The CPUs You've NEVER Heard Of

Intel and AMD weren't always the only games in town. Here are some higher-end processors that made a splash back in the day.

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[coolbrotherf]

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.

[Alvin]

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.

[sturbine]

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!

[evilbred]

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.

[GeoStreber]

You forgot a few important ones.
Most noteably the Transmeta Crusoe and Efficeon chips. Those were insane.

[savagepro]

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.

[gwgux]

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.

[sinax]

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)

[Biglanjiao]

It is a little disappointing how there's only 2 real competitors in the CPU market

[zdanee]

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.

[mikksaia]

Anthony is a good host.I always enjoy him talking about tech.

[saintuk]

Without even looking - Cyrix, IBM, AMD, Intel....all went into systems in the mid to late 90's

[ronbpix]

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. 😃👍

[XzTS-Roostro]

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.

[dennisfahey]

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.)

[ogrejd]

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. :(

[michaelwright]

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.

[AyeeSecret]

Good to know the aspect ratio also went retro!

[angieandretti]

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.

[BoDiddly]

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!