Last Updated on April 2, 2025 by Dave Farquhar
The Vortex86 is a system on a chip or system on module that is starting to gain popularity in retro computing circles. It powers the ITX Llama, Tiny Llama, and Pixel x86 retro revival projects. I’ve seen it described as a Pentium Pro-like CPU that can run DOS and Windows software at the kinds of speeds we would have expected in the late 1990s. So what is this system on a chip, and where did it come from? I found out.
Borne from the Rise MP6
The Vortex86 is based on a late ’90s CPU called the Rise MP6. The Rise MP6 was a Socket 7 CPU introduced in late 1998. Originally, it was going to compete at the low end of the market, with the Pentium MMX, the Cyrix 6×86, IDT Winchip, and the AMD K6.
I first read about that CPU in June 1998, and I remember scouring websites looking for more information about it. But when it released in the fall, it was only in limited quantities and a limited selection of speeds. I never had a chance to use one in a system build, and when I changed jobs at the end of the year, I wasn’t building systems anymore, so I never ended up using it.
Even if I hadn’t changed jobs, the CPU wasn’t on the market long, so I may or may not have ever had the opportunity to use it. Its level 1 cache was a bit small compared to other chips, so its performance didn’t keep up. Rise quietly exited the CPU market in 1999.
SiS takes over
I’m glad that’s not the end of the story. Silicon Integrated Systems, or SIS, acquired Rise and the MP6 technology in October 1999. In October 2001, they introduced the SIS55x embedded processors, later known as Vortex86. It’s now produced by DM&P Electronics in Taiwan, who took over the design sometime before February 2007. The Rise MP6 has 3 integer and MMX pipelines and branch prediction. These chips enjoyed a long life as an embedded processor. The clock rates on embedded CPUs don’t need to increase at the same breakneck speed as desktop CPUs, and process improvements allowed it to scale to a clock speeds of 700-1000 MHz, a rather useful speed.
At those kinds of speeds, the Vortex86 will run Windows 98 SE really well. It will also run 486-era and Pentium-era DOS games really well. I’m not sure you can slow it down enough to play Wing Commander like a Pentium MMX can, but a Vortex86-based device can at least stand in for a 486 and Pentium.
Retro resurgence with the Vortex86
I always felt bad that the Rise MP6 never got much of a chance in the marketplace. It feels like if it had managed to reach the market a year earlier than it did, it might have been a contender.
So I am glad to see it did have a long and successful second career as an embedded processor, and it feels really fitting that today, people are buying them to build Windows 98 SE systems because CPUs we used in 1998 and 1999 have become too scarce and expensive.
And if you don’t want to track down a Vortex86-based thin client to repurpose, retro revival systems like the Pixel x86 are available now so you can get your retro fix on relatively modern hardware. Or if you are a tinkerer and don’t mind getting your hands dirty, you can get an ITX Llama and build your own retro revival PC.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.