Initially begun as a secret project, the first design discussions were started in 1988, and after many revisions and redesigns the first silicon versions were fabricated in 1992–1993.
It took what was learned from Amiga and went in new directions, which included an on-chip CPU with a custom 3D instruction set, 16-bit and 24-bit chunky pixel display, and up to four 16-bit playfields running simultaneously.
The LUT was scrambled, so while it was possible to put up images on the screen in test systems, it was necessary to run a bit-skiggling[clarification needed] filter that re-arranged the color to work with the existing hardware.
However Nyx was never intended as the final production machine, AAA systems would have been based around the Acutiator architecture designed by Dave Haynie.
Rather, the Nyx system was a test bed for the AAA chips and some other new ideas at Commodore, including custom memory modules for Chip RAM, Kickstart ROM on a module (with support for Flash), a multiple simultaneous pixel clock system, a low cost wired, self-terminating point to point LAN, Commodore declared bankruptcy before designs were completed; some of the focus on AAA chips moved to creating a radically different 64-bit design based on a modified PA-RISC 7150 CPU with added graphics instructions and video pipelines (See Hombre chipset).