VIA Technologies

VIA Technologies, Inc.
legal form	Corporation
founding	1987
Seat	Taipei , Taiwan
management	Wen-Chi Chen Cher Wang
Number of employees	2,200 (2007)
Branch	Semiconductor industry
Website	www.via.com.tw

VIA Technologies , short VIA ( V ery I nnovative A rchitecture ) ( Chinese  威盛電子股份有限公司 , short Chinese  威盛電子 , Pinyin Weisheng dianzi ) is a Taiwanese manufacturer , which mainly by chipsets became known. VIA's product portfolio also includes other products:

• PC processors
• Graphics chips
• Sound chips
• Network chips
• Controller chips
• Mainboards

history

VIA Technologies was founded in 1987 by the Symphony Company in the Silicon Valley in Fremont, CA (USA), by Wen Chi Chen (陳文琦) as part of the Formosa Plastics Group . Chen was employed by Intel before joining Symphony . In 1992 the company headquarters was relocated to Taipei (Taiwan) to start chip production . In 1999 VIA bought the CPU companies Cyrix and Centaur Technology . In 2001 the joint venture S3 Graphics was founded together with Sonic Blue .

The technology of these companies enabled VIA to develop energy-saving EPIA motherboards in mini-ITX format, which ran with their own processor in the range of 1–1.5 GHz and can be passively cooled because they have a power loss of less than 7 watts. VIA made a name for itself with these components in 2003/2004. By the small size and low power consumption, these motherboards are ideal for use as a multimedia - PC in a barebones - Shuttle or housing.

VIA was split into several sub-companies in the course of the Canaan project. The following companies are subsidiaries of VIA Technologies:

• Centaur Technology (CPUs)
• IC Ensemble (sound chips)
• VIA Embedded Solutions Division (EPIA platform etc.)
• VIA Networking Technologies (LAN & WLAN Chips)
• VIA Optical Solution (optical drive controller)
• VIA Telecom (chipsets for cell phones)
• VIA Labs, Inc. (VLI) chipsets for high-speed USB applications

In August 2008 VIA announced that it would withdraw from the field of chipsets for AMD and Intel processors. In this area one will concentrate in the future on its own processors C3 and C7 .

On July 6, 2011, VIA finally announced that it would sell all of its shares in the GPU manufacturer S3 Graphics .

Products

Chipsets

Southbridges

• VIA VT82Cxxx series
• VIA VT82xx series

For socket 5/7 CPUs

• VIA Apollo series without an integrated graphics core
• VIA Apollo MVP4 with integrated graphics core

For AMD K7 CPUs (EV6 protocol)

• VIA KT series without an integrated graphics core
• VIA KM series with integrated graphics core
• VIA KLE133 with integrated graphics core
• VIA KN series with integrated graphics core for notebooks

For AMD K8 CPUs (HyperTransport)

• VIA K8T series without an integrated graphics core
• VIA K8M series with integrated graphics core
• VIA K8N series with integrated graphics core for notebooks

For Intel P6 CPUs (GTL +)

• VIA Apollo P6 without an integrated graphics core
• VIA Apollo Pro series without integrated graphics core
• VIA Apollo ProMedia series with integrated graphics core

For Intel P7 CPUs (AGTL +) without integrated graphics unit (VIA PT series):

• VIA P4X266
• VIA P4X266A
• VIA P4X400
• VIA PT800
• VIA PT880
• VIA PT880 Ultra
• VIA PT894
• VIA PT894 Pro
• VIA PT890

With integrated graphics unit (VIA PM series):

• VIA P4M266
• VIA PM800
• VIA PM880
• VIA PN800
• VIA P4M800
• VIA P4M800 Pro
• VIA P4M890
• VIA P4M900

For VIA C3 CPUs (GTL +) with integrated graphics unit (VIA C series):

• VIA CLE266
• VIA CN400

For VIA C7 and Via Nano CPUs (V4 bus) with integrated graphics unit (VIA C series):

• VIA CN700
• VIA CX700
• VIA CN800
• VIA CN896

With integrated graphics unit (VIA V series):

VIA VX855

• VIA VN800
• VIA VX800
• VIA VX855
• VIA VN896

Chipsets with an X in the second position integrate north and south bridges in one chip.

Graphics chips

Standalone

• Savage XP
• DeltaChrome
• GammaChrome
• Chrome S20

Integrated ( IGPs )

• Twister
• ProSavage
• ProSavageDDR
• UniChrome
• UniChrome Pro
• Chrome9 HC

mobile

• AlphaChrome
• DeltaChrome
• GammaChrome

Network chips

10/100 Mbit

• VIA Rhine VT6105M
• VIA Rhine VT6106S
• VIA Rhine VT6106H
• VIA Rhine VT6107

GBit LAN

• VIA Velocity VT6120
• VIA Velocity VT6122

WIRELESS INTERNET ACCESS

• VIA Solomon VT6651
• VIA Solomon VT6655

Audio solutions

Sound chips

• Envy24 series
• tremor

Audio codecs

AC'97 sound chip VT1611 from VIA

• AC97 codecs
• HDA codecs

Processors

• VIA Cyrix III
• VIA C3
• VIA C7
• VIA Nano
• VIA Nano X2
• VIA Eden
• VIA Eden X2
• VIA CoreFusion
• VIA QuadCore

Others

• VIA EPIA mainboards
• Communication chips for cell phones, see VIA Telecom

Web links

Commons : VIA Technologies  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• official homepage
• Official end customer support

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heise Online: VIA drops out of business with AMD and Intel chipsets , August 11, 2008
2. ↑ Nano X2 E-Series - . In: VIA Technologies, Inc. ( viatech.com [accessed October 9, 2018]).
3. ↑ x86 Processors - . In: VIA Technologies, Inc. ( viatech.com [accessed October 9, 2018]).
4. ↑ QuadCore E-Series - . In: VIA Technologies, Inc. ( viatech.com [accessed October 9, 2018]).