blauboad, Cyrix, two issues -
1. One was the infamous PR (Performance Rating). Both AMD and Cyrix had chips with higher IPC than Intel processors in that time (Pentiums MMX generation) so they devised a scheme to make a rating showing that their chips performed faster than Intel. AMD pretty much stuck to plan, but Cyrix started falling behind as their design would not scale in speed very well. Soon the PR rating of the Cyrix processors were a joke, and AMD was taken down with them by association.
(This time around, AMD is publishing benchmarks to back up their ratings, and they avoid claiming direct P4 comparisons.)
2. Cyrix screwed up the MMX implementation, it was buggy. Some software (like all Adobe stuff) would detect the Cyrix chip and install non-MMX drivers.
So IBM bet on the wrong horse. Probably why they are going slow with adopting AMD processors now - they want to make sure they have Intel as an alternative to AMD. I would expect AMD designs to become a progressively bigger part of IBM's x86 offerings, as long as AMD continues to perform well.
Cyrix designs were eventually sold to Via, who has been developing them as a super cheap, low performance line for the Asian market mainly.
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