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Via Unveils 1-Watt x86 CPU

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the new-and-improved dept.

DeviceGuru writes "Taiwanese chip and board vendor Via Technologies has introduced a new ultra-low voltage (ULV) processor aimed at industrial, commercial, and ultra-mobile applications. Touted as the world's most power-efficient x86-compatible CPU, the 500MHz 'Eden ULV 500' processor debuted at an Embedded Systems Conference in Taipei this week. Via says its chip draws a minimum of 0.1 Watts, when idle, and a maximum of 1 Watt, making it a great candidate for consumer electronics devices such as UMPCs, PVRs, and such."

1 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. holy cow! and their 1.5GHz is only 7.5W by spagetti_code · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My mythtv PVR uses the MII12000 (1.2GHz), which is rated at
    20-30W. With HDD, DVD, encoder card etc, it draws 80W on start,
    and somewhere between 30-60W when running.

    Take 10-20W off my figures by using their 1.5GHz ULV
    and you get potentially more processing power at less
    than 50W!

    I know that VIA chips are pretty feeble (i.e. their 1.5GHz
    chip is probably closer to a 1GHz intel chip), but with an
    encoder card (dual actually) I can be recording two
    channels with the CPU at 10%. Given their mobos have
    mpeg decoders on board, I can add watching a DVD or TV
    for another 30-40% CPU time.

    The only thing is ad-skipping and re-encoding are pretty
    slow.