With the new system, IBM could be poised to gain market share on Compaq and Hewlett-Packard, the current PC market leaders among consumers. IBM's use of its own chips comes at an ironic juncture because the company is currently phasing out these microprocessors. In September, National broke off a long-standing processor agreement with IBM: IBM will lose the right to make chips based around the Cyrix-National designs after the first of the year. IBM's semiconductor division has for years sought to land its chips inside of IBM's Aptiva machines, sources have said. Big Blue's PC division, however, has largely rejected them in favor of chips from Intel, AMD, and Cyrix. Some IBM consumer PCs have used the IBM-branded chip, but typically in computers sold to overseas markets. Nonetheless, IBM signed a technology licensing agreement with ST Microelectronics which could give IBM the opportunity to once again get back into the market for Intel clone chips.