Minor (I assume) typo:

Intel’s profit margins were high enough they figured they could undercut Intel’s prices a little and still turn a reasonable profit.

I read Via sold its x86 engineering group to Intel so is Via x86 dead

does Via still have s3 graphics

could Zhaoxin sell competitive x86 in the USA perhaps lower power consumption for mobility and all in one form

The Super386 processor family developed by Chips & Technologies was an enhanced version of the 80386 and therefore not a pure copy of the Intel 80386. Chips & Technologies built two pipelines for instruction execution into the 386 and for some versions even a small L1 cache.
https://cpumuseum.jimdofree.com/museum/chips-technologies/super386/

Yes, NEC reverse engineered the 8088. I am not aware of any 286 equivalent fron NEC.

I think you may be thinking of the UMC Green 486. I have a blog post about that one. https://dfarq.homeip.net/umc-green-cpu-the-forbidden-486/

I don’t have any experience with 286 upgrades in Tandy 1000s.

If Zhaoxin used TSMC they probably could match Intel or AMD performance sooner (it would let them increase their transistor count) but the main point of Zhaoxin is for China to have a source of CPUs that doesn’t involve countries they don’t like. That includes Taiwan.

thanks
why was NEC able to make x86 v20, licensed or reverse engineering 8088? did NEC offer a 286 v50?

i recall that another one was Chips Technology 486 cpus ?

I once owned a Tandy 1000 what is the best 286 cpus processor upgrade for i I heard Ever green have a 286 to 486 66mhz

I-O Data PK-X486/87SL5-1 IBM SLC2 50MHz 286 to 486 PLCC CPU Upgrade Card

https://www.ebay.com/itm/296896118194?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20240130164827%26meid%3De289f1830b6b4adba2adeb7bd9606808%26pid%3D101959%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D296896118194%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2WithMLRPboosterAndUpdatedFeatures_BP&_trksid=p4375194.c101959.m146925&_trkparms=parentrq%3Ac9cd0dd21950aab3283bea8ffffffee8%7Cpageci%3Aed769138-08ec-11f0-80c5-423abb60a9fe%7Ciid%3A1%7Cvlpname%3Avlp_homepage

if Zhaoxin use the latest N2x TMSC process node could they compare with Intel and AMD ?

did AMD used NEXT GEN technology for the Athlon?

what do you think of x86s and APX?

The x86 market is tough. In another blog post I’m working on I came across a startling figure. When TI was making 486s, its cost of production was double that of Intel, yet TI had to sell its chips for less. The Pentium generation was worse because IBM was about the only foundry that could make that generation of chip reliably for everyone, so that’s why Cyrix and Rise used them, but it put them in a similar predicament. As for NEC, I don’t think they ever had any plans to do a Pentium competitor. They didn’t do a 286, 386, or 486 competitor either.

Zhaoxin is using technology it licensed from VIA. From what I understand, their performance lags Intel and AMD by six or seven years. It’s possible they may someday be able to close that gap but I’d expect it to take a few more design generations to do it.

could Zhaoxin offer x86 competitive product with current Intel