Editing NexGen (section)

== History ==
The company was founded in 1986 by [[Thampy Thomas]], being funded by Compaq, [[ASCII (company)|ASCII]] and [[Kleiner Perkins]]. Its first design was targeted at the [[80386]] generation of processors. But the design was so large and complicated it could only be implemented using eight chips instead of one and by the time it was ready, the industry had moved onto the [[80486]] generation.
[[Image:KL NexGen Nx586-P90.jpg|thumb|120px|A NexGen Nx586 processor]]
[[Image:KL NexGen Nx586PF-100.jpg|thumb|120px|A NexGen Nx586PF processor]]
[[Image:KL Nexgen Nx587.jpg|thumb|120px|A NexGen Nx587 FPU]]
Its second design, the Nx586 CPU, introduced in 1994, was the first CPU to attempt to compete directly against [[Intel]]'s [[Intel P5|Pentium]], with its Nx586-P80 and Nx586-P90 CPUs. Unlike competing chips from AMD and [[Cyrix]], the Nx586 was not [[pin-compatible]] with the Pentium or any other Intel chip and required its own custom NxVL-based motherboard and [[chipset]]. NexGen offered both a [[VESA Local Bus|VLB]] and a [[Peripheral Component Interconnect|PCI]] motherboard for the Nx586 chips.

Like the later Pentium-class CPUs from AMD and Cyrix, [[clock signal|clock]] for clock it was more efficient than the Pentium, so the P80 ran at 75&nbsp;MHz and the P90 ran at 83.3&nbsp;MHz. Unfortunately for NexGen, it measured its performance relative to a Pentium using an early chipset; improvements included in Intel's first [[List_of_Intel_chipsets#Pentium_chipsets|Triton]] chipset increased the Pentium's performance relative to the Nx586 and NexGen had difficulty keeping up. Furthermore, PCs identified the Nx586 as an 80386 processor; as a result many applications that require a processor faster than a 386 will not work unless CPU identification software is active. Unlike the Pentium, the Nx586 had no built-in math [[coprocessor]]; an optional Nx587 provided this functionality.

In later Nx586s, an [[x87|x87 math coprocessor]] was included on-chip.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cpu-info.com/index2.php?mainid=Nx586&page=5|title=NexGen Nx586 - The Nx587|website=cpu-info.com|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110614122907/http://www.cpu-info.com/index2.php?mainid=Nx586&page=5|archivedate=2011-06-14}}</ref> Using IBM's [[Multi-chip module|multichip module]] (MCM) technology, NexGen combined the 586 and 587 [[Die (integrated circuit)|die]] in a single package. The new device, which used the same [[pinout]] as its predecessor, was marketed as the Nx586-PF100 to distinguish it from the FPU-less Nx586-P100.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}
<!-- The previous paragraph seems contradictory. Were there 2 chips in one package? Or was there a single chip? Or did some packages contain 2 chips, while other packages contained one larger chip? -->

[[Compaq]], which had backed the company financially, announced its intention to use the Nx586 and even struck the name "Pentium" from its product literature, demos, and boxes, substituting the "586" moniker, but never used NexGen's chip widely. Instead, [[Alaris, Inc.]], a smaller computer systems maker, became the first company to ship a computer with the Nx586 in fall 1994.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Ang | first=Terence | author2=Ken Wong | date=January 2003 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOoDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT46 | title=The Microprocessor: 1971&nbsp;– Beyond: Is It the Most Significant Invention of Our Time? | work=HWM | publisher=Hardware Zone | pages=41–49 | via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|45}}

AMD purchased NexGen when AMD's [[AMD K5|K5]] chip failed to meet performance and sales expectations. Some NexGen customers were even given free AMD K5 CPUs with motherboards in exchange for sending in their NexGen hardware. 

Development of AMD's internal K5 successor was halted in favor of continuing from NexGen's Nx686 designs, eventually becoming [[AMD K6|K6]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Halfhill |first1=Tom |title=AMD K6 Takes On Intel P6 |url=https://halfhill.com/byte/1996-1_amd-k6.html |website=Byte |access-date=30 October 2021}}</ref>