Introduction

Q. Who is IDT and Centaur and what is their relationship?

A. IDT (Integrated Device Technology), is a semiconductor design and manufacturing firm that was formed in June 1980. They have traditionally produced a broad product mix consisting of communications memories, networking devices, both RISC and X86 microprocessors, high-speed SRAMs and high-performance logic.

In 1995, IDT formed Centaur Technology to focus on microprocessor design and development. This is the group founded by Glen Henry (a former Vice President of MIPS Technology and Dell Computer). Centaur Technology Inc., is an Austin, Texas-based X86 microprocessor design and development company, which designed the IDT WinChip C6 processor. Centaur Technology is a wholly owned subsidiary of IDT.

IDT manufacturers and sells the Winchip. Centaur Technology designed and markets the chip.

Q. What is the Winchip C6?

A. The Winchip C6 is the codename for the first line of processors sold by IDT and designed by Centaur Technology. It is a fully compatible x86 based processor designed to provide Pentium like performance for as little money as possible. The Winchip is socket 7 compliant and has MMX technology.

Q. What is the Winchip’s design objective?

A. The Winchip is the product of a sophisticated design effort that attempted to re-establish what’s necessary and important in a processor design. Coming on the heels of the Intel, AMD and Cyrix CPUs, IDT wanted to rethink the tradeoffs of performance, cost and complexity. The Winchip’s claim to fame is to carefully cut the right corners in the design in an attempt to maintain reasonable performance, while simultaneously making the chip less complex. By minimizing the complexity, the size of the circuit can be kept small, providing more die per wafer, greater yields and ultimately cooler and cheaper parts.

Q. How compatible is the Winchip with existing hardware and software?

A. It appears that the Winchip has gotten through the majority of compatibility testing with flying colors. The Winchip has been tested by Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) and has the XXCAL’s Platinum certification that it’ll work with most all hardware and software products used by major corporations. It can run all major operating systems Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 3.x, MS-DOS, Novell Netware, OS/2 Warp, Unix, Linux and Solaris. This is not to say that it runs on all platforms equally well, just that it will run.