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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 ... "
CN?
The new VIA Cyanide chipset, the killer of all other chipsets!!!
Too bad only half of the population will notice their presence.
Get your Unix fortune now!
With the statement that it can be used in a digital media stream for output to HDTV (and Linux-type media center), it sounds like this chip is intended for TiVO-like services.
If it is as low powered as touted, I would use it in embedded systems (like house/applicance control). And of course low power means good for laptops.
VIA you say? *shudder*
After my last horrific experience with their 4 in 1 driver set, I vowed to never touch another board with a VIA chipset again. That way lies maddness and death.
"I realise this is not a very popular opinion but it's the truth, and there for needs to be said" -Bill Hicks
From the linked Press Release:
Yes I read the F**cking article.
Finicky? Me?
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I think this topic about a new via chipset requires my favorite quote from Down Periscope.
After Turbo "fixes" the radio... again... "It's running like a Swiss... Car....."
Cliff Claven
K.E.G. Party Chairman
Founding Leader of: Koncerned for Egalitarin Governance
Just like all of Via's current line, they are meant for low cost low power systems. In combination with Via's SFF motherboards they are great for car PCs, media center PCs and firewall/router PCs. They are not meant to be high end workstations, so stop treating them as though they are. Just like any other product, they have their niche.
Uh, you mean like the x86-64 Xeons Dell has been selling in servers for weeks (if not months) ?
It's really funny VIA would name their chip CN considering that (in canada at least), the main passenger rail transportation company is called VIA rail and the main commercial rail transportation is CN.
We all know what AMD did to the processor market with the introduction of the K7. It never hurts for more healthy competition. Via la 64bit!
Hell yes. All of my friends were really impressed with the MythTV frontend I built with a Via EPIA motherboard. Just a tiny motherboard in a tiny book-sized case with no moving parts and network, video/tv-out, mpeg2 decoder, and sound all integrated into the box.
Now my toaster can have more then 4 GB of memory. mmmmm toast.
./-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
Amen! I've got a bunch of little mini-ITX systems that I use with LTSP, and I've got an 8U portable rack (the kind used typically for live audio gear) with a beefy server, a 16-port switch, a router/firewall, and other goodies. It's basically a network-in-a-box. I do gigs with a local DJ and set up quick and dirty cyber-cafe's. The boxes boot Linux and run Firefox (with a stripped-down browser.xul so they can't do anything funky like install extensions). People love it! You can run an event anywhere, and have a totally secure bunch of very responsive PC's. On my rig, I can get up to 15 of these guys going, and they're fast for just browsing! And cheap!
Lex orandi, lex credendi.
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.
So the SP uses the nanoBGA CPU and CN400 northbridge. Does this mean we will finally see the long awaited nano-ITX board VIA originally announced last year and still has yet to deliver, despite announcing availability months ago? Or are they giving up on the Nano-ITX and just giving us Yet Another Mini-ITX?
-- OpenVerse Visual Chat: http://openverse.com
Maybe you simply lack some positive experience with Via hardware? The most stable x86 system I ever had, a 486, was Via chipset based. What I currently have uses Via KM266 chipset, performs solid and very stable. With non-Via chipsets, it's been a mixed bag for me.
I really like them advancing the art for power-efficient CPU's. For many applications, the underlying hardware is increasingly irrelevant, and other factors like power consumption become important. In the old days, computer hardware just couldn't be fast enough. Nowadays PC's are way faster than needed for almost any application. Next on the list is price, and as a result, ordinary PC hardware has become dirt cheap. What's next? Ergonomics, reliability, durability. Read: low power, small, low noise. Via CPU's fit in there nicely.
I think a big problem for Via CPU's market share in desktop systems is not their technical merits, but their availability. If you want to buy AMD or Intel, any computershop has something on offer. But if you want to buy Via C3, matching motherboard (socket 370), or Mini-ITX board, your choices in supplier are extremely limited (at least where I live, the Netherlands). If Via wants to sell more of this stuff, they should focus on making sure that you can actually get it somewhere.
Hey, a dual EPIA1000 is a great idea. I'm not so interested in the size as a cheap dual CPU system with low thermals.
Multi-processing is non-existant on a single, low power CPU system like the VIA M/E lines. But a low power dual system offers the kind lateral of processing power that a much more powerful single CPU platform can only offer.
Of course there's always the A64's great power characteristics, but if you're looking to live in the sticks off of solar power, you start dreaming of dual systems they'll run on 26Watts total.
The boards for the AMD64 have a lot of features a compute node would not need. A compute node needs a network connection, processor, memory and one hard-drive...I don't need 5 PCI slots etc.
This interesting solution offers:
Modest Power Consumption
Small form factor
Modest Price
Dual processor
This is worth a look at the detail specs.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
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.