VIA unveils PC on a chip

VIA is targeting the new chip at mobile devices and thin clients

Chipmaker VIA Technologies has announced a single chip which can replace the majority of the key components on a PC mainboard.

The chip will go into mass production later this year, and is expected to appear in products next year, sources said today.

VIA chief executive Chen Wenchi showed a palm-sized computer mainboard built around the chip, codenamed 'John', during a presentation at the Computex trade show in Taipei.

Taiwan-based VIA is targeting the new chip, and similar existing products, at mobile devices, thin client PCs, and other devices in which space, weight or power consumption are at a premium.

The 'system on a chip' is made by packaging two separate chips so they occupy the space of one, company sources told vnunet.com.

The component chips are VIA's 2GHz C7-M low voltage CPU and VX700 chipset. The VX700 is an earlier creation which combines two large chips into one, and includes entry-level 3D graphics support.

Some earlier products which combined CPU, graphics and other support functions in a single chip have rapidly fallen behind as users have demanded more powerful computing devices.

However, combining two separate chips as VIA as done should provide more flexibility when it comes to improving the product in future, as it will be possible for the company to change just one chip, Keith Kowal audio marketing head at VIA, told vnunet.com.

The pressure for constant upgrades is also slowing, according to Kowal. "In the past there was constantly a need for more CPU power to run new applications. Now the C7-M can run any application you want, particularly if you look at mobile devices," he said. The only exception is more demanding 3D games.

As well as mobile devices, VIA is looking at enterprise products like thin clients as a key market for its chips. "We are seeing an explosion in the thin client market," said senior marketing specialist Gaynor Dewit.

Packaging the chips together may have helped VIA with another problem: if a complex chip with many connections, such as a CPU, is too small, it actually becomes more difficult for manufacturers to put into their products, because connectors are too closely packed.

VIA's CPUs and chipsets are already noted for their low power consumption. Packaging the chips closely together would bring further significant power savings, Kowal said.

Sources said the new chip would probably not start appearing in large numbers of products until well into 2007.