At the end of 2008, the OSNews team made a short list of the tech-related things they would like to see in 2009. On my list was the hope that we’d see more competition in the netbook market, which is now dominated by Intel’s Atom platform, resulting in manufacturers all releasing essentially the same machine, but with a different badge and case colour. Where are Intel’s competitors? We know AMD is on its way, we know that the Chinese are producing some noteworthy chips, and that the ARM chip is jumping up and down screaming for attention – but where is Via’s Nano platform? Shouldn’t it be here already?
Apparently, Via is having problems with producing its Nano platform in significant numbers. Ars explains that “we don’t know if said problems were caused by Nano design problems (Centaur) motherboard/chipset issues (VIA) or Fujitsu-Siemens’ ability to fabricate the processor in volume. There were problems – and that’s it.” Few machines today use Via’s Nano platform, with the only machine in the pipeline (that we know of) being Samsung’s NC20.
Despite an apparent lack of OEM deals for the Nano, Via continues to improve the processor and its platform. In the first half of 2009, we’ll see an updated single core Nano, while the second half of the year will bring dual-core Nano chips. The updated single core will be named Nano 3000, and will bring improvements in performance as well as power usage – which is a good idea, because benchmarks and tests showed that while the Nano chip was more powerful than Intel’s Atom, it did suck more power.
Of course, Intel isn’t sitting still, and updated Atoms – among which will be dual core chips fitting for netbooks – are also planned for 2009. In addition, AMD’s Yukon platform is targeting the same space as Via’s Nano, raising the question whether or not the relatively small Via ever has any chance of having noticeable success with Nano.
http://www.viaopenbook.com/
They released a “netbook” when noone even thought of reusing this PSION trademark yet, and it even has open specs, including case design CAD files.
It dates back from May 2008.
It’s a shame they never made enough hype around it.
Weee – only 8 months after the ASUS EEE PC was announced (7 months after shipping).
which was’t called a ‘netbook’ by then.
No. VIA is real pioneer here. I work with kiosk systems since 2003/2004, and I remember very well VIA introducing mini-itx and Intel dismissing the effort, while requiring nearly a power plant generator for their PIVs 🙂 Interesting how Intel got back to be the real number one …
woah, what a shame!
There are more developments from Intel this year that will spell trouble for VIA:
– New chipset – the current 945GSE Express is not very power efficient and uses much more power than the Atom CPU itself
– 32nm process shrink
– The next-generation sytem-on-a-chip Atom with integrated video and memory controller.
Edited 2009-01-13 18:18 UTC
Aye,
And VIA haven’t even moved to 45nm process yet.Intel is going to crush them especially if they introduce a dual core atom.
Nvidia’s Ion platform would take up the slack from crappy intel graphics negating via’s more flexible platform
I had such high hopes for them…
in 2010 (or end of 09) via will be migrating to the 45 or 40nm process. I submitted it as news artictle but it was not posted
. link here.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10129923-64.html
personaly i hope they go with TSMC’s 40nm process (even though they have been using fujitsu for some time now). TSMC has a good track record for their fab process.
great…2010 intel will be thinking of moving towards 32 nm…and via might not even have a market as everybody goes for proven (in working products) cpu’s and chipsets rather than risking new designs.
Edited 2009-01-13 20:12 UTC
I don’t know how anyone can compete with Intel. They seem to have a lot of R&D money… money in general.
This year will be very interesting for the netbook markets.
The Chinese has released their Loongson/Godson netbook on the 8 Jan 09. I am not sure if their chip runs x86 code or not. If they sell a few million of the Linux version, will Microsoft produce a non-x86 Windows for them?
I know the Chinese can make the netbooks cheap, even the Shaolin temple in South Africa can afford it.
The Loongson runs the MIPS architecture natively, but the Loongson 3 adds new instructions that accelerate x86 instruction translation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson#History
Loongson is a MIPS architecture chip.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loongson#Operating_Systems
Apparently, “users have managed to port other operating systems such as Windows CE to the Loongson architecture”. The article doesn’t say how the said users got hold of a MIPS architecture version of Windows CE.
Loongson 3 will be a MIPS/x86 hybrid chip.
“The 65nm Loongson 3 (Godson-3) is planned to run at a clock speed between 1 to 1.2 GHz, with 4 cores first (10W) and 8 cores later (20W), and it is expected by 2010[3]. It adds 200+ new instructions to speed up x86 instruction translation and run Windows [4]. The first version of the chip will only support DDR2 DRAM, will not have SMT support or a built-in network interface.”
Instruction translation is not native execution. The Loongson 3 chip is not an x86 chip, it is more like an extended MIPS chip with pieces of qemu-style emulation (for translation of x86 binary code) encoded as microcode instructions within the MIPS core instruction decoder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qemu
A Dutch site shipping a new netbook with Loongson charges
shipping + netbook + vat =430 Euro for Greece.
The Nano is also late and expensive and not Linux friendly.
nano not linux friendly? Via is hands down (though intel is catching up FAST) the most friendly company when it comes ot hardware and linux. They have been for years.
http://www.via.com.tw/en/resources/pressroom/2005_archive/pr050412_…
check the date on that press release
Edited 2009-01-13 21:16 UTC
Hmmm….yeah, via has great 3d acceleration support for their chipsets….oh wait….they don’t!
I’d have to seriously put intel & amd ahead of via for now.
Via blew it a long time ago. They had mini-itx offerings long before intel, that’s true. Whenever I went to shop for them their prices were totally outrageous, in the $300+ range for an epia board.
When intel started releasing mini-itx atom boards, first the single, then the dual core for $75 is when the via house of cards started to fall.
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3304438601.html
what were you saying about 3D and VIA?