Conceptual Products Group

The National Semiconductor/Cyrix Conceptual Products Group (CPG) was a small group (8 people at its peak) of engineering, intellectual property and marketing functions tasked with developing operational concept devices during the Internet boom from 1996 to 2002.

The CPG developed several influential platforms including:

1996—Webstation. The first full-featured PC reference design available for under $1000 retail. The Webstation became the standardized reference design for the Cyrix MediaGx (National Geode) processor and was utilized by many OEM’s in their Gx designs (Packard Bell, Gateway, Sony, 3Com, etc.).

1997—Compaq Presario 2100/2200 Series. The CPG modified the Webstation to become the Compaq Presario 2100, a sub $1000, Internet-ready PC that utilized the MediaGx. The 2100 is recognized as the father of the sub $1000 PC revolution. Over one million Presario 2100/2200 units were sold between January 1997 and March 1998, generating over $850 million in revenue for Compaq and $70 million for Cyrix.

1997—Media Center. The award-winning Media Center precluded the PC based entertainment systems of today. The Media Center won BYTE magazines “Best Technology of Comdex 1997” award and CeBIT’s “Most Interesting Technology 1998” award.

1998—WebPAD A family of portable Internet access devices, the WebPAD featured 802.11, a 1024x768 high quality display, solid-state storage and an embedded operating system—all of which were industry firsts for a "PC". The WebPAD received immense attention at Comdex ’98, was featured on the February 1999 cover of Popular Science, and evolved into several tablet PC designs. The WebPad was a driving catalyst for the formation of the National Semiconductor Information Appliance Division.

2000—WebPAD Metro. A small cellular-enabled version of the WebPAD, the WebPAD Metro won “Best of Comdex” in the services category by featuring the MetriCOM WAN Modem.

2002—Origami PDAThe Origami won the “Best Hardware” award at CeBIT Hanover Germany in 2002. The multi-function unit featured a thin pop-up display that pivoted up and away from the keyboard into several positions, and incorporated Microsoft Windows XP Embedded. It could be used as a digital camera, video camcorder, smart-phone, Web browser, e-mail device, videoconferencing tool and MP3 player, among other things.

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