This Old Mouse

I wanted to build a Cyrix 5x86 system as that was one CPU I never owned. I was watching the CPU Galaxy channel on YouTube and he covered a Cyrix MediaGX build that he had done. I remember this processor and had actually worked on few systems with one many years ago. A little background is in order. The Cyrix 5x86 was a stripped-down version of their 6x86 CPU. They took about 50% of a 6x86 and got about 80% of the performance putting it into a 486 package. It was one of the fastest 486 upgrades out there. When Cyrix was purchased by National Semiconductor in 1997, they decided to focus on low power, embedded systems. The result was the MediaGX. It is a System On A Chip (SOC) containing a Cyrix 5x86 CPU core, memory controller, video controller, and a Sound Blaster 16 compatible audio controller. They were mostly used in notebooks and embedded control systems. There were not many motherboards for end users to put them in their systems. The CPU Galaxy video linked to seller on eBay sellin...

When I got back into retro computing, I had a number of computers I wanted to recreate that I had in the past. One of those was a 486 computer upgraded to a Pentium Overdrive CPU. I found a 486 computer on Craigslist for only $50. I purchased it along with the $20 Pentium 133 system I wrote about a few posts ago. Unfortunately, the motherboard had a standard 168 pin 486 CPU socket. I forgot a Pentium Overdrive CPU requires 238 pin Socket 2 or 237 pin Socket 3 motherboard and so strike one. I ended up selling that motherboard to a friend for his own 486 build. I next purchased a 486 Socket 2 motherboard from eBay. Although the Pentium Overdrive worked in this board, it performed well below what it was supposed to. I later found out the motherboard came out of an arcade machine and there was no documentation to be found anywhere on the jumper settings for the CPU and so strike two. I ended up using that motherboard in 486DX2/80 build and it is working fine for that. Finally, I did my hom...