An UnenVIAble Future

A sad day indeed, it'll be a shame to lose Via from the matketplace. :(

I don't think we'll see them disappear totally, but it looks like Intel will force them into losing something. I didn't realise they were having problems.

Originally Posted by article
the EPIA micro and nano-ITX lines

Shouldn't it be EPIA mini and nano?

fixed, thanks - Tim

I wonder if there isn't a possibility of an anti-trust action against Intel in this. Seems to me this is exactly the kind of thing anti-trust laws are designed to prevent. Seems like they might have a decent chance in front of the EC on this.

Woot, that's two zero zero zero, baby! ;)

the VT8237 was released on the s754 chipsets, I remember because it was my first A64 system and I had to have it imported due to it not being released in the UK at the time.

Yea, then it was revised into the 37R a bit later, but you're right, same basic technology.

Didn't the R just sort out a couple of software bugs?

You're testing old knowledge now :p but I think it fixed some stuff and it added RAID 0 and 1 support.

VIA should be materialized into a marshmallow and then stabbed with spears!!! :D
I loathe VIA motherboards.. I loathe them so...

VIA are great as cheap systems, I built 4 around them for £200 a piece a couple of years back (stuck on duron 1.2) but they still work perfect.

Slightly off topic - but where did the Via logo disappear to? Did intel pressure you into removing it?

lol :) no, it's a column. We didn't have a good picture (relatively speaking) of Richard :)

Originally Posted by Da Dego
lol :) no, it's a column. We didn't have a good picture (relatively speaking) of Richard :)

You still don't

Cant VIA claim that the patents create a monopoly in the CPU world and restrict it to the big 3 companies (AMD, Intel and IBM).

What if it proposed going ahead with the CPU manufacturing but instead of a license they pay a royality fee for each of these CPUs used that infringes in the patent.

I would like to see VIA stay in the market, especially with their progress within the SFF market, mainly around SFF which i think is the way forward in PC form factors.

Originally Posted by DougEdey
You still don't

:'( :'( :'( I shoulda stuck a picture of me, blue and dancing up. Everyone loves that.

EDIT: Just reaslised I would have to be naked too.. maybe not.

Ewww naked smurf style Bindi

[Off Topic]
That's the face of The Evil Bindi? BWAHAHAHA :)

Sorry dude - meant no disrespect - you just look much younger and much less threatening than I expected.
[/Off Topic]

Good article. Keep up the good work. ;)

I'd like to see VIA go into making whole systems - especially car-puters, micro HTPCs, tablet PCs, etc.

Originally Posted by Tyinsar
[Off Topic]
That's the face of The Evil Bindi? BWAHAHAHA :)

Sorry dude - meant no disrespect - you just look much younger and much less threatening than I expected.
[/Off Topic]

Thats what he looks like, Ha! :)
Much disrespect intended. :D

Via makes great basic consumer level chipsets but I have never seen an enthusiast level from them, if they were to go into reliable/durable car-puters then they would have an edge. They already have the small form factor working and if they made something that could take the 0 degree mornings or colder then I would get one.

NOES I've lost my evil edge! I'm only 6 months younger than Wil :P

Speed: You weren't around in the early Athlon/mid-late P3 days? VIA made some fantastic enthusiast chipsets back then, but just continually dropped product cycles over the last few years and have ended up fighting SiS for the bottom end and OEM market. Their drivers weren't fantastic but compared to SiS and AMD chispets of the time they weren't that bad.

all this balckmail with patents is pathetic the whole patent/trademark/copyright thing should be given up as a failed experiment. It has met non of its stated objectives and restricts progress. VIA produce kickass low power chips and would make intell and amd soccet compatible chips if only they could. I wish there was more choice than just intell and AMD :(

when i saw the picture i was: "who the hell is that?" then i realize it is the evil bindi........ that looks like a kid...... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....... no offense dude......i was not prepared for this.... i was waiting for an evil looking dancing guy with blue skin :p

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
NOES I've lost my evil edge! I'm only 6 months younger than Wil :P

Ah, pft, age means nothing. A few years back someone in CS thought I was in my thirties from voice chat... I think I was 16 at the time. Anyways, I'd just tilt your head a bit in the pic - that was the first thing I noticed about Ryan's pic when he wrote his first column is that it's really straight-on and centered, same with yours. Little too formal, or something.

Great article though. I managed to make pretty good sense out of it while I was fried after an exam (after not having slept the previous night) and VIA being in the enthusiast market was just a little before my enthusiast days (or, rather, DIY days - I've been somewhat of an enthusiast for at least the last twelve years).

IMO VIA really needs to rethink some things, but Intel certainly isn't making things easy for them. I've always liked their tiny Epia boards for those specialty mods and such; they should probably just focus on that and give up on their mainstream attempts, especially since they'll get sued out of existence if they don't.

Nvidia is far more of a threat to VIA then ATI/AMD is imho. I actually think AMD might have some trouble against nvidia in the chipset market too.

The way that the chipset market is at the moment is that VIA have lots its place to AMDTi (See what I did there?) Even though Asus, ECS and so on still do use VIA quite a lot, they are just sold as budget boards. And people don't like they're being sold budget stuff, they want to be told they're getting the best bang for buck.

Its all due to the marketing aswell as VIA not even attempting to compete. Multinational competition isn't stifling the market its just weeding out the companies that can't be arsed to do anything.

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
Speed: You weren't around in the early Athlon/mid-late P3 days? VIA made some fantastic enthusiast chipsets back then, but just continually dropped product cycles over the last few years and have ended up fighting SiS for the bottom end and OEM market. Their drivers weren't fantastic but compared to SiS and AMD chispets of the time they weren't that bad.

Those were the days when I didnt have money or a job and did outdoors stuff, I had a pentium 2 with an unstable intel chipset so there wasnt much in the way of games. >:(

And I really dont see them trying to come out with some enthusiast level gear, if they had a sli/crossfire thing to work off of they would have a better chance.

No, there's no way they'll get a licence for any multi GPU technology, they can't offer anything that NV or AMD wants.