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Via Will Join The 64-Bit Fray
ancice with news that Via plans to introduce 64-bit chip codenamed 'CN.' "It was revealed at the Fall Processor Forum. The chip 'will have much better performance, particularly when handling video and audio information ... However, it won't depart from Via's emphasis on low cost, small size and modest power consumption.' Features include 'high-speed Front Side Bus, ... Floating Point Unit that can achieve floating-point additions and multiplies using only two clock cycles, an increased cache size, high-speed data movement, and out-of order, superscalar execution that allows the processor to achieve high clock rates while executing multiple, simultaneous instructions for high definition digital entertainment.' The story was
reported by ZDNet. The offical release is
here. Expected release date is first half of 2006." Update: 10/06 13:10 GMT by T : Also at the Forum, VIA showed off a dual-processor Mini-ITX board, about which more below.
An anonymous reader submits "Via gave a sneak preview at the Fall Processor Forum of what is likely the world's first dual-processor mini-ITX mobo. The "four-wheel drive Hyundai" is expected to ship in "early 2005," according to the article at LinuxDevices. Looks like Via is cooking up some higher-end hardware in hopes the security processing features in its CPUs can carry it into higher-margin markets. I don't know, though; I think I'd rather have a PocketPC cluster ... "
It's possible the Install disc is still 32-bit code, possibly to allow more widespread testing. It then boots into a 64-bit system.
If it actually ran on an Intel 32-bit box that would be interesting. I know Intel have x86_64 compatibility planned.
Uh, you mean like the x86-64 Xeons Dell has been selling in servers for weeks (if not months) ?
./-ers might not like VIA, but you should really give them a chance. Their subsidiary Centaur is the group that designs their chips.
CEO Interview: Glenn Henry, founder of VIA processor subsidiary Centaur
Counter-anecdote, away!
I've had no problems with my EPIA-M using open source drivers. I never bothered with the binaries. I use the 2.6 kernel and the alsa drivers for sound. I built the video driver from cvs recently. Works just fine. I use unstable gentoo, about as opposite as you can get from the outdated distros they support. By the way, I've never had heat problems even while doing long compiles.
It's perfectly capable of playing any video that there's a native driver for. (WMV9 is a pain in the butt.) The open source drivers even support mpeg-2 acceleration just fine.
The system is cool and quiet; something my dual Athlon monster could never be.
The main appeal to me was that with the e-Otonashi case, I can run the system completely fanless. I was originally planning to tear out the HD and replace it with a 512MB compact flash, but after hearing (or rather not hearing) the system in action I decided to use the compact flash for my digital camera instead - I can barely notice the HD when the disk is heavily trashing and I'm reasonably close to the machine, but even then it's quieter than my old Sony DVD player.
Word of warning though: Setting up Linux on the VIA Mini-ITX boards can be a real pain. Getting the basic stuff up and running is trivial (For people in the UK I can recommend LinItx.com - they delivered my system quickly and with Fedora Core 1 pre-installed, but getting the best out of the TV out and hardware MPEG2 decoder was painful (thanks to VIA not being particularly forthcoming with specs) when I did it a few months ago.
After my last horrific experience with their 4 in 1 driver set
I have come to suspect that the problem with VIA is not their hardware, but their Windows drivers. I have had plenty of trouble with my VIA-based boxes in Windows, but a lot of people seem to have good stability under Linux or *BSD.
Ah yeah, also, if you plan to run linux on it (who wouldnt for any type of server) the EPIA wiki will be like a bible to you!
http://www.epiawiki.org/wiki/tiki-index.php
They have kernel patches for the M1000 board's hardware DVD decoding (among other things) as well as listing all the kernel options to optimise it for a via processor.
How many computers are too many?
In cases like that, most would just buy the second 2-way Opteron and max the RAM out on both of them. Seriously, if you're sporting a rig like that, you can get about 100 clients 2 machines with 4GB each. If you max them both out with RAM, (which going from 4 GB to 16 is only about $5000 each), you can push that to probably over 300 clients with just the two servers, assuming you've got enough disk bandwidth (probably fileserver with 15K RPM drives in a RAID-5 configuration). Segment your gigabit network nicely, and spend about $500 on each client ($350 if you're using CRT's instead of LCD's), and you've saved a TON vs. Microsoft solutions because of liscencing. Plus, management is a breeze! The clients rarely break down, as they have no moving parts. Upgrade an app on the server, and it's already upgraded everywhere else. Only need to backup one fileserver. I've talked to people who have set up LTSP or something similar and not entered the server room for 2 years!
Now, this solution doesn't work for everyone, such as my company, which does content production (using Flash, Maya, and plenty of other graphics-intenive apps that wouldn't work nicely in an LTSP setup). Where would it fit? Telemarketing call centers. Schools. Stock brokers. Largely clerical outfits. Anywhere where the needs of most of your workers are very simple (web, email, office stuff).
The other application is kiosks. My terminals are virtually unhackable. They boot straight into a non-priveleged user account that runs Firefox and Metacity in a chroot-jailed environment. Firefox is totally stripped to the bone -- no menus at all, all the shortcut keys for advanced stuff disabled, no file:/ about:/ etc, CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE is disabled, root logins disabled. They can't do squat. They're trapped in from boot to shutdown. Web browsing is filtered by a proxy, often using a whitelist to one specific site. I offer the kids $20 if they can open another app or go to a different website. No one has collected yet.
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
This new processor most likey not be able to go fanless. This new via c3 core has higher heat than the Nehemiah cores. 20 watts to 15 watts I believe. I have one of the first 1 gig Nehemiah cores and it is on the brink of the max temp without no fan.
Ha ;) no way I'll mistake this for the real thing. No offense, but a mobility 9700 is in no way ever close to a mobility 9800 except for the successive character in their model numbers. ATI is just too errrm let's say hesitating to call this thing by its real name. The mobility 9700 was a version of the desktop 9600xt, the mobility 9600 was something older, but the new mobility 9800 is a slightly toned down X800(!). ;)
60 percent more graphics power while only using slightly more energy. No way I ever buy my new gaming notebook without one, except when nVidia surprisingly unveils a blistering fast chip really soon now because I'd trust their drivers more than ATI's. Until then I prepare for the current mobile GPU flagship, trust me. But not from Dell, but that's a personal matter for me...