VIA and NVIDIA Working Together For PC Design

Vigile writes "With AMD buying up ATI and Intel working on their own discrete graphics core, it makes sense for NVIDIA and VIA to partner together. It might be surprising, though, that rather than see the rumors of NVIDIA buying VIA come true, the two companies instead agreed to 'partner' on creating a balanced PC design around VIA's Nano processor and NVIDIA's mid-range discrete graphics cards. During a press event in Taiwan, VIA showed Bioshock and Crysis running on the combined platform. They also took the time to introduce a revision to the mini-ITX standard, which Intel has adopted for Atom, that pushes an open hardware and software platform design rather than the ultra-controlled version that Intel is offering."

Comments

Low watt, high performance? Seg fault

[clowds]

It would be grand to be able to buy a low watt, small box gaming machine that doesn't require 6 fans to keep it cool.

However, with the way things are at the moment in the pc gamespace, I'd be pretty cautious expecting any decent performance, even with their Crysis and Bioshock demoes.

I do miss the days when games had 128 multiplayer maps, ran on cheap $200 video cards well and had more story rather than the shinies but I guess that's progress for you. *sigh*

Re:Low watt, high performance? Seg fault

[Smauler]

Whenever I build a new PC for myself, I buy just below the best. My previous PC lasted me 5 years or so, with a ti4200 (a powerhouse of a card, which will still outperform some modern 256mb cards). I'm hoping I can last as long with my current 8800GT, though I'm guessing it may be more like 4 years before I replace it.

That's the thing about buying a decent spec PC - if you buy well, you will not have to replace it for years, and you'll be able to play just about anything because everyone else is buying generic PCs which have crap graphics cards in them every year or two. YMMV, as always.

May the best chip win!

[aceofspades1217]

Competition can't hurt. Now that we have Intel, AMD/ATI, and Nvidia/VIA all throwing their hat in the ring it will keep prices down and of course spur innovation considering its a race to the find the best technology. Personally I would like to see Intel taken off it's high considering it delayed all their 45nm production just so they could sell out their older chips. Of course they were able to do that because AMD is so behind in the 45nm race.

So great hopefully we will see some real progress and we can have affordable laptops that have OK power. Because right now most normal laptops have integrated chips (you can't really fit a video card into a normal laptop) and of course the integrated card is horrible. Also the integrated card (at least in my laptop) sucks up all the power and makes my laptop have 3x less life. Also my integrated card overheats.

So yea it would be great if we could have decent video processing on normal mass market laptops.

Good Luck and may the best chip win!

OK, OK, OK!!!

[crhylove]

You got my attention! Now price and availability? Is it multicore? Can I do this:

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05/31/1633214&from=rss

?

Price and availability? Can we have a laptop that has a draw on wacom style touch screen where the keyboard is? I still want a keyboard though, but I guess I could use a docking station with a monitor. Can I get it like eee size and eee cheap and put 6 of 'em together in a custom beowulf cluster that grows and shrinks as the various laptops enter and exit the house over wifi N, or wimax, or whatever?

Re:OK, OK, OK!!!

[crhylove]

I was thinking POV ray Quake III, but sure, like good causes or whatever! Maybe install the Folding@home screensaver by default on all machines while I'm not playing POV ray Urban Terror. Thanks in advance, and if you can make 'em for $100 each, I'll take six advance orders.

PS Oh, can you install regular Urban Terror on each machine, too, so I have a 6 chair death match out of the box? Double Thanks in Advance. Might as well put a racing game on there too and bundle each with a dual analog stick. Thanks. Ok, I'll go $120 now.

Re:OK, OK, OK!!!

[Smauler]

Actually, I hate the way processors are getting faster and faster and hungrier and hungrier.

Umm... don't know if you've been following the processor market recently, but they're not. A lot of the advances recently have been about lower voltages, lower power consumption, and more cores. Pure processor power increase has most definately not been a feature of the recent processor market, at least not compared to the past. I mean, AMD released over 2ghz processors 6 years ago....

Umm...

[FurtiveGlancer]

WTF would you do with a beowolf cluster of mini laptops on wireless? Leak information like a sieve?

*Swoons*

[hyperz69]

I am a big fan of the Nano. I think it has potential to be huge if it lives up to 1/2 of it's claims. I always cried thinking I would need to use the Chroma crap that Via Integrates. Nvidia Graphics on a Nano platform. Tiny little gaming boxes and notebooks. Dear lord, its nerd heaven! Media centers for the poor! I am buzzing with glee just thinking the possibilities. KUDOS!

THREE is not enough!

[PopeRatzo]

I don't know about you all, but I'm not sure three entities making all the processing hardware is enough.

Whenever I see these "strategic partnerships" which basically means "mergers so the DOJ won't notice", I think about what's happened to the airlines and the oil companies (oh and telecom). Going in different directions, they are, but the consumers are getting screwed all around when these big outfits team up.

Re:THREE is not enough!

[aceofspades1217]

I wouldn't really call this a merger. VIA is a processor maker and nvidia is a GPU maker obviously Nvidia's all-in-one chip wouldn't be viable on their own. VIA makes a lot cheaper and low power chips so for the purposes of this they have a leg up on intel. The whole point is you don't really need (or want for that matter) a fast, monster processor for a smart phone. But there could be obvious benefits to having a kickass video card....playing video. The same also applies to ultra portable laptops. Your not going to be using it for gaming (but you can if you want) but it's quite possible that your going to be watching on your ultra portable. Also the ability to output 1080p is insane.

Right now I just want to see Intel get off their high horse. Even though they haven't really done anything wrong and they are ahead for a reason (they made 45nm chips) I think that someone needs to keep intel in check and make sure they know that the only way for them stay ahead is to further their technology and provide good value (45nm chips are really good value :P).

And yes three is not enough. Its never enough. Competition is good. You know why the margins on food are paper thin? Because their is a publix, wal-mart, target, albersons, and win-dixie in ever corner.

Re:once more...

[sayfawa]

the porn industry is the one pushing the development of computing!

There, fixed.
What, you haven't been watching a lot of CG porn recently? I'm not alone.. am I? :)

Re:once more...

[Smauler]

The major problem with CGI pron is that Uncanny Valley can take on a whole new meaning.

VIA tries to redefine Open as "Ours"

[Glasswire]

Hmmm, the old Mini-ITX format had multiple vendors (VIa, Intel, others) using it and right now the only vendor using Mini-ITX 2.0 is VIA-NVidia. How is this more open? And in what sense was Intel making the old standard less open -other than jumping into that market and doing well?

BTW, I have to laugh at the sight of a Mini-ITX board with a relatively low power VIA cpu having a huge, power sucking NVidia discrete GPU board on it. Surely anybody that cares about performance graphics is not using this catagory of board. Logically , NVidia would do an integrated graphics chipset for the Mini-ITX format, but a PCI-Express external card that quadruples the chassis height (and probably quads the power consumption of the board) is a joke. Ask embedded systems developers (still the main market for Mini-ITX systems) if this is really what they're looking for. VIA and NVidia cobbled together a frankenstein combination of technologies just to make the Atom look bad with irrelevant perf specs.