VIA also to acquire Centaur (IDT's x86 division) 36
VIA has announced that it will be acquiring Centaur, the designers of the WinChip. This follows its recent
agreement to buy
Cyrix's high end processor business from National which retains the low-end MediaGX family. Why buy two x86 design houses? Perhaps to address two markets: the information appliance market with IDT's x86 which is slower but remarkably small, and the PC market with Cyrix's Socket 370 designs.
Hmmmm (Score:1)
Now the all important question: Why?
If you're "getting out of the x86 market", what would you want with a company that produces x86 products? Interesting, if not puzzling.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Re:Hmmmm (Score:1)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Re:Hmmmm (Score:1)
Via is buying both Cyrix and WinChip.
Via gets worse (Score:1)
Im not the biggest fan of any of those companies...but at least now I can hate them all in one basket?
Re:Via gets worse (Score:1)
Given Intel's market stranglehold, I see no reason to be antagonistic to any of their competitors, even if you prefer to buy Intel's products, VIA, Cyrix, and IDT have been part of what has forced Intel to lower prices and increase performance faster. Given that, I fail to see a coherent reason for your hatred.
Money money money moonnneeeyyyy... (Score:1)
Considering that they are the "alternative" board maker for the "alternative" chip (super 7 for the AMD) it seems they are doing pretty good fopr themselves.
then again, all my CPU's are AMDs and all my boards are Super 7's
:-)
-geekd
RE: Sounds like a good plan to me.... (Score:2)
Right now, Intel does *not* have a current generation chipset product in the market (810 and 820 are being 'reengineered' to support SDRAM instead of RDRAM)
Plus, they're behind with Coppermine.
AMD is losing money like crazy, and everyone seems to think they aren't going to be able to meet market demand.
Now, in comes VIA. They buy Cyrix and IDT. Cyrix produces Super7/Socket7 CPU's, and so does IDT. Cyrix was also planning on (and NatSemi had the licenses, which VIA got through them) to produce Slot 1 and Socket370 chips. VIA has the chipset products for Socket/Super7, Slot1, and Socket370. Current generation chipsets (133 mhz FSB). So, VIA has the product lineup that no one else has, plus they can contract out their manufacturing.
Anybody see a winning combination maybe?
Re:Hmmmm (Score:1)
Re:minor error (Score:1)
Why would they do this? (Score:1)
Mergers/buyouts/etc often have no apparent logical purpose, and quite often no one wins on them. But it makes the big guys feel bigger when they get to cut some deals.
Via + Cyrix = Great low-end system (Score:1)
I've got the Via Fic-2003 and a Cyrix PR300 (233MHz clock) and I've thoroughly enjoyed using them. I see some of you shuddering at the thought of Cyrix. Well, can it.
Cyrix made some great CPU's once they got past their initial problems with the original 6x86 line.
I play Quake 2, Unreal (didn't manage to make my system look like a 486/100), Tribes, BG:TSC, Alpha Centauri and various other games of varying CPU requirements without any problems.
The only problem I had was the first M2-300 I bought. It was bad when I bought it, so I took it back to the business I bought it from and they replaced it without a problem. Funny thing is, I just saw the same thing happen to a friend of mine who bought an AMD, so it's not just a Cyrix thing. (Which is also why I only buy from local businesses at computer shows.)
And the prices for Cyrix's are un-fsck-ing believable. You get a CPU approximately (sometimes faster sometimes slower depending on whether or not Mindcraft wrote your benchmark software ) as fast as the low-end Pentium 2's for only $20-$30. Now if I could just use them in an SMP setup... Oh well, I'll just build a few systems and use Beowulf instead. (Like I have room for more than the 4 I've got now.)
So from personal experience, I can say that I like the idea of Via making Cyrix CPU's. I never was crazy about Winchips though. Too pricey for way too little speed.
Digital Wokan, Tribal mage of the electronics age
via has a clue (Score:1)
think about it, now is the *perfect* time for via to expand. nat semiconductor told everyone that they lost their sorry ass making processors with cyrix, and were probably searching urgently for a way to dump cyrix and cut costs.
and idt, who probably also lost their ass, have also been looking to dump centaur- witness their statement about getting the fsck out of the x86 business.
in other words, via picked up two companies with tech it wants, for a bargain basement price. theyve probably been sitting on their cash, waiting for this kind of opportunity.
while amd is moving upscale to hit intel with k7 at the high-end market, who the fsck is left at the low end now?
the only company i see is...via?!
seems pretty smart to me...
unc_
Too bad your tech skillz can't figure it out. (Score:1)
As for space heating... hey! Why's there smoke pouring out of your ear?!
Digital Wokan, Tribal mage of the electronics age
Low end competition (Score:1)
Now that they have 133Mhz FSB they can force the low end to use it, meaning more bang for the buck than anyone else.
Prediction: Look for very low-cost integrated motherboards with CPU's integrated and optimized. Any comments?
Re:via has a clue (Score:1)
Re:Via + Cyrix = Great low-end system (Score:1)
VIA bought Centaur NOT IDT (Score:1)
Re:Via + Cyrix = Great low-end system (Score:1)
Digital Wokan, Tribal mage of the electronics age
Via buying Cyrix & Centaur (Score:1)
moderate up please (Score:1)
Re:Via gets worse (Score:1)
Now, I personally prefer AMD, but for a certain price/performance point, Cyrix is a valid choice for a lot of people.
a, b, (Score:1)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
Re:Via gets worse (Score:1)
I've never had any problems with VIA based motherboards. I ran into more problems with VX and TX based Intel Socket5/7 chipset motherboards than anything else.
ranging from just bad drivers
I am assuming MS-DOS/Windows drivers. I wouldn't know anything about that, as I don't have either of those on any of my boxes. If you look at the hardware review pages, you'd see that even motherboards using the same basic chipsets can be drastically different in terms of performance and reliability. VIA isn't responsible if a motherboard vendor does a lousy job of designing a motherboard around their chipset. You also shouldn't necessarily blame things like bad CM640 IDE chips which were on many motherboards a couple years ago on VIA, just because they made the main chipset.
to periphreals not functioning correctly. Yes perhaps I have not had enough experience with via to make it a good one...but what I have had has left a bad taste in my mouth.
A lot of complaints I've seen about bad motherboards and/or chipsets are caused by things like bad memory, or on overly agressive BIOS settings. Or overclocking, which is a gamble in general.
Cyrix...too little, too late...
Just because Cyrix isn't the fastest doesn't mean they aren't acceptable for a lot of people. Frankly, a lot of people would be better served spending less on their CPU and putting the money they save there into memory.
Im sorry...but I will not say anything good about the winchip.
Nobody expects you to. I just don't see any point in saying unfounded bad things about them. It is O.K. to say they are weak performers, but if you do, you should give some reasons why you think so.
Unfortunately your strongest arguement does nothing to sway me.
Fine, but perhaps they will make someone else not just outright ignore Intel competitors just because people have badmouthed them. If other people have the same interests as you, then your opinion is probably a valid one for them to consider. If their needs aren't the same as yours, then they should look elsewhere.
No matter how cheap a product is...if it does not perform it is most certainly not worth buying.
The thing is that different people have different standards on whether something performs or not.
(I think you can guess on my opinion of thier performance).
The Winchip wasn't intended for game kiddies, but it is more than adequate for running general office automation software (word processing, light spreadsheets, etc). I probably wouldn't consider it for a serious workstation, but if I was building a machine for a secretary, it would be an excellent choice.
no, your stupid (Score:1)
"Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"