A wide spectrum of minute circuit details are evident in the digital image featured below, which is a differential interference contrast (DIC) reflected light optical micrograph revealing the surface features on a Cyrix 486DX2 microprocessor. Busses, registers, and memory cache units were highlighted with oblique illumination through red filters positioned perpendicular to the chip axes.

The Cyrix line of Intel-compatible 486DX2 microprocessors were produced in the mid and late 1990s at clock speeds ranging from 50 to 80 megahertz, and contained an internal 8 kilobyte write-back cache designed to increase processor throughput. The integrated floating point unit was reported to execute instructions approximately 10 percent faster than comparible Intel processors. These chips were available in both 3 and 5-volt versions for portable and desktop computers and were fully compatible with DOS, Windows, OS/2, UNIX, and Novell NetWare applications.

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