can't remember who. It was a great chip back then.
Back in (if memory serves) the DOS 2.x days I upgraded my original IBM PC with an NEC V20 -- just because I could and it was cheap enough. I don't think that it made any noticeable difference in my user experience that some things were being done a little faster.
We have all sorts of processors to choose from these days. x86 is there, of course, but we have ARM, POWER and RISC-V, all very interesting stuff, unless you're using Windows or Mac.
The 80s and 90s were a crazy time for the desktop computer market. No one really knew what was going to catch on so companies would just show up out of nowhere, release some niche item and have some success but then not be able to follow up and disappear a few years later.
With all the patent trolling and anti competitive behavior of the current landscape it near impossible for us to see innovation emerge out of the blue like before. AMD has done a good job but all these cpus and technology just feel the same.
@@durdy911 That's partly because while they'll improve in high demand tasks, the only way people see an improvement on casual tasks is when a company releases a new, even less impressive, OS that drains more resources for little to no discernible benefit to the user
It's crazy how fast 3dfx rise and fell. For a few years it was dominating, and then died immediately
Hold onto your hats, ARM and RISC-V are coming.
@@InfernosReaper I think you are talking about Windows 7 vs 11. I do agree with you since Windows 11 sucks ass in terms of resource management but his comment makes sense. Capitalism failed when innovation was strictly bound to 3 companies in the PC space- AMD, Intel and Nvidia. Capitalism is supposed to be a system to coax companies out of their comfort zone and put innovation at the forefront for competition and market share, but instead, these companies have become complacent and incompetent. It's kind of ridiculous if you think about it. The only reason Intel's recent CPUs even managed to get some performance boost between generations 11 and 12 was because of Apple's M1 series chips which were much more powerful than the 11th gen Intel laptop chips. Till that time, for whatever reason, Intel had the majority market share for laptop chips, and AMD too wasn't too better off. It would have been amazing to see maybe 5-10 companies designing hardware instead of the normal 3, maybe 4. In the mobile Android market we see, or at least used to see a lot of companies creating their own chips for their own phones. A lot easier to do since the company can dictate everything from the motherboard to the SoC to the camera hardware, but still, this could have been done with the correct legislation on the PC side, but hasn't been done yet. With RISC-V and ARM on Windows (which still sucks ass app compatibility wise), there is some potential for other companies to start creating chips for PCs, although those will be limited to laptops mostly. But that also applies to the PC OS market. I would have liked to run Ubuntu or some version of Linux as my main OS but the driver and app support simply does not exist. In the current landscape it simply is pick your poison and deal with it.
Remember when all CPUs would fit into the same motherboard? So you don't need to swap motherboards going from Intel to AMD or back.
That would've been amazing.
I remember the 486 days ;)
YEAH!, In a "Intel Motherboard" you could put a AMD-K and a Cirix...
When?
@@the_kombinator DX66 :)
To tie this into your recent short:
Because DVD players were so expensive when they appeared, I built my folks a machine with an Cyrix processor, a DVD-Rom, and RGB out, because it was cheaper than a DVD player!
give me your kindey
most people just bought a ps2. not having dvd also killed dreamcast.
@@nyr4942 kindey
@Dee plays Gaming I don't think that in of itself would've saved the DC.
@Dee plays Gaming yup rather than buy a did player we bought a ps2 used it to watch movies more than game lol
I had a Cyrix CPU in my second computer when I was in High School. It was fantastic until Quake became popular. It took forever to figure out why it wouldn't run Quake well (or usually at all). It was before the internet was hugely popular, so finding information to solve my problem was very difficult.
Don't forget the VIA C3 and C7.
@RogerWilco99 I read the magazines, but don't forget about the dialup Bulletin Boards.
@@pabblo1 Those were some seriously slow processors
I played Half life (Quake engine) on Cyrix M II just fine back then. Well tbh I also play (NOW!) Quake quite fine on a 486 (@160MHz) with a Riva TNT :)
Cyrix M1 ... AKA Cyrix 6x86 or IBM 6x86 or ST 6x86
- this CPU had weak FPU
- lack of MMX
- lack of some Pentium 586 instructions (hence some SW incompatibility and patches needed)
Cyrix M2 .... IBM 6x86MX
- improved FPU (as fast as AMD K6, still slower than Pentium)
- added MMX
For that reason the game play on M1 vs. M2 was huge difference in Quake. People tend to mix all Cyrix CPU into same bag.
# There was also simplified M1 into 486 socket: Cyrix 5x86.
M1 was the world's 1st CPU with Out Of Order speculative execution (few months before P6 Intel Pentium Pro arrived, predecessor of PII and PIII which were also P6 family).
Cyrix 5x86 was basically Pentium Pro/ Pentium II into 486 socket (while Intel Pentium Overdrive into 486 was just old In-Order P5 CPU architecture).
# There was also AMD K5, 1st AMD's developed CPU (all previous from Am8088, 386, 486 and 586 were cloned Intel). K5 was RISC Am29000 with x86 decoder glued on - probably 1st x86 CPU ever (since then every x86 CPU is internally RISC based).
# There were also NexGen CPUs into Socket 7 .... later bought by AMD and so K6 was born. AMD bought Cyrix Media GX which was first x86 System on Chip (named AMD Geode).
# There were also Rise MP6 .... very advanced uarchitecture (OoO), similar to Cyrix. It had in INT exe the highest IPC from Socket 7 CPUs. However it came too late in 1998 when Intel had Pentium II and AMD was introducing Slot A and iconic Athlon K7 in 1999.
# I must not forget the cheapest Socket 7 CPU which was the IDT Winchip - simple In-Order CPU with high clocks but low/tragic performance. An incompetence was that later VIA bought IDT and Cyrix, and management decided to focus on IDT outdated dead-end in-order architecture instead modern Cyrix's OoO. This decided their future and they burried also S3 GPUs and huge motherboard chipset business (VIA had majority in chipsets for both Intel and AMD). That management was really something.
Anyway, it's fascinating that in 90's anybody could get x86 license and develop it's own CPU into one universal and common Socket Super 7. I hope somebody will bring open source socket and ISA to do it again in the future.
My first computer was in the 80s, a 8088 CPU at 5 MHz, with a whopping 64Kb of RAM. It came with double 5.25" floppy disks, and an amber screen. It had DOS, a beautiful operating system. Still today I mistype CLS when clearing the screen in Linux. Oh, and because of my old interaction with DOS, I find using Linux' command line interface easy.
Old man
@@joey.99 thank you..th
I use DOS almost every day for gaming :D
@@the_kombinator gaming was crazy, I used to car race, it was fast, with keyboard controls🤣😂😅
@@savagepro9060 based old man. I've got a lot of respect for those who ventured into the PC world back in the the old days. Those were some hardcore times. Screwing with jumpers alone was a major pain, let alone trying to make sure your parts are compatible as they did not have any kind of compatibility checkers back then. AND THE SOFTWARE ISSUES (which could be caused by hardware issues, or both at the same time. fun!). If you built a PC pre internet, you couldn't just download a patch to fix a malfunctioning piece of software, and you definitely couldn't be sure you were getting the latest version. you would have to wait till they could mail you a floppy or memory card with the patch/latest build and that could take months, if they even bothered to at all! I've gotta say we have it waayy easier nowadays with PCs. Though they still come with their frustrations as it seems like there's always something screwed up on your computer that you have to fix and troubleshoot. such is the life of owning a PC in any era.
They should do a follow up video. There's Motorola, MOS, PPC, and SPARC to cover as well. While this video primarily focused on CPUs that could run the x86 instruction set, it's important to note that there were other architectures competing at the time too and some of them are still around today and it's not just RISC and ARM either.
Motorola 680x0 was the architecture of choice for Unix workstations, until RISC came along and completely blew it away. The Zilog Z8000 also had some presence in this market, pre-RISC.
Anybody else remember the NatSemi NS32000 series? And there were the WDC 65816/65832 chips, which aimed to be like the 6502, only better.
Commodore Amiga Master Race.
The Motorola 6800 was quite the chip when it came out but was absolutely trounced in cost by the MOS 6502. It's really pretty crazy chips originating in the 70s still have a role today in embedded systems, with the WDC 65C02 being a CMOS improvement of the 6502 and the Zilog eZ80 still being binary compatible with the Z80.
@@edstar83 so many arcade machines were also based on 68k cpus with zilog z80 for handling sound. Kind of cool that many arcade games were multicore back in the 80ies :D Just a game like Segas OutRun had 2 68000 cpus and one Z80 cpu running at the same time, so basicly a 3 core setup :O
@@EkiToji lol yes! this this this this this this!
You forgot a few important ones.
Most noteably the Transmeta Crusoe and Efficeon chips. Those were insane.
Don't Forget Itanium or the Pentium Pro!
Via, texas instruments, ibm, rise, , nexgen, chips and technologie also made cpu’s for the x86 architecture.
@@theseob Cyrix
@@theseob I don't remember a TI x86. IBM basically cross-licensed Cyrix's part and made it in their fabs. Nexgen... I don't remember whether they shipped a product before being acquired by AMD (and turned into the basis for the pretty K6 if I remember). Chips and Technologies... erm... Well, you got me there, I have a vague recollection. Via is actually sort of still out there if you google them. IDT, which was acquired by VIA eventually. Man, time passes.
Yep a FPGA wasn't it? he also forgot the PowerPC, and eh well most of apples custom jobs (get it? jobs bwahahahahah I slay me!) anyway, from what I recall apple was using semi-customised CPUs built on the RISC architecture. Which, on paper at atleast, would spank intel stuff for anything that mattered. But history happened.
It is a little disappointing how there's only 2 real competitors in the CPU market
You mean leaders at the high end, there's plenty of competition at the mid and lower end parts of the spectrum. Including Arm which now powers Apple and Windows PC's, and Risc-V which looks to have it's first devices arriving soon too.
@Float Samples Bharath " Coz they are the only companies who produces CPU for desktops and laptops meanwhile others companies might produce for consoles or something"
AMD pretty much dominate the Console market in terms of hardware, they have their hardware in the latests consoles PS4-PS5 Xbox One-Xbox series S/X, Steam deck
The only exception is the Nintendo switch with their ARM Nvidia Chip
The only reason they are the ones producing CPU for Desktops and Laptop is because of the patents on X86/X64 architecture, Intel hold the patent but was forced to share it by IBM (In the times where IBM computers dominated the market) so the only surviving company that still as the patent share is AMD, the other ones have all been buyed or gone bankrupt, or both.
"Why don't people use other architecture?" The thing is that X86 was here for so long that it's gonna take a lot of time for people to transition for something like ARM and it's gonna cost a lot of money, so why bother when X86 processor are still pretty good?
@Float Samples Bharath
AMD is the last competitor standing that has the permission to design and produce x86 CPUs. Intel gave these out to a number of comapnies, but they all went out of business.
Hopefully x86 will die sooner or later.
@@jayhill2193 AMD and Intel have had a cross licsencing agreement forever it seems. Since Intel created x86 and AMD created x86-64 they basically need each other.
I have never seen a complete ownership timeline but I think VIA Technologies now own all the Cyrix IP. Their C3 and C7 CPUs were derived from it with production still going on for the market in China. VIA also have the old S3 Graphics IP so could probably produce a complete x86 / x64 platform if they wanted (and as they did with EPIA line up until about 10 years ago)
The high end of Cyrix went to VIA while the low end went to National who then resold it to AMD. The most famous used of the AMD Geode (from Cyrix) was the first "One Laptop Per Child" machine.
The VIA C3 and C7 were NOT based on Cyrix's designs. VIA bought another small company named Centaur Technology, which was responsible for the IDT Winchip line. The C3 and C7 are based on Centaur technology, nothing of Cyrix was used besides the moniker. By the time VIA got to Cyrix, it was a hollowed out shell of a company, being mismanaged to oblivion by NSC before it.
It wasn't quite the death of Cyrix's technology though. During the liquidation of NSC, AMD ended up with the IP for the Cyrix MediaGX, which was a Cyrix 586 system on a chip. AMD renamed it to the Geode GX and did some minor development with the architecture into the late 2000s and early 2010s. The final culmination would be the Geode LX, which AMD sold into the late 2010s before discontinuing. The subsequent Geode NX is based on the old Athlon XP-M architecture and isn't related.
I have a Geode GX in one of AMD's failed "50x15 initiative" PCs, it's quite dreadful. While AMD did increase the clock speed, they didn't do anything else to improve the efficiency of the architecture, or do anything to bring it into modern times with newer instruction sets. It's basically a really fast 586, still stuck in limbo architecturally between a 486 and Pentium. The FPU sucks and it barely runs Windows XP. The 50x15 PC originally came with a locked BIOS and locked down Windows CE, but there's a payload you can run to unlock Windows CE and reflash the unlocked BIOS to run other operating systems.
Centaur Technology on the other hand still lives on today. It made its way into Chinese x86 CPUs "Zhaoxin" and was recently bought up by Intel, though that will probably the end of them.
One more interesting competitor was the Transmeta Crusoe which was a RISC CPU that emulated x86 on-the-fly to run Windows, while using one tenth of the power a similarly powerful native x86 CPU would take. Sony used them in the Vaio U1 notebook.
Also left out PPC in general, while not exactly obscure, anyone who came onto the scene after a certain point didn't even know about it outside of Apple products
@@nemesis2264 Those Amigas were ahead of their time. With some better management in the company, they would have changed the PC world
Linus Torvalds worked for Transmeta for a time.
Unfortunately, their products never quite fulfilled the promise.
Also, another interesting company was VIA Technologies, which made many x86-compatible budget CPUs.
Transmeta Crusoe was VLIW CPU design. The second-generation Transmeta Efficeon design has a 256-bit-wide VLIW core versus the 128-bit core of the Crusoe.
The Crusoe is a VLIW microprocessor that executes bundles of instructions, termed molecules by Transmeta. Each molecule contains multiple instructions, termed atoms. The Code Morphing Software translates x86 instructions into native instructions. The native instructions are 32 bits long. Instructions that meet a set of conditions can be executed simultaneously and are combined to form a 64- or 128-bit molecule containing two or four atoms, respectively. In the event that there are not enough instructions to fill a molecule, the software inserts NOPs as padding to fill out empty slots. This is required in all VLIW architectures and is criticized for being inefficient, which is why there are molecules of two separate lengths.
In terms of X86 efficiency, Transmeta Efficeon was superior when compared to VLIW-EPIC-based Intel Itanium.
Anthony is a good host.I always enjoy him talking about tech.
The simps have risen again
he's my favorite
@@Freestyle80 You contribute nothing to the world and never will
Not better than Linus
His voice is just clear and crisps. Audiobook standards
Without even looking - Cyrix, IBM, AMD, Intel....all went into systems in the mid to late 90's
Back when the competition was stronger.
Fairchild ?
RISC
and the NEC, MOS and Motorolas for even older times
And I don't mean RISC-V which is the newer version
You need to do a segment on memory limitations of these early processors. People will laugh at the need for LIM EMS (Lotus, Intel, Microsoft Expanded Memory System). With the original PC only supporting 1MB of addressable RAM and Spreadsheets (the first KillerApp) needing much more memory (DOS was not a virtual memory OS) - they created a memory paging scheme that allowed you to put more memory on an expansion card and select a page at a time for use. Future processors expanded the addressable RAM to 16MB and the EMS died a natural death. The original PC was so deliberately cobbled by IBM that anything that needed resources became an add-in card. For example if you wanted to run CAD you bought the software and a full blown secondary computer plug in card to run it - just using the host PC as an IO processor really. Servicable 2D and 3D graphics started this way as they pre-dated Windows and the GUI. (Although CP/M's creator was first to market with a GUI called GEM. IBM released TopView.)
In fact, another fun Teckquickie would be a recap of the Great GUI Wars! (Note Apple was not first - not by a long shot.)
Yes! Lets hear about Extended and Expanded RAM and how they interacted with the first1MB of RAM (minus the ROM holes). And how the 8086, 80286 and 80386 had different memory access capabilities and hence different memory capacities and access methods. HIMEM.SYS anyone?
Remember the LH (load high) command for drivers? I actually worked on one machine that was running Windows 1.0. I say machine, because it was not a PC, but rather a machine at a water yard, and this was around the time that Windows 95 was out.
I had a VIA C3 (they owned Cyrix at the time), back in the day. The lack of an FPU absolutely slaughtered the CPU's performance, even on pre-Quake games. :(
My first PC that I built myself when I was a young lad had a VIA too! It was awful 🤣
@@kingjmac80 VIA chipsets were pretty bad too.
C3 has an FPU it's just dog slow. C3 also has some of the first incarnations of power and turbo clock states, as well as a dedicated AES and RNG cryptography chip.
Takes me back--I remember, with much trepidation, easing out the CPU to fit a V20. I think that was after I installed my first HDD: after much deliberation, I decided I'd go big, and bought a 20MB unit.
I worked in a clone shop in the 1980s, and we built systems, first Apple 2, then IBM PC, and finally IBM ATs. Towards the end of the PC/XT days, NEC's V20 parts helped extend the live of the PC/XT archetcure. In fiddling around on a day with no customers, I played around with the XT 10MHz system, benchmarking 8088 vs V20 chip. And I found out that the 8MHz V20 CPU actually ran *Faster* than the 10MHz part when running the system at 10MHz...I guess I am, technically, one of the first CPU overclockers...running an 8MHz part at 10MHz...And it was fast! It was on par, or better than IBM AT 6MHz or 8MHz! I had built one of these super XTs for myself, and eventually ended up selling it SF writer S.M. Stirling. Fun times!
Had a Cyrix 6x86 back in the day... it was fine doe Doom / Duke Nukem 3D etc., but the moment that FPU was needed, not a good time. That was the last pre-built I ever got, if I'm going to make a compromise in any of the components of my setup, I want to be the one making them.
More tech history with Anthony! There's tons of content to be had.
Like GeoStreber said, you left out a lot. You mentioned the 8080 chips but ignored Zilog and the Z-80. I also worked for a company called NexGen that made an 8086 or pc compatible chip. They were eventually bought out by AMD.
Hands-down weirdest x86 board and CPU I ever worked on. 1995 felt like I was working on alien technology. Alaris boards and CPU fab by IBM microelectronics. Had to replace an SMT resistor on the first batch of NxPCI boards, good times!
I was in the PC business during the Cyrix CPUs era (the dark times). They also made 386/486 "upgrade" chips... They were all nightmares. Huge compatibility issues.
Good old Evergreen Technologies, with jumpers on the actual processors to set speeds lol.
@@D3M3NT3Dstrang3r setting jumpers was an art form.... Especially for the displayed CPU speed on the front of the case!
@@Henchman1977 I remember being very happy when motherboard manufacturers changed from jumpers to dip switches.
My immediate family had a PowerSpec PC from the mid-1990s that ran on a Cyrix MediaGX, which was one of the first modern APUs at the time.
Meanwhile, I had an AST Bravo P series from the mid-1990s that ran on an Intel Pentium CPU and an integrated ATi GPU.
Forgot to mention NexGen and their NX5x86 and NX6x86 (RISC86 tm) processors. They were a RISC CPU that ran x86 CISC software.
NexGen, the company, was acquired by AMD.
If AMD had not acquired NexGen, then they probably wouldn’t be anywhere near where they are nowadays as they scrapped the K5 successor that they had designed in-house for the NexGen RISC architecture CPU that they rebadged as the K6.
This video gave me a trip down the computing memory lane. I knew all those things that Anthony was talking about. A blast from the past you might say. 😃👍
You should've mentioned transmeta! Fascinating chips from the turn of the century which were not x86 but instead used 'code morphing' to run x86 code.
I had quite the collection back in the day. Including intel, AMD, NEC and cyrix! Cyrix mostly 486 variants. The others all from 8080 to 80386.
I'm quite familiar with all those CPU's, but I still enjoy hearing about them. The second laptop I ever owned back in 2001 was a Sony Vaio Picturebook with an 867MHz Transmeta Crusoe CPU. My first laptop was a Toshiba Libretto with an overclocked Pentium I, but that Crusoe processor plus an aftermarket quad-size battery give me an insane 14 hour battery life! I've never had another laptop that could do that.
forgot to mention IDT Winchip and 486SLC that were made in the mid 90s for the budget builds. Also there was NEC V30 that was almost as fast as 286 but way cheaper.
The V30 was fully 16 bit like the intel 8086 and was a drop in replacement.
Excellent video Anthony!
I remember when I got my first 8088 processor, Epson Equity I+ (the plus was for turbo). I bought it brand new and I think I payed about $2.500 for it.
It was not my first PC though. The first PC that I owned was a Ti-99/4a and I still have it and it still works!
I had several Cyrix processors. 486DLC33. Several in the 386 class. I also owned an IBM Blue Lightening 486SLC2-66... It was so fast.
I’m a simple man. I see Anthony talking about tech, I upvote.
My history of microprocessors you young'uns have apparently never heard of; 6809, 6502, Z80, Motorola 6800/1/2/3/4, IBM Power PC, Itanium and various Mips processors that eventually ended up in Silicon Graphics. You missed a few Anthony.
And yes, I know there are a load more but I never played with them.
Without NexGen, AMD wouldn’t be where they are now. If they had not have bought the company & rebadged the RISC architecture of the next generation NexGen processor as the K6, then they would probably be lagging behind Intel further than they were in the Bulldozer days until Ryzen.
Intel iAPX 432, the Ada machine!
Interesting tidbit - as part of USSR chip program back in 70s-80s there was a separate institute in Kyiv, Ukraine for designing chips. They were different, not compatiable with x86 architecture. Chiefs in Moscow admitted that they had made a mistake of trying to make chips different and not compatiable with x86 and cut funding for alternative program.
But Kyiv branch literally rebelled in secret and continued their development. USSR fell, 90s came and lack of funding ended the story with no traces of chips or documentation.
What is interesting is that the chips were not powerful enough, not x86 and SUSPICIOUSLY looked like ACORN, ARM1, ARM2. As they proved to be comercially unsuccessful and could not compete with dominating x86, domestic clones/copycats were killed off not to waste money.
I saw documentary/interview on TV abot two decades ago, could not find it on the net. I tried to get my hands on some documentation/chips as a rare collectible that could be resold but ended up empty handed
Quake, the game that actually killed an entire company because it was in such high demand.
Go back further.
Zilog and the Z80, that dominated micros for close to 5 years - with it's main competition being the 6502 (and the 6510 offshoot) in Apples and Commodores and "lesser" known stuff.
Yes, Intel WAS around - trying to push the 8086 as "the real upgrade path" from it's fallen-behind 8080.
Good to know the aspect ratio also went retro!
Something very satisfying about Anthony saying 8088
It's been a while since we saw Anthony, he's such a good host :3
Please make him host LTT videos again
he gets creeped out by you simps thats why he stopped
@@Freestyle80 now you know why
I remember the Zenith PC compatibles.
At the time the Air Force was had a contract and thousands entered service.
They also didn't have a what you would call a mother board. It was a backplane board with nothing but power and other connectors. A full length card plugged into the backplane board and had a 286 CPU and memory chips on it. You also had to have other boards, one for the 10 MB and later the 20 MB Hard Drives with support for 2 floppy disks. A third card, the I/O or input/output card that had both small and large serial ports along with a parallel or printer port. Then last but not least was a video card.
We eventually upgraded a few to 386 CPUs by simply replacing the CPU card.
I believe we also upgraded the drive card for the larger 20 MB HDD and the 3.5 inch 1.5 MB floppy disk that had the hard plastic shell some weird people called stiffys.
My first personal computer was a tower and I believe a Cyrix processor that was the equivalent of a 386.
Anthony is a fantastic host. He is extremely knowledgeable, comes off as very confident and relaxed. Which all make for and very pleasant viewing experience.
Well, NEC and Cyrix are pretty well known though. The Mach 10 and 20 a bit less so. But I was kinda hoping to see the WinChip and the mP6. Those two are quite fascinating. :)
whole video seemed like a lead-in to VIA, Vortex (S3), and Geode (AMD) but didn't make it over the line...
@@poofygoof Gee, thanks... now I have a few more processor to add to my collection :D but nah, thanks genuinely. I had forgotten about some of these. Geode in particular. I don't remember Vortex though but sounds interesting.
Love Emily as a host. She is such a great presenter! It would be awesome to get more computer history and retro computer videos with her :D
Finally Anthony hosting a video. It became rare... As always an excellent presantation. Sorry my english
Nice video dude
Emily now
@@vasilisvita ywnbaw
*dudette
@@dillonh321 He has XY chromosomes and always will.
@@membrillo1896
Bigot
I need a linux channel with Antony, the way he explains stuff >>>
You should do more history episodes like these. 👍
The Cyrix CPUs also was sold under IBM and SGS Thompson ("It's ST") brand. You have not mentioned IDT Winchip, Rise mp6, Nexgen 5x86 and the never completed 6x86 prototype, which became the AMD K6 later. Also VIA and Transmeta CPUs were on the market. Earlier 486 CPUs was manufactured and sold under license from Intel by many brands: AMD, Cyrix, IBM, SGS Thompson, Texas Instruments, UMC. There were much more than NEC and Cyrix.
Hey! I actually had that 166MHz Cyrix CPU back in the day...
Funfact it was only 133 😅
@@stephanking681 Nuh-uh. I still got this thing around somewhere. It was a *Pentium-Rated PR200+ clocked at 166 MHz with a 66 MHz FSB.*
Back then it was an actual upgrade from my Intel Pentium-S 133MHz. These clock speeds are absolutely hilarious these days. 😂
For the record, Anthony's hair is fire in this EP. haha
Loving Anthony's hair
how did he fix it
@@chairwood he took classes with Steve from GamersNexus
I think you forget viatech and zhaoxin, but nice the v20 got a another appearance. some part of nec got spun off into renesas, but nec still makes vector engines.
When I watch this, I think about how I'm so glad that computers have come to the place that they are today. We might have some struggles today (why can't I play cyberpunk in 4k with RT at 240 FPS????!!!!) but man has technology evolved. I am fascinated by early day computers and appreciate coverage of this. Thanks, Anthony ^_^
I upgraded my first PC (Tandy PC1000 w/AMD-manufactured Intel 8086-2) with an NEC V30. It was 12Mhz (over 8Mhz) and had a partial 286 instruction set. It was enough to allow me to run Wolf3d on that same system--once I upgraded to 640k at least.
Damn Anthony’s hair is getting lush
shes Emily now
@@vasilisvita He*
@@vasilisvita lol
The Z80 was the start for a lot of us Tech Guys. Booting Dos, getting your Novel Net card drivers sorted and then running WordPerfect or Spreadsheet Apps etc a windows install you had to run on top of DOS and constantly tweak to get to that upper ram, all with No TCP/IP 😁 Now its a 128gb desktop with the power of a server just to run a web browser ....
Trip down memory lane here, nice work Anthony.
My first Computer I ever built predates CPU's, the Motherboard was a Pro286 with ISA sockets, it had 8 bit sound card, 2mb video and 28k modem was all considered fast back then. No windows just a very early version of DOS as I remember.
Emily now unfortunately...
@@SahilSingh-ov6qtget outta here with your negativity
hmm VIA was not mention. next gen and Transmeta is names i remember well. and chipset companies like SIS and CHIPS made CPU alternativs.
VIA Eden X2 U4200 on top 🔥🔥🔥
I had a Cyrix in my main machine up till 2004 (when I built a "Barton" AthlonXP based system). While it may have sucked at Quake, I spent *so* many hours playing Starcraft and RollerCoaster Tycoon on it!
Damn Anthony hasn’t been on here in ages
*Emily
I actually HAD a Cyrix CPU system once... it was great, until it got outdated and there was no upgrade path.
BRO, he can't even pass a narrow alleyway but he thinks he can pass as an Emily?
😂
Bought Cyrix as a second machine for my networking school. It run doughnuts around Intel's Pentium. That's when I stopped believing Intel's marketing. And never came back. I was shocked how much cheaper and better Cyrix was. Loved it.
We don't see this guy on the channel anymore 🤷🤔
I had a couple Cyrix systems in the mid 90s, one with a 686 200+ and another with an MII 333. I guess I never tried to play Quake, because they worked great for me. But we upgraded so fast back then due to CPUs doubling in speed almost every year. I probably only ran them for 18 months each.
Anthony is growing luscious locks to rival Tech Jesus of Gamer's Nexus
He was taking estrogen lol
Anthony time!
Emily now.
You didn't mention the fully 16 bit NEC V30, a direct replacement for the Intel 8086. The V20 and V30 emulated the Zilog Z80 with 22NICE, enabling a PC or clone to run stock CP/M for a Z80, without any modifications. I had a PCjr with a V20 and it ran CP/M faster than a Xerox 820-II. A 12Mhz 80286, despite the clock speed advantage, couldn't keep up because it relied on 22NICE's completely software Z80 emulation mode.
What happened with his tongue? :O
What happened? I don't see nothing
Emily now
A little bit lackluster but I think we forgot Motorola, they had really good cpus, we had MIPS which was used in Playstation, Nintendo 64, Silicon Graphics just to name a few. Hitachi made the cpu for Sega saturn, we had NEC, Sharp that ive seen in synthesizers etc. We had VIA x86 cpus, IBM PowerPC, Zilog, Arms own risc cpus used in the Acorn, we had MOS Technology which was used in C64 to name a few.
Forgetting Centaur/VIA/Zhaoxin as the third x86 license holder is quite surprising imho. The WinChip series was a low-power Socket 7-based x86 processor designed by Centaur Technology and marketed by its parent company IDT. Later on VIA bought Centaur, and with this deal VIA became the third of only three licensed x86 manufacturers (intel, AMD, VIA) till today. Centaur's / VIA's license still gets used till today by the only chinese x86 cpu manufacturer Zhaoxin. Copy&paste from wikipedia-article :
"Zhaoxin is a joint venture between VIA Technologies and the Shanghai Municipal Government.[1] In 2021 it was reported that VIA has a 14.75% shareholding in the company.[5] China has a domestic policy to "replace all foreign hardware and software from its public infrastructure with homegrown solutions" by 2023 (the so-called 3-5-2 policy).[6] VIA holds a x86 licence which allows its subsidiaries to produce compatible microprocessors; this allows Zhaoxin to develop x86 computer chips."
The thing about quake was it used the FPU so well, it effectively made a pentium (or AMD equivalent more weakly) a dual core. IE running game code across the CPU and FPU in parallel. Quake was hyper optimized for intel Pentiums though. Dual core nearly a decade before dual core.
Cirix's weak floating point ment it was left in the dust.
what is a woman?
You forgot the NexGen class of processors that were created to compete directly with Intel. They created the MMX instructions that Intel licensed from AMD after AMD bought out NexGen. So when you see the Pentium w/MMX this was created by NexGen and licensed to Intel by AMD. I had a NexGen P90, and it was a really good machine to run Win95 through Win 98 SE.
missed out several others as well from around the same time as Cyrix (who started with 486 processors thru to chip’s rebranded with IBM & VIA including the 686Mx/M2). What about the Centaur WinChip was another budget oriented x86 cpu that was not too bad price wise for running simple Windows & office tasks. Can also remember building a NT Workstation running a PowerPC processor as well that was faster & more stable than the typical x86 machines running NT Workstation for CAD/Design tasks. Also the RISC based NexGen NX586 CPU’s as well that were later acquired by AMD & became the K6 CPU with AMD scrapping their in-house designed successor to the K5 family in favour for this! There are also several more that I have forgotten details on now such as pre-286 CPU’s from Chips & Technologies, Rise & Texas Instruments.
I want to know what shampoo Anthony uses 🤣
I have a laptop which uses a 1GHz Nehemiah C3 processor by Via. It was branded "Staples" but actually built by NEC.
The Cyrix 6x86. I remember my roommate and I went to Fry's Electronics to pick up parts to build his computer. I can't remember exactly why he chose the Cyrix, but it was probably price, since we were both paid pretty low. It ran well enough for 1997, and it wasn't a driver nightmare like we both expected it to be.
I can't believe you didn't include IBM-Motorola because it is extremely relevant. Apple deciding to switch chips and locking people out of software updates is an oldie that has since become a hit today.
I remember when Cyrix was the third option back in the late '90s, and early 2000s. Just a shame they never really had the popularity after the 64-bit era started up.
Back in '98, my first computer has Cyrix PR 166! PR is - Pentium Rating - the Processor speed has actually 133mhz, but is equivalent to 166mhz compared to the Intel Pentium! :)
And Via... and Transmeta Crusoe... And the Motorola 68000.... And IBM PowerPC... And Sun Spark... And MIPS RISC in SGI workstations... (and those are just the Desktop/Workstation CPUs I know of off the top of my head!) We needed QuickBits for CPUs!
That kinds of episodes is why I'm subscribed to Techquickie. Excellent!
I do wonder, though: why did the shape of CPUs change from a "centipede" rectangle to a (non-legged) square?
The pin count. You do not want a very long centipede CPU.
I wish my dad had bought an NEC V20 for our Turbo XT we got in 1987. I had that PC from 1987 to 1997. I wish he got an Adlib card more though. Living with PC speaker sound from 5 to 15 years old was rough.
Was going to argue because I moved to a Cyrix 6x86 from my old 100 MHZ 486 and remember playing Quake around that time with no problem. But it didn’t reign long I remember switching it out for an AMD K6 chip, so I could be wrong. I remember it being so crap I couldn’t watch DVD’s on it and required a separate decoder card. Thank you RealMagic ❤
When I first started getting into computers i remember seeing a magazine that listed various semiconductor manufacturers and there was one called "Austin Power". When the Austin Powers movie came out the name made me laugh.
I started my PC Master Race journey with a Pentium 2 that slotted into the motherboard. Maybe you could do a video about those?
I'm pretty sure that the wording of the OS/2 on Mach20 is wrong. I think it was likely 11 licenses, not copies because I know our facility had several dozen of those Mach20 cards running that horrid OS/2 release for at least a year while we were moving to a different back office. And they were all legal copies, because we had a site license.
4:00 I had a Cyrix processor for a couple of years. It was competent. The one noteworthy thing I remember about that CPU was Cyrix threatening to sue Warner Brothers because the 1997 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Eraser had a technology company named "Cyrix." Warner's had to use CGI to change all the Cyrix labelling to read "Cyrez" to avoid getting sued. I think it's only shown in a few shots though.
In the late 90s, I upgraded my Pentium 75 MHz with a CPU from some company called Evergreen Technologies. Can't remember a single thing about it, but it did extend the life of that old Gateway 2000 for a bit.
Evergreen Technologies as well as Kingston and a few others sold upgrade solutions that still used one of the big name vendor's chips. Evergreen in particular used IDT, Cyrix, and AMD chips in their upgrade solutions. Usually with Evergreen's own naming put on top.
My first PC was an Epson (yes the printer company) that had a Cyrix 50Mhz 486 in it which I replaced with their 75MHz version. I upgraded the 8MB of SIMM RAM to the PC's max of 64MB which solved Windows 95's constant BSOD when closing a window. Although that original 8MB could have started to go bad causing those BSODs which is why my Aunt's boss gave it to her and she gave it to me. To match that PC I spent $200 of my own money on an Epson printer. That was before I built my first PC in 1997 when I was 10 and went with team RED for that build and all future builds.
Anthony- always a good sign when you do some obscure tech deep dive!
Also your hair is majestic AF. Big fan.
oh i remember the Cyrix 686.... i had one and upgraded later, it was easy because at this time there was Socket7 and you could put in a Cyrix,AMD,Intel on those boards... i bought a P200 and did my first overclocking lol it was all done with alot of jumpers on the mainboard
It was necessary to tell more about VIA, which once bought Cyrix. And VIA, by the way, still releases its processors, for example, their latest eight-core CPUs are manufactured at TSMC facilities.
My very first computer I bought for myself was a Cyrix 6x86 machine, from TigerDirect back in the day. Good memories.
Ironically I build PC's from 286 and on. First two Pc's with 8088 and 8086 were IBM PS1 and PS2. Built my own PC's ever since. Rock on. However my first "PC" was a Tandy TRS-80 clone. Like so many. Then had almost every Commodore through Amiga.
Our first home PC had a Cyrix Cx486DX2 66 cpu with 4MB of ram and around a 300MB HDD, me and my brother upgraded it to 16MB after a while which seemed crazy.
I had the Cyrix 6x86, and that was the first cpu I overclocked. Their tech got bought out by another company, can't remember who. It was a great chip back then.
This takes me back to the days of the SX and DX CPUs. SX were at the cheaper end due to the lack of FPU. How far we've come.
Back in (if memory serves) the DOS 2.x days I upgraded my original IBM PC with an NEC V20 -- just because I could and it was cheap enough. I don't think that it made any noticeable difference in my user experience that some things were being done a little faster.
We have all sorts of processors to choose from these days. x86 is there, of course, but we have ARM, POWER and RISC-V, all very interesting stuff, unless you're using Windows or Mac.