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Anyone got love for Cyrix?

There was this brief moment in the 1990s where they were selling the *ell out of IBM SLC/2 motherboards and generic-feeling small form-factor systems in the back pages of Computer Shopper. I remember at the time being impressed how well they ran considering the limitations, but also being a little confused why IBM was pushing a chip limited to 16MB of RAM at the same time they were trying to make OS/2 2.x relevant. They were still selling these right up to around the time Windows 95 came out, I think. Buying one in 1995 would definitely qualify as a pretty serious mistake.
Technically, they were Alaris motherboards, not IBM. And IBM had a pretty ambitious goal in 1993:

ibm486.png
 
Technically, they were Alaris motherboards, not IBM.

According to that article IBM manufactured both the chips and the motherboard (which was a requirement based on their agreement with Intel) so I'd say that falls into the "distinction without a difference" category but, yes, they weren't sold under the IBM label.
 
Hehe, I have an IBM 486SLC2 motherboard (Opal LX) It can be clocked up to 33/66MHz (with cooling) from the default 25/50. Neat piece of technology, but since the CPU is soldered there is no upgrade path.

(the picture is not mine but I have this exact same motherboard)

vYpmtsI.jpeg
 
Hehe, I have an IBM 486SLC2 motherboard (Opal LX) It can be clocked up to 33/66MHz (with cooling) from the default 25/50. Neat piece of technology, but since the CPU is soldered there is no upgrade path.

It had to be. IBM's licensing agreement with Intel only allowed them to sell processors as part of a "complete unit" -- either a motherboard or an upgrade module.
 
All those chips are used on 386 class boards anyway so I think the lack of upgrade path is not an issue.
 
I run my Olivetti M380XP9, originally with i386-33, with a Cyrix 486DLC plus Cyrix FPU. It does not have the speed of a real 486-33, but I like that machine. There is only one thing, when I enable all features of the Cyrix CPU, Windows 3.11 does not detect the Sound Blaster Pro card, so no sound. In DOS mode no problem, all games, demos, mod players etc play sound nice with all CPU speed features on. To have sound in Windows, I have to disable all these optimisations, but the PC is still a bit faster as with a i386-33.
 
I always loved Cyrix systems and own many over the years

Unfortunate VCFED couldn’t get Jerry Rogers in an interview before his death
 
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