Cyrix Corp, Richardson, Texas has complemented its plug-compatible but much faster alternatives for Intel Corp’s 80X87 maths co-processors with one for use with the 16-bit bus 80386SX: the FasMath 83S87 for the laptop and embedded controller markets is claimed to offer up to five times the performance of Intel’s 80387SX, to operate at one-twentieth the power dissipation, and to be 100% software and pin-compatible with the 80386SX; the thing draws less than 5mA when idling, and less than 40mA when operating in a 16MHz system; the part achieves its superior performance by implementing its floating point primitive operations in hardware rather than in a microprogrammed sequencer – and it evaluates elementary and transcendental functions to higher accuracy than the 80387SX; fabricated in CMOS, the chip is offered in 16MHz and 20MHz versions and samples cost $506 and $556 including a 3.5 demonstration disk, user and installation manual.
