Nuove indiscrezioni sul VIA C7

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Via Readies Mobile Processor Platform

Taiwanese chipmaker Via Technologies Inc has its sights set on the enterprise thin-and-light notebook market and is readying a mobile platform for release early next year.

At the heart of its platform, codenamed “Hannah,” would be the Via C7-M processor, which is expected to begin showing up in low-cost notebooks targeted to consumers within a couple of months.

The platform, however, would enable Via-powered ultra thin-and-light machines in 2006, said Keith Kowal, Via’s chipset platform group marketing manager. “Our long-term goal is to break into the corporate space,” Kowal said during a recent visit to ComputerWire.

Hannah, which would comprise an undisclosed combination of Via chipsets, would compete against Intel Corp’s Centrino platform, Kowal said.

But with C7-M, Via, which until now has been known for its lower-cost chips, is beginning to climb the processor food chain.

Previously in the US, Via processors mostly were used in clunky, cheap notebooks sold at mega-stores, as well as in thin clients and low-cost Linux desktops. The company's family of C7 processors, which it announced in late May, marks a shift away from being differentiated on just price alone.

Kowal points to C7-M’s security features such as data encryption that are a key differentiator to other mobile processors, he said.

Going forward, he said Via would continue to build on the platform’s specs, notably increasing L2 cache memory, in order to reach the enterprise market. He expects Via-powered notebooks would begin showing up in the enterprise within one to two years.

The company would launch dual-core processors for mobile products next year, Kowal said.

Via launched C7-M in early June and expects European OEMs would release the first notebooks to include the processor by the end of September, Kowal said. C7-M notebooks would likely hit North American shelves by November, he said.

C7-M would likely be a “second source” to Intel’s Pentium M processor, Kowal said.

In recent productivity benchmark tests, he said C7-M had a 10% performance deficit versus Pentium M. C7-M is priced at roughly less than half that of a Pentium M, according to Kowal.

Fonte: http://www.computerwire.com/industri...8-AA157F000976

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