Via busts out inexpensive laptop processor
By Peter Rojas 
posted May 30th 2005 6:25AM
posted May 30th 2005 6:25AM
Almost missed this one the other day, but Via, that other chip maker you don't hear about all that often, introduced a new laptop processor last week called the C7 that's smaller, lighter, and cheaper than similar chips. It's also supposed to narrow (but not close) the performance gap between their chips and those of AMD and Intel that's dogged Via for the past few years, as well as potentially bring the price of an ultralight laptop down to around $800. The first two C7 processors will run at 1.5GHz and 1.7GHz, with a 2GHz chip to follow later.
"between their chips and those of AMD and Inte that’s dogged Via"
you forgot the 'l" in Intel
I never even heard of these people. Their chips probably suck but i really dont know.
These aren't just for laptops. The C3 processor is used in many of VIA's mini-itx motherboards.
@steve
via is the company that makes the chips (besides the main processor) that you see on a typical pc motherboard.
Too bad these will just be put in cheap notebooks with crappy components. I really (and most other light notebook using people) don't need a fast but hotter and more expensive Intel or AMD cpu in a light notebook. Office and DVDs only need so much power and the rest is wasted. I would love to get a light, high quality notebook like my Fujitsu S6000 but with a VIA CPU instead to save 200 bucks as well as battery power and possibly size. Unfortunately these will probably be paired with 128MB RAM, a 10GB 4200K HD, shitty LCD and cheap case.
For a small home server (Windows 2000, IIS, SQL Server), I'm using a 533MHz VIA C3 board. It runs on little power, and its possible to run it fanless. It's silent and absolutely perfect for my use.