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National Semiconductor’s x86 history began before the Cyrix acquisition, with its own embedded 486-class derivatives such as the NS486SXL, a highly integrated 486-compatible system controller aimed at embedded applications rather than mainstream PCs. Those chips combined a 486-class CPU core with peripheral logic and reflected National’s real strategy in x86: not high-performance desktop processors, but compact and integrated designs for industrial and embedded use. National’s role in the broader PC-compatible CPU market became more visible in 1997, when it acquired Cyrix, inheriting the 6x86/MII and MediaGX lines; it then pushed the business further toward low-power integrated x86 devices, turning the MediaGX into the Geode family in 1999. National never became a major desktop x86 vendor, but its history in the field is notable because it spans both its own embedded 486-class parts like the NS486SXL and the later Cyrix/Geode transition before the Geode line was sold to AMD in 2003.