National Semiconductor buys Cyrix

Struggling Cyrix and National Semiconductor agreed to merge today in a dealworth $550 million. The two companies will develop a system-on-a-chip thatwill be aimed at sub-$500 personal computers.

"Cyrix's family of high-performance and high-integration x86 processors will enable National to drive dramatic market growth for products such as Network PCs, hand-held PCs, Net browsers and other information appliances that are becoming extremely affordable," National CEO Brian Halla said.

The merger is expected to be completed in November