Slashdot Mirror
End of Intel-Pin-Compatible CPUs?
sonamchauhan writes ""Intel, Via bury the hatchet" proclaims this news.com article. The settlement reportedly allows Via to build Intel-pin-compatible CPUs for three years more, but Via must cease pin-compatibility after that."
This settlement apparently closes out 27 existing lawsuits.
so what. who uses the c3 anyway?
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
I agree that opcode compatibility is crucial (after all, that's what has allowed companies like AMD to strive, and in turn, brought down the prices of mainstream x86 processors). But if there isn't pin compatibility, then this means that you can't use one motherboard designed for Intel with a Via chip.
Now, it's true that this isn't the case anyway: you can't buy single Via processors anyway, and it has essentially always been the case that you have motherboards for AMD procs, and motherboards for Intel procs. But it's really too bad. Think of how convenient it is that you can take an IDE hard-drive and plug it in anywhere (even Macs nowadays!) Why can't you have simple "plug'n play" processors? Then you'd have real competition among all the companies...any processor on any mobo!
Maan
From the article, 11 legal suits are involved which reference 27 different patents from either side.
According to the article, "The settlement--which involves 11 cases filed in five countries--will essentially make it far easier for Via to sell processors and chipsets to PC makers."
Where did the 27 come from? Oh, wait: "In total, 27 patents were at issue in the various cases."
Man, reading comprehension must be in short supply these days. There were 11 lawsuits involving 27 patents.
Speaking of reading comprehension, the settlement is for the following:
"For the first three years, Intel has agreed not to sue Via for making processors that come with buses and pin structures that are similar to Intel's products. Similarly, Intel has granted Via a license to make chipsets that are pin- and bus-compatible with Intel products for four years, and has agreed not to sue Via or its customers for using pin- and bus-compatible chipsets for another year beyond that."
So they can essientially get away with selling them for FIVE years, not three.
Geez...
This is not at all true. I personally have owned at least four different Super Socket 7 boards (one is in my posession now) which would run either a K6 series processor, or any Socket 7 Pentium processor. Some of them would also run various Cyrix processors. VIA bought Cyrix. Hence, VIA *does* have the rights to some processors which are pin-compatible with some intel processors.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=15
Via makes a number of low-power (as in Watts) CPU's.
They also make chipsets for, among other things, P-IV. The chipsets don't really contain any processors as such, just memory/IDE/USB controllers etc.
No you cannot buy an Athlon and put it in a P4 motherboard, they are not pin-compatible (diff pin structure and number of pins on the chip as well as the socket) or bus compatible(bus architecture is completely different). The pin compatibility Via got is so they can make their chips compatible with Intel chipsets on Motherboards. I.E. You coulld buy an Intel-based motherboard, and put a Via chip in it.
"I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin"
The Tualatin (and to some extent, Coppermine) PIIIs and Celerons were incredibly good...clock for clock better than PIV. The "dirty little secret" about Banias/Centrino is that it is not based on the PIV core, but the PIII. This is why they talk about Centrino and Pentium-M, not about where in the Intel continuum the Pentium-M actually belongs.
I want to see the Centrino platform on the desktop. But we never will see it, because it would embarrass Intel and point up how failed the PIV architecture is.
Oh yeah, one more thing. VIA has been selling the CIII as part of the EPIA Mini-ITX platform, not really as a separate chip, and I suspect the tight connection between CIII and EPIA will be even tighter by the time this injunction takes effect three years from now.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
...when you consider you can get the same power as an Intel chip in an AMD chip for typically half to one-third the price
I'm typing this reply on an Athon equipped PC, and historically agree, but AMD had better get their ass in gear quite quickly: Taking a quick look at the place I normally order from (CDN $), a P4 2.4Ghz 533Mhz bus processor (512KB cache) is coming in at $249.99. For just a bit less you can get the Athlon 2400+, or for $30 more you can get the Barton 2500+. In other words power/dollar is pretty much on par now, so AMD has definitely lost that historical advantage.
Untrue. I took by VIA 133-based mobo w/256 Megs of RAM, which was originally an AMD 750, and, over the period of two years, did the following:
- Upgraded to a 900Mhz Duron
- added 256MB RAM
- Upgraded to a 1.3Ghz Athlon
- Upgraded to a 1.6Ghz Athlon XP
Try doing that with any Intel chip. The socket changed *twice* during the comperable speeds I've listed here. An no new Mobo was purchased, nor was RAM changed (just more bought, for $60 I believe, but it was plain ol' SDRAM, *not* the insanely expensive RAMBUS I'd have been buying at the time if I had been using a P4).
Reporters must follow editorials rules. Generally, these rules make them use Via and Nvidia instead of VIA and NVIDIA. The use of ALL CAPS in a news story makes it look like a marketing piece.
If you don't need the extra cycles a P4 or Athlon can put out, you're often better off with a c3 -- they're cooler and, by virtue of that, silent.
Mechanical parts are the weak link in computer reliability.
If you're building an largish embedded device, maybe a car MP3 player or a home theater DVD player or something, you want reliability, you need a certain amount of power but not more than that, and you don't want noise.
And many people don't need the extra cycles. I use a PII/266, which is significantly less powerful than a c3, and I'm happy. Having a silent box would be nice.
May we never see th
Benchmarks:
Via C3 vs Transmeta CPU
Via C3 vs Celeon 1300 Mhz and 667 Mhz
Given that the current market C3 has a slow FPU it holds up pretty well for the amount of power it uses, the cost, and the form factor it allows. It is nowhere near as slow as a PII 300 Mhz in any of the benchmarks I glanced at. Feel free to point out some ultra-FPU bound benchmark that I missed and you're using to backup your comment.
The C3 is in no way a powerhouse but given that it can be easily used in small form factors like mITX and it is cheap ($50-$120 for motherboard and CPU) it deserves a little respect. I don't even own one but I can't wait for the next C3 that is coming out with full speed FPU and other benefits.
"" yeah, but once you factor in that C3 1ghz is about the same speed as a PII in the 300Mhz range or so, it's not so great for speed. It is low power though.""
a 1ghz C3 would be about equal to a 750 PII. The accepted approximation is 3/4 of a PIII.