We're selling more X86 than AMD - Cyrix

For the quarter ended September 30, 1997 the Texan firm said it shipped 1.3 million chips; AMD claims to have shipped a little less than a million parts for the same period. Cyrix revenues were up 182 per cent year-on-year for the quarter to $93.2 million. That good news was offset by another loss of $0.7 million compared to $6.9 million a year ago.

Although 600,000 of the quarter's shipments were older 6x86 non-MMX processors, Cyrix UK managing director Brendan Sherry said the MediaGX (400,000 shipments) and 6x86MX chips had also played a significant part.

"I think we've made a lot of progress this year," said Sherry. "We've seen revenues go up every quarter and we're looking like a $400-500 million company, but the key is the units thing. If you think we have a 50-50 wafer share deal with IBM, that's a lot of chips - probably well over two million units."

Sherry couldn't resist aiming a few digs at rival AMD: "Our success contrasts with the woes the AMD guys are having. They're doing a great job on the PR spin but it's all huff and puff. We've clearly outsold them in the second and third [calendar] quarters. They've been bleating on about the volumes they're going to do but where's the beef? The 166MHz and 200MHz K6 are on severe allocation. They're not out there because AMD can't make enough."

Sherry said that Cyrix had benefited from narrowly focusing on the home PC segment. "In the old days we were trying to spread ourselves too thinly. We took an engineering view that if it was good enough it would sell everywhere. Now we have a very, very tight focus and we know that the way to take on Intel is not to try and cover every square on the chess board."

Cyrix stockholders will vote on November 17 whether to merge with National Semiconductor.