Concept

Cyrix Cx486DLC

Summary
The Cyrix Cx486DLC is an x86 desktop microprocessor developed by Cyrix. It was Cyrix's second CPU offering, released years after selling math coprocessors that competed with Intel's units and offered better performance at a comparable or lower price. It was released in June of 1992, with a price of $119 for computer manufacturers. The 486DLC was a 486 desktop CPU from Cyrix, intended to compete with the Intel 486SX and DX. Texas Instruments, who manufactured the 486DLC for Cyrix, later released its own version of the chip, the TI486SXL, with 8 KB internal cache vs 1 KB of the original Cyrix design. The similarly named IBM 486DLC, 486DLC2, 486DLC3 (aka Blue Lightning) are often confused with the Cyrix chips, but are not related and are instead based on Intel's i486 design. Like the later and more famous Cyrix Cx5x86, it was a hybrid CPU, incorporating features of a new CPU (the Intel 80486) while plugging into its predecessor's (386DX) PGA132 socket. It ran at speeds of 25, 33, and 40 MHz. The 486DLC can be described as a 386DX with the 486 instruction set and 1 KB of on-board L1 cache added. Because it used the 386DX bus (unlike its 16-bit cousin, the 486SLC), it was a fully 32-bit chip. Like the 386 and 486SX, it had no on-board math coprocessor, but unlike the 486SX, it could make use of an Intel 387DX or compatible numeric x87 coprocessor. Due to the smaller L1 cache, the 486DLC could not compete on a clock-for-clock basis with the 486SX, but a 33 MHz 486DLC could keep pace with a 25 MHz 486SX, cost less, and offered the ability to upgrade further with the addition of an inexpensive math coprocessor. While some advertisements from smaller manufacturers touted the superiority of their 486DLC over name-brand computers sporting a 486SX, in reality the only advantage the 486DLC offered feature-wise over the 486SX was the ability to add an inexpensive math coprocessor. The Intel 487 "math coprocessor" for 486SX users was in reality a CPU replacement—a 486DX with a different pinout—and originally cost several hundred dollars more than a 387.
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