A Legacy of Compatibility

A Legacy of Compatibility
Establishing Compatibility
Verifying Compatibility
Demonstrating Compatibility
Software Compatibility List
A Commitment to Compatibility

Open or download the Adobe Acrobat PDF version of "A Legacy of Compatibility" (12 pages, 1.8 MB).

A legacy of compatibility.

Cyrix Corporation is a leading supplier of high-performance processors to the personal computer industry. Founded in 1988, the Company designs, manufactures and markets innovative, x86 software-compatible processors for the desktop and mobile computer markets.

At Cyrix, we pioneered a smarter way to design original, x86 processors. From the first 486 to the latest 6x86 processor and beyond, Cyrix continues to deliver breakthrough designs that exceed all compatibility requirements.

Our ability to build consumer confidence into every Cyrix processor comes from a commitment to absolute quality. From stringent pre-silicon design testing on through post-silicon production, Cyrix is dedicated to advancing the standards of processor integrity and compatibility. This is your assurance that every Cyrix processor is fully compatible with current and future x86 software — for the lifetime of your computer system.

Establishing compatibility.

Every Cyrix processor design undergoes rigorous compatibility, circuitry and durability testing before any silicon is ever produced. Our engineers develop and fine-tune processor specifications to exceed the performance of competitive products. A series of pre-silicon behavioral and logic models runs thousands of proven tests to ensure compatibility and optimize performance before production.

Cyrix pre-silicon testing.

Rigorous pre-silicon design testing enables Cyrix to curtail the silicon iteration treadmill, reduce design costs, maximize performance and verify complete compatibility prior to the production of a new prototype. Once specifications for the next-generation Cyrix processor are complete, a mathematical model is created and put to the test — thousands of times.

Cyrix also simulates the most complex and unique portions of every major operating system, past and present, to ensure identical function to established x86 operating standards and robust performance in OS tests.

In all pre-silicon testing procedures, three distinct test phases occur — boundary tests, controlled random tests and operating systems tests. In scrutinizing every line of instruction code, these tests ensure Cyrix processors meet compatibility standards.

Boundary tests. Designed to analyze operand and instruction boundaries, these tests push the limits of specific processor functional units under unusual, yet theoretically possible, conditions. Instructions are tested in real, protected, and virtual (VM) 86 mode; floating point, external interrupts, task switches, exceptions, privilege level changes and other areas are also examined. Boundary testing also is applied to other specific architectural features such as branch prediction and register renaming.

Controlled random tests. A proprietary Cyrix test generator produces directed random sets of instructions with random addressing modes and random data. Thousands of random instructions sequences are generated and run, covering countless instruction combinations and a full range of operating modes. Simultaneous analysis on multiple workstations allows in-depth comparison and ensures the accuracy, consistency and quality of the pre-silicon results.

Operating systems (OS) tests. Kernel sequences of popular major operating systems are analyzed in the OS testing process. The most complex and unique portions of each operating system are isolated and tested to verify operation is compatible with established x86 operating standards. Additionally, a special Cyrix test suite measures the current processor's compatibility against previous x86 operating system generations to ensure legacy compatibility.

Verifying compatibility.

As refined processor designs become silicon prototypes, compatibility verification continues with the Cyrix Test Lab running millions of automated compatibility tests. The prototypes are scrutinized to confirm design integrity and hardware reliability as developed in the control model.

Operating performance characteristics are compared to all previous Cyrix processor generations, as well as to competitive x86 processors.
All operating systems are tested for precision BIOS operations.
Major network systems are tested running simple and complex functions.
Floating point functionality is completely exercised under exhaustive conditions.
Processor-intensive benchmarks are run to examine CPU performance while emphasizing the architectural differences between processor offerings.

By capturing every possible statistic, even the smallest testing variation can be investigated and corrected to ensure the integrity and x86 compatibility of each processor.

SOAR — Silicon Open-ended Architectural Reassurance — is one component of Cyrix's compatibility assurance program. SOAR verifies prototype compatibility, then performs random functionality testing during the processor's entire life cycle. As long as a Cyrix processor is in design and production, millions of instruction permutations will be tested 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Cyrix processors also are beta tested by selected hardware vendors and personal computer manufacturers to verify hardware compatibility and ease of connection to existing circuitry. This additional data enables Cyrix to fine-tune each processor, further ensuring real-world compatibility and performance.

Platform verification lab.

In our Platform Verification Lab (PVL), Cyrix runs an extensive suite of post-silicon tests on motherboards and systems from our manufacturing and vendor partners. Only motherboards that pass our PVL standards are listed on the Cyrix Web site 6x86 Motherboard Compatibility List.

Configuration Test Summary

CPU Detection
Basic BIOS Setup
ARR Control
Operations Test
Memory Configuration
Floppy Test
Expansion and Peripherals
Green Features
CPU Detection @ different clock speed

Operations Tests

FPU Error Test
Register Status Test
Write-Back Tests
Front Panel Reset
ctl-alt-del Test

Floppy Tests

Floppy xcopy
Floppy Boot

Expansion & Peripherals

Additional DRAM
EDO DRAM
PCI Video Card
ISA Video Card
PCI IDE Card
ISA IDE Card
PCI SCSI Card
ISA SCSI Card
PCI Network Card
ISA Network Card
D ROM Card
Sound Card

Operating Systems Tests

Windows NT 3.5 HCT
Windows 95 HCT
OS/2 Warp
OS/2 2.11
SCO UNIX

Installations

Windows NT 3.5
Windows 95
OS/2 Warp

Stress Tests

Windows NT 3.51 HCT
Windows NT 4.0 HCT
Windows 3.11, Windows 95 (24 hr stress test)
Windows 95, Winstone 96 (10 back-to-back single runs)
Windows 95, Winstone 32 (10 back-to-back single runs)
OS/2 Warp (24 hour stress test)
SCO UNIX (Balanced load — 24 hours)
Novell Client/Server (24 hour stress test)

Applications/Games (partial listing)

Novell Client 4.01
AutoCAD r13
DOOM II
Dark Forces
Tie Fighter
Magic Carpet

Diagnostic Programs

DRPc
FASMATH Diagnostic
IEEE Diagnostic

Green Features

Idle
Suspend

Demonstrating compatibility.

Cyrix tests processor performance with leading x86 software applications to demonstrate compatibility. Hundreds of software programs are rigorously tested under numerous hardware configurations and memory options.

Industry standard benchmarks are run to measure the processors' system and software performance. Cyrix completes all testing in compliance with industry standard performance benchmarks that represent the most current software available to PC users.

Cyrix processors also are tested on the U.S. government's National Technical Information Services (NTIS) ADA programming system. This validation suite tests processor performance by running nearly 4,000 programs to ensure software compatibility across processor generations.

PC manufacturers. The following is a partial list of companies that have used Cyrix processors in their computer systems:

Acer
Apple
AST
Compaq
Epson
Fountain (CyberMax)
Fujitsu/ICL
IBM
PC Channel (CTX)
Shark
Vobis

Software compatibility list.

In the Cyrix Test Labs, Cyrix processors are thoroughly tested on the latest operating systems, networks, business applications, multimedia programs, memory managers, utilities and entertainment software to ensure full compatibility and customer satisfaction. A listing of all programs tested is available by viewing the Processor Software Compatibility List.

A commitment to compatibility.

The Cyrix commitment to compatibility has been proven time and again — in the test lab and the marketplace. With more than six million processors and eight original architectures in use today, Cyrix has demonstrated its expertise in creating compatible, high-performance processor designs.

Today's PC users demand more from their computers than ever before. The Cyrix family of x86 processors gives computer manufacturers the performance and compatibility they need to deliver the most powerful PC systems to users around the world.

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