Preliminary performance figures show that a 100 MHz M1, which will be shipped later in the third quarter, scored 164 on the Winstone 95 benchmark running under Windows 95, compared to the 159 scored by a 133 MHz Pentium® running in the same system. The M1 was also revealed to be 30 percent faster than a 133 MHz Pentium Pro®, based on Intel's published benchmarks, when both run under Windows for Workgroups 3.1.
"Since it appears that the Pentium® processor will initially be targeted at PC servers, the M1 and its Windows 95 performance levels promise to dramatically change the playing field for processors in the desktop market," said Steve Tobak, vice president for corporate marketing at Cyrix. "Windows 95 represents the state-of-the-art for today's desktop PC software and is composed of a blend of 16-and 32-bit code. It's this mixed 16- and 32-bit code in the Windows 95 environment that trips up the P6."
More than two years ago, the M1 engineering team anticipated PC users would remain dependent upon the installed software base while looking forward to future applications. They also believed that a mixed 16- and 32-bit environment would survive for the near future, so they focused on sophisticated dependency and conflict reduction schemes to remove performance bottlenecks.
"The M1 effectively runs all standard off-the-shelf PC software regardless of 16- or 32-bit coding, without the software recompilation that we understand to be required for peak performance on the P6," Tobak said. "The Winstone 95 benchmark confirms the positioning of the M1 within this context."
Cyrix Corporation, headquartered in Richardson, Texas, is a leading supplier of high-performance processors for the personal computer industry. Founded in 1988, the Company designs, manufactures and markets innovative, x86 software-compatible processors for the desktop and mobile computer, motherboard, and end user markets.