VIA plans launch of 800 MHz chip

VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子), Taiwan's leading semiconductor design firm and the world's second largest chipset maker, plans to launch its 800 Megahertz (MHz) C3 microprocessor at the Computex Taipei computer trade show on June 5, according to Manuela Mercandelli, director of marketing communications at VIA.

The company's stock closed up 6.3 percent on the local bourse on news of the new chip yesterday, rising NT$17 to finish the day at NT$287 per share.

The microprocessor is the brains of a computer, enabling it to sort and manipulate information. Eight hundred MHZ is speedy, a leap up from VIA's current 733MHz chip and fast enough to handle the computing needs of most computer users, except those using photographic or design intensive software.

By comparison, Intel launched their latest chip two weeks ago at the Intel Developer Forum in Tapei, a 1.7 Gigahertz (GHz) microprocessor -- the world's fastest for desktop computers.

VIA, however, is not trying to compete with Intel, or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the number two maker of computer central processing units (CPUs). The Taiwanese firm has instead targeted the market for computers costing under US$500 for its microchips and rumors throughout the year put the company on track to make inroads in the nearly US$200 billion per year chip industry.

VIA President Chen Wen-chi (陳文琦) turned his focus toward low cost CPUs this year in order to take advantage of the "China market" as well as the growing market for low cost computers. Chen believes VIA can take advantage of its low cost structure by providing good microprocessor designs at a fraction of Intel's or AMD's cost.

Partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is helping VIA in its march ahead in microprocessor speed. VIA is a fabless design house, meaning the company has no "fabs," as chip manufacturing plants are known.

TSMC, the world's number one semiconductor manufacturing foundry, operates no chip design firms. By specializing in chip making, TSMC is using industry leading 0.13 micron process technology to help pump speed into VIA chips. This tiny cutting size makes VIAs new chips smaller, speedier and more cost effective.

VIA's 733 MHz chip used 0.15 micron technology to make the leap into its newest design family, dubbed C3, or Samuel II. The new 800 MHz chip supplants the 733MHz microprocessor as VIA's fastest chip. The 733 MHz chip debuted in late March at the CeBit Computer show in Hannover, Germany.

VIA officials said earlier this year they plan to launch a 1 GHz chip later this year and possibly a 1.2 GHz microprocessor soon after.