News - VIA readies x86 Isaiah II 64-bit quad-core processor

[HEXUS]

The sequel to the 2008 version of this chip looks set to beat Bay Trail and Kabini in synthetics.

Read more.

[shaithis]

It's been a VERY long time since I used a VIA chip or motherboard and something major would have to happen for me to do so again!

Worst motherboard chipsets ever IMO. Worst x86 CPUs I've ever seen as well. Waiting to be converted!

[zaph0d]

If it's got a decent gpu, or at least a decent video engine on the gpu this could be a good system for a home media centre/server.

[Biscuit]

I remember the original VIA Atom killer... that accomplished nothing

[scaryjim]

... Worst x86 CPUs I've ever seen as well. ...

Surely that depends on what you've been using it for? AFAIK until the first round of Nanos had the Isaiah core, all of Via's designs were still a low-power in-order core not unlike very early Atoms. They were targeted at the industrial market and did very well there indeed: they were never really intended for consumer use. As to their chipsets, most of my Socket A builds were Via based and I found them very stable and well featured.

Reviews of their Nano X2 itx boards were quite favourable compared to price and TDP equivalent AMD and Intel options, and they were certainly more than sufficient for everyday computing. Given they already had a reasonably performant x86 core in the right TDP envelope and both Intel and AMD were busy driving performance down in favour of low-power efficiency, it's not that surprising to see them launch a revision of that core - the way the x86 market is moving now pretty much plays directly to where Via were already positioned. The real key for them - as it is with AMD - is whether they can persuade any major OEMs to use their hardware.

[shaithis]

Surely that depends on what you've been using it for?

I think I am going back further.....to the Via Cyrix M2 and AMD k5 days on socket 7!

[scaryjim]

I think I am going back further.....to the Via Cyrix M2 and AMD k5 days on socket 7!

Lawks, that *is* a long way back. They were pretty much all dog slow in-order CPUs then Or stupidly hot-running: I remember one of my friends upgrading to a Pentium and having to run his PC with all the case panels removed so it wouldn't fry itself I still had an old Packard Bell desktop running a 12MHz 286 in those days though, so what would I know

[wasabi]

Via chipset drivers? Shudder.

[HalloweenJack]

wonder if hexus can test the VIA L4700E quad core that's out already


VIA EPIA M920-12Q Mini-ITX Embedded Board

^^ can find it in that - apparently a good match for the zecate , atom 330 and C2D L7500

[DanceswithUnix]

Lawks, that *is* a long way back. They were pretty much all dog slow in-order CPUs then Or stupidly hot-running: I remember one of my friends upgrading to a Pentium and having to run his PC with all the case panels removed so it wouldn't fry itself I still had an old Packard Bell desktop running a 12MHz 286 in those days though, so what would I know

K5 was out-of-order. The later ones where they got the performance limiting bugs out were pretty impressive for what sounds like an AMD 29K cpu with an x86 translator bolted on the front.

Still, VIA chipsets only really came of age around the PIII era when Intel were trying to push RDRAM at just the point that VIA were getting a decent stable chipset, so for a while they had good product and good market share.

[kingpotnoodle]

Sadly I expect the TDP on that will be closer to the AMD 5350 than any Atom, I can't see it turning up in a tablet any time soon, 28nm lithography and the history of these things etc.

[loyal986]

Good to hear and see VIA progressing, I would wished to have a 3'rd company on x86 cpu rivality. I allways liked via chipsets, tend to last more on me. I remember a VIA 133A for athlon that was very powerfull in its time era. I like VIA and wish them all the best.

[Agent]

*chants*
4 IN 1, 4 IN 1! (does anyone else remember those evil things?)

Hopefully it causes ripples. Competition = good