Via touts chip for low-cost notebooks

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sales growth in developing regions outpaces the established markets.

Formerly code-named "Esther," the C7 differs substantially from Via's current chip, which, oddly enough, is named the C3. For one thing, IBM will manufacture the chip in its East Fishkill, N.Y., facility with its 90-nanometer manufacturing processes. In the past, Via hired Taiwanese foundries. Because of the shift, the C7 will also incorporate a silicon-on-insulator substrate--an added layer of silicon that reduces power consumption.

The chip will also incorporate a number of security features. Like many of the latest Intel and AMD processors, the C7 will come with an NX bit, which allows the processor to block many buffer overflow attacks. Via also included circuits that make it easier to encrypt documents. Another feature allows a user to encrypt a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call made through a notebook. The software to enable these options will come out later.

Further, to cut energy consumption, Via has included technology that will slow down the processor during idle periods or when computing loads are light. At 1GHz, the C7 consumes a maximum of 3 watts, and 12 watts at 1.6GHz. But it can be cranked up quickly to 2GHz (and a 20-watt ceiling), if needed.

"Power goes up as sort of the square root of megahertz," said Glenn Henry, president of Centaur Technologies, the name of Via's chip-design subsidiary.

By comparison, AMD's Turion chips sport a thermal ceiling of 25 to 35 watts, depending on the model, and run at 2GHz and lower. Intel Pentium M chips consume between 27 and 55 watts and run at 2.13GHz. Exact comparisons in performance and power consumption are difficult and the results in reality depend on the overall system design. Benchmark tests will likely appear soon.

The performance picture will also likely change substantially when dual-core notebook chips come out in 2006.

Henry added that Via deliberately kept the cache memory embedded on the chip small, at 256KB, to cut costs.

"If we had a 1MB cache, it would add maybe 5 percent of performance but double the cost," he said.

The first C7 notebooks will be shown at the show next week and then start hitting shelves in India and elsewhere in about six to eight weeks, said Brown. The first C7s will run at around 1.5GHz and 1.8GHz with later models hitting 2GHz. The system bus will initially run at 400MHz and 533MHz and later climb to 800MHz.

Via also will come out with different iterations of the chip to better suit the desktop and notebook segments.