We found this chili pepper on the Cyrix 5x86 microprocessor, which would indicate to us that Cyrix engineers thought this chip was "hot" when compared to other chips of the period. In truth, the chip was fairly fast, but soon became obsolete in the rapidly evolving world of microprocessors where computers often become second-tier before you can even get them out of the shipping carton. Perhaps the chili pepper symbolizes the contribution from Cyrix to the Austin, Texas chili-fest that occurs each year.

Ted Parone, a chip designer that worked on the 5x86, has provided us some information about this chip. The Cyrix 5x86 was nicknamed the "Chili" project when the layout was designed in Austin, Texas. Mark McDermott (now a design engineer for Intel) headed the design team of 13 engineers on this project, which took fewer man-hours per transistor than any of its predecessors. We are told the chip booted Windows on first silicon!