News VIA plans quad-core chip

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/09/06/via-plans-quad-core-chip/1

 

To bad Nvidia didn't buy these people out. Would be nice to see what would come if there were some real 3rd party x86 processors to choose from.

 

I'd like to see Via do well, though I don't think I'd get my hopes up much. Back when netbooks were first coming out they were supposed to be doing just this, with the old Nano being more powerful than Atoms, but it just never materialised.

@sammy: I think if Nvidia had bought Via a clause in their contract with Intel would have ended their x86 license.

 

I think it would be nice to have an alternative to Atom-based netbooks. But I think we'll rather see ARM solutions after VIA has disappointed in that market sector again and again....

 

What's the TDP going to be like with one of these?

Last I checked, the Nano had nothing on Atom when it came to low power consumption.

 

Atom's problem was that in a bid to keep power consumption down it couldn't even perform the basic tasks of netbooks while running windows (shame Linux didn't get shipped with more of them). Is quad core really necessary in the netbook sector though?

 

Good point. I can't imagine anyone will ever be using a netbook for video encoding or gaming or anything which is particularly multi-threaded... Dual core I can understand, so that you can do more than just run one or two programs at a time.. but Quad is a bit much.

 

These are primarily aimed at the server section who want low power with many cores for servers with high requests. The benefit filters down to netbooks in the form of low power with the potential to handle a lot of instructions at once. ATM the netbook market doesn't need a quad but even thats changing withword about to go multithreaded....however that will work. I do basic programming on my netbook and the atom can just about handle that. It also struggles with video playback so both a dual or even a quad would be very welcome and it also brings gaming closer to netbooks. In the future this technology will develop into very fast quads that sip at power. Personally I would love to program on one of these.

 

Via really, REALLY need to put more effort into working with the Linux community; their lack of open-source driver efforts (particularly on the GPU side) really hinder their use with many low-power/embedded applications, where Linux is extremely prevalent.

 

Just in time to be rolled over by AMD's Ontario-based systems. Much more attractive option.
Has anyone read anything about an Ontario quad in the future? I've only read about duals. Is it built modularly like Bulldozer for easy redesign?

 

It doesn't matter how good their CPU's are if you can't buy them. A quick look round all the netbboks/laptops on sale in local electronics shops and you'll only see one thing: Intel Atom, Intel Atom, Intel Atom, Intel Atom, etc
You can't find them on sale anywhere even though (in my opinion) the existing NAno 3000's are better than Intel Atoms.

 

Ya Nanos have been good for a while now, unfortunately they have next to no design wins and you its practically impossible to buy one even if you wanted to.