Business Tech

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

Dell will reportedly use Via Technologies chips in select low-power servers.

According to The New York Times' Ashlee Vance, Dell will unveil a system that has 12 full servers running on Via's Nano chip. Each server will consumer 15 watts of power.

Dell is expected to unveil the Via-powered systems next week.

For Via, Dell would be a huge win. Via is a player in the Netbook market, but Intel and AMD own the server market. Dell will pitch these servers to Web-hosting companies. However, don't expect much in the way of performance.

Vance writes:

Running at just 1.3GHz or 1.6GHz, the Via chips sit very low on the performance totem pole when it comes to server chips. But it's the chip's lower speed and other architecture tweaks helps it keep power consumption and costs low. For example, the new Dell servers cost less than $400 a pop, which is just a fraction of the cost of a typical server.

AMD and Intel are likely to scoff at such performance, but for Via, Dell is a big win that may lead to more customers.

For the first quarter, IDC reports that Via had a market share of 0.4 percent compared to Intel and AMD's 77.3 percent and 22.3 percent, respectively. In the mobile market, Via had market share of 0.7 percent.

Samsung's NC20 Netbook shows that Via Technologies' Nano processor can keep up with the Joneses. But will Nvidia be given the chance?

CNET Reviews' Dan Ackerman reviewed the new Samsung NC20 Netbook and found it not wanting in a matchup with the Asus Eee PC 1000HE, packing Intel's latest and greatest Atom N280.

Samsung NC20 Netbook packs a Via Nano processor--not an Intel Atom.

(Credit: CNET Reviews)

Though Nano is a necessary industry antidote to Intel's grip on the Netbook market, in the scheme of market share numbers, Via's chip is a blip at best.

I find it almost amusing when Intel lists Via as one of two competitors (Advanced Micro Devices being the other) in its Form 10-K filings. It's a fair analogy to say it's like a mom-and-pop coffee shop among a dense cluster of Starbucks stores. You may draw a few customers but 99 percent of the market is going to go to Starbucks.

Via helped pioneer the Netbook market in early 2008 by powering one of the earliest high-profile products, the Hewlett-Packard 2133 Mini-Note. In fact, Via was already supplying the inexpensive, low-power Via C7M--Nano's predecessor--in 2005 when the Atom concept was just a glimmer in Intel's eye.

The Netbook market vacuum didn't last long, however. Within months of Atom's arrival, the Via C7M was squashed by the Intel juggernaut, not to rise again. (Largely due to the fact that the C7M was slow, as one reader points out.)

The sober reality is that Via faces the same daunting challenge that Nvidia does: competing with Intel. The largest Netbook vendors--Asus and Acer--are wedded to Intel processors and chipsets, as are most of the other major players. An incremental increase in processor performance from Via won't necessarily tempt PC makers to drop Atom.

Nvidia's predicament is even more difficult because the GPU supplier can offer something that Intel can't: great graphics performance in a Netbook.

Nvidia faces a Catch 22. It needs a lot of Netbook design wins to make decent profit margins but customers won't sign up for Nvidia's Ion in the face of Intel's bundling incentives.

Alas, Nvidia's Ion seems destined only for tiny desktops for now. Nvidia has been shopping its Ion platform (Atom + Nvidia 9400M graphics) around and has had some success with top-tier PC companies looking to design diminutive desktops. But not any success to date in the Netbook space (although some smaller Asia-based Netbook makers are expected to announce Ion-based Netbooks at Computex in June).

Then there's Tegra. This Nvidia chip platform may have more success in the category of so-called "$99" Netbooks that are more akin--in the way they are offered to customers--to cell phones than laptops. These Netbooks, as depicted by Qualcomm, would be always-on and not part of the WinTel (Windows-Intel) ecosystem.

Nvidia went out of its way this week to demonstrate a concept device at CTIA in Las Vegas running Windows CE. Nvidia basically tore out the guts of an Intel-based HP Mini 1000 Netbook and replaced it with Tegra parts, according to a Nvidia spokesman Derek Perez, who attended CTIA this week.

Via Technologies has released a new Netbook reference design aimed at PC manufacturers that want to start selling Netbooks for the first time.

The reference design for the Via Surfboard C855 mainboard, unveiled Tuesday, includes the Taiwanese chip company's new VX855 media system processor alongside a C7-M processor. The mainboard will provide "smooth playback" of high-bit-rate 1080p high-definition video, as well as eight-channel HD audio, according to Via.

Via's Surfboard C855 reference design.

(Credit: ZDNet UK)

According to Richard Brown, Via's vice president of marketing, one advantage of the Surfboard C855 design is "the head start it affords mini-notebook system developers or those seeking to enter the market."

Via's 1.6GHz C7-M is a relatively old processor, as it first appeared in 2005. It has gone back to this chip for the new reference design despite having a more recent range of processors--the Nano range--that is already used in new Netbooks, such as Samsung's NC20. The Nano range offers better performance than both the C7-M and, according to ZDNet UK reviews, Intel's ubiquitous Atom processor.

Despite being based on an older chip, the new reference design is being pitched by Via as sufficiently capable of HD video playback. Reference designs for other new lower-range Netbooks, such as those based on ARM architecture, also include this feature.

The C855 board supports an 800MHz front-side bus, and connectivity options on the board include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and 3G. Internal display resolutions of up to 1,366x768 pixels are supported, as are external display resolutions of up to 1,920x1,440 pixels.

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.

Updated on January 6 at 11:20 a.m. PST with correction about Nano 3000.

Dual-core Intel Atom rivals are in the works.

Via Nano procesor

(Credit: Via Technologies)

Via Technologies is planning a very low-power, dual-core Nano 3000 processor, according to Chinese-language Web site HKEPC.

Via's C7-M processor is used in Hewlett-Packard's 2133 Mini-Note, which preceded the crop of Netbooks based on the Atom CPU. Via processors, however, were subsequently eclipsed by Intel's Atom.

Advanced Micro Devices will target its low-power dual-core "Conesus" at the laptop market segment above Atom's Netbook-centric space.

Meanwhile, Freescale Semiconductor has indicated that it will bring out a very-low-power ARM chip that features a dual-core graphics engine targeted at Netbook-like laptops.

All of these developments indicate that the market for ultra-small devices and laptops should heat up in 2009.

Intel currently offers the dual-core Atom 330 that is targeted at Nettops--small desktop computers.

The dual-core version of the Via Nano--due in late 2009 or 2010--may use a Fujitsu 45-nanometer or TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) 40-nanometer manufacturing process, according to HKEPC. The Intel Atom is based on 45-nanometer process technology.

(Correction: the Via Nano 3000 will not be dual-core. The dual-core version of Nano will ship in the second half of 2009.)

The Via chip may also include SSE4 instruction support, HKEPC said. Generally, SSE4 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 4) instructions speed up multimedia applications.

Via is also slated to bring out other improved Nano processors in 2009, according to the report.

2009 may be the year of the Netbook. But there's a big if.

Here's the choice: Will consumers buy a thin, light, relatively fast $1,800 MacBook Air or a thin, light, ultrasmall, not-as-fast $450 Hewlett-Packard Mini 1000 Netbook? (Correction: the HP Mini 1000 configuration cited here was originally stated incorrectly as $700.)

A $400-$700 Netbook or a $1,800-$2,500 notebook?

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard, Apple)

If many people, fully aware of this choice, opt for a Netbook then we have the foundation of, at the very least, a rethinking of the pricey ultraportable.

At most, we have many more consumers buying into the Netbook concept--particularly if 3G broadband wireless comes as a standard option.

Here's the dilemma in more detail: Do you want an ultralight subnotebook replete with a Core 2 Duo processor, 64GB solid-state drive, and 12-inch (or 13-inch) LED screen that will set you back at least $1,800?

Or do you want a Netbook with an Atom processor, 16GB solid-state drive (or 60GB or 120GB hard disk drive), and a 10-inch screen for $450 to $500? (Clarification: Netbooks are generally thought of as sub-$400 designs; but for comparison's sake, upscale Netbooks with 10.2-inch screens are cited here.)

The dimensions and weight are the key to both the Netbook and the ultraportable, and differentiate them from standard laptops. Both are small and light. But here's where Netbooks become disruptive. To date (that is, for at least the last 10 years), consumers have had to pay a big premium for smallness and thinness (and still do with the Air, Dell Latitude E4200, and Toshiba Portege, for example). With the Netbook, they don't. (The one obvious downside to Netbooks, however, is that they're too small--cramped screens and keyboards.)

(See CNET review of the HP Mini 1000.)

Of course, the design and internals are different, but are they different enough? To rephrase the question posed above: Is a $2,500 13-inch MacBook Air with a 128GB solid-state drive (and no 3G) different enough from (or that much better than) a high-end $600 or $700 11-inch Netbook with a 32GB (or 64GB) solid-state drive and 3G? I would expect that most consumers (even ones that must have an ultraportable laptop) won't be able to justify paying an extra $1000-$2,000 for a MacBook Air- or Toshiba Portege-style design in the face of a compelling array of Netbook offerings. Especially if Netbooks (or a facsimile of the Netbook) start sporting larger screens.

Consumers will ultimately decide the fate of the Netbook of course--though it remains problematic whether PC suppliers will really push Netbooks in front of consumers that aggressively if Netbooks are eating into their laptop sales. Advanced Micro Devices or Via Technologies, however, could change this by aggressively promoting their newest silicon (AMD's Yukon and Via's Nano) for slick, upscale Netbook-like designs.

Are Netbooks ripe to be resized? Via Technologies thinks so. The Intel-compatible chipmaker says larger Netbooks are on the way.

Via Nano processor

(Credit: Via Technologies)

In an interview, Glenn Henry, the head of Via Technologies subsidiary Centaur Technology, said that Via has just begun commercial shipments of its Intel-compatible, power-sipping Nano processor. Centaur headed up development of the Nano processor.

"We just started shipping to customers last week and this week--literally right now," Henry said.

Henry said there is a lot of demand for larger form factors. "Everyone wants to build a (Netbook) of some variety these days. Most of the interest we see from customers is for a larger screen than the HP (2133). There's a lot of demand to move those things up to higher screen sizes. I've heard customers say they want to build 12- or 13-inch notebooks," Henry said.

Via's most illustrious customer is Hewlett-Packard, which currently uses the older Via C7 processor in its 2133 Mini-Note PC.

Though Henry refused to talk about design wins, he did say that there is interest from major companies. "We've given them (HP) samples," he said. Though Henry qualified this by saying that Via has given samples to a lot of potential customers. "There's a great deal of interest in the part from people whose name you would recognize," he said.

The Nano processor is seen as the only real competition for Intel's popular Atom chip, which is used in Netbooks from a long list of companies including Acer, Asus, Lenovo, and Dell.

The 2.6-pound HP 2133 Mini-Note uses the Via C7 processor.

(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)

There is one crucial difference with the Atom. Nano has a thermal envelope of 5 watts at 1GHz. Though this is low compared with a standard Intel Core 2 mobile processor (typically drawing 25 watts to 35 watts), this is higher than Intel's single-core Atom chip for netbooks which tops out at just 2 watts. At 1.3GHz, Nano has a thermal envelope of 8 watts, approaching that of Intel's dual-core Atom.

Why the difference? Nano uses a more sophisticated superscalar, out-of-order design, while Atom has a more simple "in-order execution" architecture. Because of Nano's more complex design, it may deliver better performance than Atom in some cases.

The thermal envelope, however, is important because it can influence the design of a Netbook-type device. Typically, parts with lower thermal envelopes can go into smaller devices.

On the upside, Nano can be plugged directly into a design that uses the older C7 processor. "One of the very interesting things about the Nano is that it's plug compatible with our current C7s. You can plug the part into the same socket." Though some adjustments must be made: A BIOS upgrade is necessary and "more importantly the part has a different power-versus-megahertz (paradigm) compared to the current part because it's running benchmarks two times faster," Henry said.

He said products using the Nano processor will not appear immediately. "No product that actually uses this is for sale to the end customer (yet). So the parts we're shipping are going into the (customer's) manufacturing process or development process."

And what about a Via dual-core processor? "We're working on it. When you see it, who knows. We're implementing it but it's not near at hand," Henry said.

(Note: There are several ways to categorize a design as a netbook. One is screen size. Typically netbooks have 7-, 8-, or 9-inch screens. But this definition is in flux with, for example, the newest Atom-processor-based Eee PC 1000 that sports a 10-inch screen. So, as netbooks get redefined upward, the silicon inside--and other hardware--becomes the defining factor, i.e., low-power, low-performance processors and graphics that dictate how the computer should be used: primarily as a Net-centric device for Web browsing and email. Prices will also typically be lower than standard notebooks.)