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CEO of Centaur Discusses x86 Strategy and Linux
An anonymous reader writes "This fascinating interview with Glenn Henry, founder of VIA processor subsidiary Centaur Technology, discusses the founding of Centaur, its strategy and products, and why Linux is fundamental to his company's success. Additional topics covered include: how to produce an x86 clone with a few million dollars and a few dozen engineers; the embedded x86 market, and how it compares to the traditional ARM and MIPS based embedded market; why Centaur doesn't compete with AMD and Intel so much as enable x86 to reach new markets; how Linux is enabling greater hardware functionality; the urgent need for pervasive security -- and much more!"
I've been wondering why some company like this doesn't create a "network appliance" specification for all of us to hack on. It would be nice if I could just go buy a Netgear router and roll my own Linux installation. I purchased a Toshiba Magnia SG10 some time ago when they were a couple hundred bucks during the end-of-life period. For a 566mhz Celeron with an honest-to-goodness hard drive and switch on the back, it was hard to go wrong. I immediately wiped the stock Linux OS and rolled FreeBSD on there.
Wouldn't it be MORE profitable for companies like the aforementioned Netgear to do this? What am I not seeing? Centaur: help us out!
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Is an x86 or clone really the best chip to take to markey this way? Linux will run on other processors and the x86 isnt' the best archicecture. There are processors that are more efficient, use less power and can run linux.
Although, I'll admit some of those embedded boards that I have seen are pretty cool and easy to use.
P.S. I know I can't spell. That's why I'm not an english teacher.
Evolution or ID?
if they could take this technology and turn it into a "portable pc gaming console" of sorts(of similiar size and shape to the gba) In the article it states that they can run at 533 MHz fanless with a worst case power consumption of 2.5W. Wouldn't it be neat to create a gaming console(kind of like the phantom pc gaming console, only portable) for this with flash cards being the "cartridge"
Though licensing for the abandon-ware would be a pain. As would trying to standardize the input across a large number of games. But still, it would be friggin' cool to play leisure suit larry while you are bored in class!
I think it is a sound idea to go into the niche markets so to speak instead of just jumping into the fray with AMD/Intel. Everyone has had enough of the SSE2 vs 3dnow! extended vs the new kitchen sink it comes with. Those types of things have no real bearing on markets where companies are looking for solutions that are cheap, easy to deploy and know the company is designing the hardware for their problem. Not the company having to make their systems go on the vendors limited products.
The more competition the better we the consumers are at getting the best products.
Push harder towards Open Media/Content
The biggest problem with most hardware is that it is exotic. I'm not talking about PC's, and routers have become cheaper with micto-atx mobos with dual ethernet onboard. Laptops and PDA's are where there seem to be a lack of standards. There are no displays which can be plugged into your PC without special driver circuits. Why not create a LCD that has a standard interface that is compatible with PC hardware now?
If you standardize the equipment, then you will drive prices down, and you won't be stuck throwing out a PDA that has a broken screen, or has eol'd. Just upgrade it.
Centaur is positioned to tap the largest market in the industry- the sub-$400 PC market. Right now Centaur is designing a processor that will run over 2 GHZ.
A 2 GHz machine that is x86 compatible but will it have all those nifty other features that windows can use to speed it up? If not, it would be much slower than AMD and Intel.
Although, the thought of being able to use a chip like that for some embedded app would be pretty neat and pretty powerful because you don't need all the extra stuff that windows uses.
Evolution or ID?
Every other day, it seems, someone is shouting about how their company is finding linux is crucial to their success/business plan/what have you.
I wonder if it's a case of corporate "me too!" or if all the small firms were simply waiting for some large firm (IBM for example) to thumb their corporate nose at Microsoft, before they decided it was safe to do so.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for firms being able to decide who to attach their sail to, I was just wondering why it was taking until now...
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
got sig?
While system costs are higher for the consumer assembling a system, I don't think that a product for the masses will encounter the same problems. Manufacturers enjoy economies of scale that we don't; otherwise the low price providers (Dell/HP/etc.) would still be selling generic beige boxes instead of snappy looking cases.
Thinking of starting a business in Minnesota? Me too! mnsmall.biz
we have the cheap desktops now, like the walmart 200 buck boxes, but does anyone make a *new* laptop that uses this guys chips and a via mobo, and is it under 500 clams brand new? what he says is true, and I'm in that 90% range that what passes for a mid range speed is MORE than enough for my purposes. I don't do gaming or weather modeling, etc. That's the breakthrough and the sweetspot general pricing range I am waiting for, the linux laptop,comes complete and works outta-the-box, including wireless, under 500$, and *upgradeable*. Is this possible now? Say it is, I mean, 3-4 years from now I could replace the whole mobo with whatever is cool then, along those lines, yet alone just swapping in a new cpu, etc. And a REAL battery (or batteries even better, in some sort of standardized arrangement, with 12 volt DC input being standard) in it, I'll tote a couple extra lbs, I don't need a laptop to weigh sub-3 lbs, 6-7 is still quite acceptable, it's the same as the ones I have now. His chip at 7 watts sounds great, and 1 ghz is perfectly acceptable. Heck, even if it had a switch to toggle it back and forth between 3 watts and 7 watts would be nice, as in clocked/not clocked.
Desktops are a different story, you can always swap around parts and do a little drilling and cutting, etc to make anything fit, but laptops are teh sucks for upgrading and working on, more or less, and they are too expensive as they are sold now to change out very often (for me I mean, but bet a lot of other folks feel the same way). I'd get one and use it for my main desktop most of the time then with an external keyboard and my regular mouse and monitor, scrap energy hog desktops, but retain the option of true portability.
Well, even so, it's still would be better than what I am using now, a PP200. I know all sorts of people still using older systems because they paid a lot of money for them and they still work well enough. So, you are right on what is top end now or midrange, but the centaur guys observations that his chips are good enough for 90% of what most people use a computer for are most likely still valid. Here on slashdot you have a much higher ratio of people who have brand new or pretty new systems than you do in the "general" population, and uber geeks tend to hang out more with other uber geeks, so perhaps they don't see it as much. I know most corporate bosses make so much money and live such a different lifestyle it's hard for them to relate to joe working stiff, that's why you see so many weird business changes-marketing and the bosses can't relate to most people, they lose track of anything outside their little niche worlds of much better off financially people than any sort of median-norm. I know there's no company out there that I have seen is offering any sort of new laptop that even possibly could be in my price range, so I hang on to the older ones, and I bought them used. Same with my desktops.
There's different niches out there, and there's a huge niche where "cheap and good enough" is still king, and it was refreshing to see an article on slashdot where that is covered, usually it's some new thing that is the fastest/best and most expensive, and most energy hog as well, and seeing as how I am into alternative energy, I always look at that angle. I don't want an electrical sub station needed to power me and my house and stuff, I think that is beyoind ridiculous and getting into the generational greedy range. that's ME, others can think different, but it is how I think...
This guy at centaur gets it on where his market is, and I'm exactly the sort of person he is thinking of, that's why I wondered if any company had an upgradeable cheap laptop based on his cpu/mobo stuff yet. Like my desktop, when I get ready I'll put a new board and CPU in it, but for now, this is "good enough" for me, just never seen a laptop I can do the same thing with, and I want low power, good battery life, and upgradeable by switching a few cables and slapping in a new board for cheap a few years hence.
Just a-wondering is all, no biggee. If I really wanted or needed a liquid cooled monster like we see all the time here, I guess I would get one, but it would be overkill for my needs, and definetly suck way too much juice and throw too much heat. don't need it really, like I said, don't do games or modeling or whatever. Folks who do got tons of choices, folks who don't got almost squat for choices it appears, and I despise the forced upgrade business solutions we keep seeing.. There's plenty of choices out there in that expensive/faster/ mo powah direction, but very few choices the other way.