Q I recently bought a Cyrix 6x86 200+, thinking I had bought a Pentium-grade CPU. But Norton Utilities' System Information program tells me that I have a 486. What gives here?

A Don't worry about it. The Cyrix 6x86 behaves like a Pentium ù except when you ask it to identify itself.

That's because the 6x86 doesn't support the Pentium's CPUID instruction, which Norton's System Information typically uses to identify the chip. If System Information doesn't get a response, and its bag of other tricks doesn't work, the program reports the chip as a 486. My Symantec sources assure me that in Norton Utilities 3.0 for Windows 95, System Information correctly identifies the 6x86.

Could the 6x86's lack of support for System Information's CPUID instruction cause more serious problems? It's possible, but unlikely except with games ù and there are workarounds for those.

For additional reading on this subject, visit the AlternativeCPU Web site (www.alternativecpu.com), a source of information on non-Intel CPUs.