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VIA to Create Pentium 4 'Clone'
PyroMosh writes: "ZDNet is carrying a brief article about VIA's plans to start producing clones of the Pentium 4. VIA's already in legal trouble with Intel and it seems unlikley that this will go unchallenged by the chipmaking juggernaut. The Register is also covering this, and SiliconStrategies.com has an article with a bit more detail."
3Dnow.net links to the article at: http://www.theinquirer.net/19100103.htm that states that VIA denies this. Gotta love the opening paragraph.
To reverse engineer and duplicate a processor requires a superior understanding of processor design and construction.
Once you have reverse engineered the processor, why wouldn't you then put your resources into designing a better processor based on what you've learned, rather than wasting time making a clone?
How will VIA have a competitive advantage?
They will use substandard manufactoring processes, open chip plants in third world dictatorships, and provide less customer outreach and support.
Good!
Poor countries will get chipmaking infrastructure, and chip manufacturers will produce more cheaply. This part of the information economy is the part that can reach the poorest countries first; a factory job making chips is the first step towards participation in a western style net economy.
VIA won't advertise with idiotic pitches like the Blue Men. Perhaps it will take another tack -- selling to budget computer makers.
The chip cost is a big part of computer cost, so a cheaper chip will enable more companies to produce cheap computers, improving competition in this market sector.
This is like spurring a housing market with a revolution in pre-fabricated housing. It makes possibilities available to an entirely new group of potential buyers.
Goat sex free since 2001
Coming soon, Open Source hard drives. Does anyone have any spare beer coasters?
2GHZ lets see based on the cyrix methodaligies that would be something like 20 x 100mhz bus in real world standards that would be 13 x 33mhz bus. I wonder if this chip will retain the heat features. Imagine a chip running at 500 C. And they will be cheap just like thier ancestors. 25$ a chip so when it burns its self up in 3 months you go buy another. GOD I WANT ONE!
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
If P4 has been legitimately reverse-engineered, then VIA is beyond reproach. Typically, the companies who live by reverse-engineering go to great length to document the process. Of course, they'd have to pay hefty legal fees if that process is challenged in court, but for the giant like VIA this isn't much of a problem.
It depends on how they are defining clone. If it just runs the same code, thats one thing, if they reproduce proprietary chip disign techniques, thats another.
some would consider AMD a clone as well.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
This has already been debunked as a rumor!
:)
Way to go slashdot....
http://www.theinquirer.net/19100103.htm - There's your linkified proof.
VIA bought the Cyrix name and it's hardly fair to characterize any product under that name as being inferior.
VIA probably chose to clone the Intel chips because they feel that they have a license to do so (it being the same license that they feel gives them the right to create the Intel P4 chipsets).
Why not go higher performance, like AMD? In addition to the Intel license issue, the fact is that a 1.5ghz AMD is viewed by the public as being less powerful than a 2.0ghz Intel part. People are stupid, they don't read benchmarks, and it's not likely to change.
The market for these would be people who are not already emotionally/contractually tied to Intel. This space is primarily held by AMD. Via is less likely to get any customers out of Intel. They are more likely to take customers from AMD.
Sure Intel will gripe, but if they're smart they'll let VIA in just enough to pound AMD.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
Is already known to be highly saturated. Will VIA's chips be signifigantly cheaper than the Celrons or Durons (or at least have a better cost-to-performance ratio?) If so, will that margin be enough to keep the company afloat?
This sounds like something that would have been a great idea a year or two ago, but in this competitive (and now saturated) market, it will be tough going for the guys at VIA.