VIA's new low-power C7 processor

[YKhan]

EETimes.com - VIA Technologies launches C7 x86 microprocessor
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163701592

Uses 10W at 1.5Ghz, 15W at 1.8Ghz, and upto 20W at 2.0Ghz.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Robert Myers]

http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163701592

The question is: what will the performance be per watt?

Historically, the Via processors have significantly underperformed
Intel Celeron ULV clock-for-clock and watt-for-watt. The 64K extra L2
cache will help, but it's not a big jump from the 128K L1+64K L2 of
previous editions, and it's still in-order, as far as I can tell.

Nice that Via is working with IBM.

RM

 

[YKhan]

When it starts getting into 1.5Ghz+ ranges, you may just enter the
realm of "fast enough". Pentium 4 entered the market at this speed
originally, and it was well behind Athlon or P3 at the same speeds --
but still fast enough.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Robert Myers]

When it starts getting into 1.5Ghz+ ranges, you may just enter the
realm of "fast enough". Pentium 4 entered the market at this speed
originally, and it was well behind Athlon or P3 at the same speeds --
but still fast enough.

Long pipeline and all, the P4 was out of order. Still, I've got an
800MHz PIII, and it's "fast enough," so I suspect that a 1.5GHz in
order Via C3 will probably be "fast enough." Just not a real
competitor with a Pentium-M.

RM

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Long pipeline and all, the P4 was out of order. Still, I've got an
800MHz PIII, and it's "fast enough," so I suspect that a 1.5GHz in
order Via C3 will probably be "fast enough." Just not a real
competitor with a Pentium-M.

It's doubtful Pentium-M is its target. VIA's current market seems to be
in fanless embedded systems, and it's likely this will be a big boost in
performance for some of its customers in that field. To the point where
it would be "fast enough" to run Windows XP at a reasonable rate,
instead of something like Linux.

Also it's possible that there is an emerging laptop market for the
developing world. I think it's main competition is Geode rather than
Pentium-M.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Tony Hill]

The question is: what will the performance be per watt?

Historically, the Via processors have significantly underperformed
Intel Celeron ULV clock-for-clock and watt-for-watt. The 64K extra L2
cache will help, but it's not a big jump from the 128K L1+64K L2 of
previous editions, and it's still in-order, as far as I can tell.

Nice that Via is working with IBM.

I might just be missing things, but I don't see any mention of core
improvements beyond the addition of SSE2. The extra cache will help
and bumping up the bus speed should help as well. I also expect that
there will be a few tweaks here and there, but it doesn't sound to me
like we're looking at any significant core improvements.

What this means is that we're probably looking at a 2.0GHz VIA C7
being roughly comparable to a 1.0GHz Celeron-M, though even that might
be a bit optimistic.

 

[Rob Stow]

I might just be missing things, but I don't see any mention of core
improvements beyond the addition of SSE2.

SSE3
NX
faster FSB (up to 800 MHz - probably 4 x 200)
90 nm
much lower idle power than C3 (100 mW)
hardware encryption engine

The extra cache will help
and bumping up the bus speed should help as well. I also expect that
there will be a few tweaks here and there, but it doesn't sound to me
like we're looking at any significant core improvements.

What this means is that we're probably looking at a 2.0GHz VIA C7
being roughly comparable to a 1.0GHz Celeron-M, though even that might
be a bit optimistic.

The FPU now runs full speed instead of the half-speed in the C3,
so that should help VIA close the gap a bit.

 

[Robert Myers]

It's doubtful Pentium-M is its target. VIA's current market seems to be
in fanless embedded systems, and it's likely this will be a big boost in
performance for some of its customers in that field. To the point where
it would be "fast enough" to run Windows XP at a reasonable rate,
instead of something like Linux.

I don't know how that market splits out, but Intel has periodically
produced competitive benchmarks of Via C3 vs. Celeron-ULV, which is
now a Pentium-M core, and I assume that will continue to be Intel's
entry in the embedded market.

RM

 

[Johannes]

The question is: what will the performance be per watt?

Historically, the Via processors have significantly underperformed
Intel Celeron ULV clock-for-clock and watt-for-watt. The 64K extra L2
cache will help, but it's not a big jump from the 128K L1+64K L2 of
previous editions, and it's still in-order, as far as I can tell.

Nice that Via is working with IBM.

RM

Certainly fast enough for an internet computer. I use a P1 233MHz at
the moment for the internet (a 2.8GHz for other things). The 233MHz
uses 15 Watt and can run for long periods without CPU fan. I very
much look forward to dropping in a the VIA C7 processor.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I don't know how that market splits out, but Intel has periodically
produced competitive benchmarks of Via C3 vs. Celeron-ULV, which is
now a Pentium-M core, and I assume that will continue to be Intel's
entry in the embedded market.

If it can be run without a fan, then I'm sure it will be.

The AMD Geodes are running at less than 1.0W these days, definitely in
the no-fan range.

Yousuf Khan