CeBIT - Cyrix's WebPAD Enters Real World                    
                         (Newsbytes; 03/18/99)                         

 HANNOVER, GERMANY, 1999 MAR 18 (Newsbytes) -- By Sylvia Dennis, Newsbytes. At 
the CeBIT computer faire, which opened in Hannover, Germany, this morning, 
officials from Cyrix [NYSE:NSM] took the wraps off a digital enhanced cordless 
telephone (DECT) enabled version of the firm's WebPAD device.

  The WebPAD was originally unveiled as a concept by Cyrix and National 
Semiconductor, its parent company, at the Comdex Fall show in Las Vegas in 
November of last year, and is a low-cost, portable Web browsing device that the 
company says could form the basis of mass market adoption of Internet access 
technology.

  The heart of the WebPAD is Cyrix's MediaGX processor, which, according to the 
company, allows users to "effortlessly surf the Web or read and send e-mail 
from anywhere around the home or office."

  What's important to realize is that Cyrix is in the business of selling 
microprocessors, so various deals with vendors will result in several versions 
of the WebPAD making it to market.

  The WebPAD on show at CeBIT today, although DECT-enabled, is also being 
touted as a GSM (global system for mobile communications) 900/1800-enabled 
device. The device is a handheld battery-powered, eight-inch by 11-inch tablet 
with an interactive 10-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) touchscreen supporting 
color and high-resolution graphics.

  Alongside the actual WebPAD is a charging cradle and a base station 
transceiver. The base station transceiver connects to a standard telephone or 
network system and communicates by a 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) spread spectrum radio 
link with the mobile WebPAD.

  The idea behind the WebPAD's cradle/base station is that it can be located 
near a landline phone socket or connected to the Web via GSM data channels.

  The actual unit, meanwhile, is carried around the home or office, allowing 
the user to surf the Internet, read and send e-mail, or chat online, free from 
the constraints of power cords and telephone wires.

  In use, the WebPAD works rather like a cordless home telephone, with a range 
of up to 500 feet from the base station transceiver. According to Cyrix, the 
unit has been designed to support several diskless operating systems, such as 
QNX, Windows CE, and embedded Windows NT.

  On the technical level, the WebPAD has 16 megabytes (MB) of memory, integral 
speakers and microphone, plus dual USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports for 
connecting an optional keyboard and/or mouse.

  According to Roland Andersson, general manager of NatSemi's European 
operation, most people today access the Internet using a PC.

  "However, the PC does not offer the mobility and manageability required for 
optimal Internet usage. Information appliances such as the WebPAD, however, are 
exactly tailored to the modem Internet user's requirements -- small, 
lightweight, mobile and cordless -- offering unlimited access to information 
anytime, anywhere," he said.

  "In the next couple of years, we will see an explosive growth in this type of 
affordable information appliance. This is the key to future mass market 
penetration of the Internet and Internet services," he said.

  Cyrix's Web site is at http://www.cyrix.com .

  Reported by Newsbytes News Network, http://www.newsbytes.com .

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