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Description: NexGen was funded by the joint collaboration of Compaq, ASCII, and Kleiner Perkins in 1986. Defined as a private semiconductor company, NexGen started its operations with the designing of the x86 PC central processing units (CPU), which was later purchased by AMD in 1996. NexGen mainly focused on designing x86 chips for PCs but relied on IBM for its production.

NexGen started with the design of the 80386 generation of processors. The production line of the 80386 processor was delayed due to its bulky design -- integrating 8 individual chips into the set; the design was ready for distribution when the industry has moved to the 80486 generation of PC processors.

The company moved on to its next project with the design of the Nx586 CPU in 1994. This was NexGen's first attempt in come up with a design that will rival Intel's Pentium product line. The Nx586-P80 and Nx586-P90 CPUs was not compatible with Pentium or any Intel chips sold in the market. Using it requires the custom NxVL-based boards and chipsets. NexGen came up with the VLB and PCI motherboards strictly for the use of its Nx586 product line.

Nx586-P80 runs at 75Mhz, while Nx586-P90 at 84Mhz. This was considered to be fastest processor speed in the market during that time, but the introduction of Intel's Triton chipset provided better performance compared to NexGen's Nx-586 series. Its failure in the market was due to the absence of built-in math coprocessors that is the basic in all Pentium series.

To stay competitive in the industry, NexGen designed Nx586-P100 which included the x86 math coprocessor. The company later combined the design of its 586 and 587 product line with the help of IBM's Multi-Chip Module (MCM) to produce the Nx586-PF100.

AMD purchased NexGen in 1996 when its AMD K5 product line didn’t meet the demands of the market -- in terms of performance and sales. AMD acquired NexGen in order to make use of its design team and the foundation of the Nx586 series. This became the foundation of the AMD K6 processors that became one of the most competitive high-performance chips used today.

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