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VIA also to acquire Centaur (IDT's x86 division) 36

Posted by sengan from the trying-to-address-different-markets? dept.
VIA has announced that it will be acquiring Centaur, the designers of the WinChip. This follows its recent agreement to buy Cyrix's high end processor business from National which retains the low-end MediaGX family. Why buy two x86 design houses? Perhaps to address two markets: the information appliance market with IDT's x86 which is slower but remarkably small, and the PC market with Cyrix's Socket 370 designs.
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Via also to acquire Centaur (IDT's x86 division) More

Via also to acquire Centaur (IDT's x86 division)

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  • Company A announces that it's going to halt production of x86. Company B produces x86. Company A buys Company B.

    Now the all important question: Why?

    If you're "getting out of the x86 market", what would you want with a company that produces x86 products? Interesting, if not puzzling.

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • Dammit, I got it mixed up. Company A buys company B, after Company B says they are halting x86. Still....Why?

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • No... It's Company A buys Division A from Company B and Division A from Company B.

    Via is buying both Cyrix and WinChip.
  • Is Via on an intentional downward spiral?

    Im not the biggest fan of any of those companies...but at least now I can hate them all in one basket?


  • What do you have against VIA, Cyrix and IDT? I haven't ever bought anything that I know of from IDT, but I've always been happy with products I have from Cyrix and VIA. VIA is one of the few motherboard chipset alternatives to Intel (other than Acer Labs and SiS). Cyrix used to make the best 387 coprocessors, and while their x86 chips were never really top performers, their price/performance ratio was always fairly attractive and they in general filled a niche that Intel chose not to serve.

    Given Intel's market stranglehold, I see no reason to be antagonistic to any of their competitors, even if you prefer to buy Intel's products, VIA, Cyrix, and IDT have been part of what has forced Intel to lower prices and increase performance faster. Given that, I fail to see a coherent reason for your hatred.

  • I guess VIA is raking in the cash if they can afford all these purchaes....

    Considering that they are the "alternative" board maker for the "alternative" chip (super 7 for the AMD) it seems they are doing pretty good fopr themselves.

    then again, all my CPU's are AMDs and all my boards are Super 7's

    :-)

    -geekd
  • Think about it for a minute.....
    Right now, Intel does *not* have a current generation chipset product in the market (810 and 820 are being 'reengineered' to support SDRAM instead of RDRAM)
    Plus, they're behind with Coppermine.

    AMD is losing money like crazy, and everyone seems to think they aren't going to be able to meet market demand.

    Now, in comes VIA. They buy Cyrix and IDT. Cyrix produces Super7/Socket7 CPU's, and so does IDT. Cyrix was also planning on (and NatSemi had the licenses, which VIA got through them) to produce Slot 1 and Socket370 chips. VIA has the chipset products for Socket/Super7, Slot1, and Socket370. Current generation chipsets (133 mhz FSB). So, VIA has the product lineup that no one else has, plus they can contract out their manufacturing.

    Anybody see a winning combination maybe?
  • Oops, put company b in there twice. Otherwise, you said the exact same thing as me, but badly formatted.
  • Maybe, maybe not. VIA paid less then 1/3 the price NatSemi paid for Cyrix. That certainly makes things a lot better for them, but really, VIA can cut a deal with any Intel licensed Fab to get the work done.....
  • Never forget the possibility that upper management has too much time (and cash) on their hands.

    Mergers/buyouts/etc often have no apparent logical purpose, and quite often no one wins on them. But it makes the big guys feel bigger when they get to cut some deals.

  • I almost feel bad calling my system low-end, but I suppose by todays standards (as opposed to 6 months ago), my system is low-end.
    I've got the Via Fic-2003 and a Cyrix PR300 (233MHz clock) and I've thoroughly enjoyed using them. I see some of you shuddering at the thought of Cyrix. Well, can it.
    Cyrix made some great CPU's once they got past their initial problems with the original 6x86 line.
    I play Quake 2, Unreal (didn't manage to make my system look like a 486/100), Tribes, BG:TSC, Alpha Centauri and various other games of varying CPU requirements without any problems.
    The only problem I had was the first M2-300 I bought. It was bad when I bought it, so I took it back to the business I bought it from and they replaced it without a problem. Funny thing is, I just saw the same thing happen to a friend of mine who bought an AMD, so it's not just a Cyrix thing. (Which is also why I only buy from local businesses at computer shows.)
    And the prices for Cyrix's are un-fsck-ing believable. You get a CPU approximately (sometimes faster sometimes slower depending on whether or not Mindcraft wrote your benchmark software ) as fast as the low-end Pentium 2's for only $20-$30. Now if I could just use them in an SMP setup... Oh well, I'll just build a few systems and use Beowulf instead. (Like I have room for more than the 4 I've got now.)
    So from personal experience, I can say that I like the idea of Via making Cyrix CPU's. I never was crazy about Winchips though. Too pricey for way too little speed.

    Digital Wokan, Tribal mage of the electronics age
  • via is betting lots of money (as they have been doing for some time) that socket7 wont die just because intel says so.

    think about it, now is the *perfect* time for via to expand. nat semiconductor told everyone that they lost their sorry ass making processors with cyrix, and were probably searching urgently for a way to dump cyrix and cut costs.

    and idt, who probably also lost their ass, have also been looking to dump centaur- witness their statement about getting the fsck out of the x86 business.

    in other words, via picked up two companies with tech it wants, for a bargain basement price. theyve probably been sitting on their cash, waiting for this kind of opportunity.

    while amd is moving upscale to hit intel with k7 at the high-end market, who the fsck is left at the low end now?

    the only company i see is...via?!

    seems pretty smart to me...

    unc_
  • Ya know, Cyrix's do work a lot better when you remember to put the fan and heat sink on them.
    As for space heating... hey! Why's there smoke pouring out of your ear?!

    Digital Wokan, Tribal mage of the electronics age
  • The fact that Via has bought up two of the low end x86 manufacturers IMHO indicates Via is looking to run a new market for value chips. It is very similar to what they have done in the MB chipset market; they play the low cost game very well.

    Now that they have 133Mhz FSB they can force the low end to use it, meaning more bang for the buck than anyone else.

    Prediction: Look for very low-cost integrated motherboards with CPU's integrated and optimized. Any comments?
  • Plus, they got access to a whole lot of Intel patents through NatSemi. Things like a cross-license that will allow them to use Intel's GTL+ bus, even though Intel recently canceled their license and sued them.
  • Of course the M2-300 is cheap. Cyrix has no brand recognition, and it was forced to undercut its competitors by a long way. In fact, it has been selling them at a loss.
  • IDT was Centaur's parent company. Centaur is where all the design takes place. IDT just put up the cash.
  • Their loss was my gain. And I recommend Cyrix CPU's to all my friends.
    Digital Wokan, Tribal mage of the electronics age
  • I for one am glad that the Cyrix and IDT designs won't disappear; the more competing x86 designs the better. Competition is good for the consumer. If not for AMD and Cyrix we would still be paying $1000 for a Pentium 166.
  • Insightful!
  • Early 6x86 chips (pre L version) had overheating problems. Later production ones don't seem to have those problems. Cyrix's 486 processors didn't have overheating problems either. The only programs I have heard of that don't work with Cyrix processors are games running under a Microsoft OS. Cyrix processors seem to be perfectly competible with Linux or *BSD.

    Now, I personally prefer AMD, but for a certain price/performance point, Cyrix is a valid choice for a lot of people.

  • a, b, (Score:1)

    by delmoi ( 26744 )
    god, it's pretty clear whats going on. VIA baught Cyrix's high end divison, and now there buying the part of IDT that made x86. stop with the As and Bs for god sakes
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"
  • Ive had several problems with main boards based on via chipsets...

    I've never had any problems with VIA based motherboards. I ran into more problems with VX and TX based Intel Socket5/7 chipset motherboards than anything else.

    ranging from just bad drivers

    I am assuming MS-DOS/Windows drivers. I wouldn't know anything about that, as I don't have either of those on any of my boxes. If you look at the hardware review pages, you'd see that even motherboards using the same basic chipsets can be drastically different in terms of performance and reliability. VIA isn't responsible if a motherboard vendor does a lousy job of designing a motherboard around their chipset. You also shouldn't necessarily blame things like bad CM640 IDE chips which were on many motherboards a couple years ago on VIA, just because they made the main chipset.

    to periphreals not functioning correctly. Yes perhaps I have not had enough experience with via to make it a good one...but what I have had has left a bad taste in my mouth.

    A lot of complaints I've seen about bad motherboards and/or chipsets are caused by things like bad memory, or on overly agressive BIOS settings. Or overclocking, which is a gamble in general.

    Cyrix...too little, too late...

    Just because Cyrix isn't the fastest doesn't mean they aren't acceptable for a lot of people. Frankly, a lot of people would be better served spending less on their CPU and putting the money they save there into memory.

    Im sorry...but I will not say anything good about the winchip.

    Nobody expects you to. I just don't see any point in saying unfounded bad things about them. It is O.K. to say they are weak performers, but if you do, you should give some reasons why you think so.

    Unfortunately your strongest arguement does nothing to sway me.

    Fine, but perhaps they will make someone else not just outright ignore Intel competitors just because people have badmouthed them. If other people have the same interests as you, then your opinion is probably a valid one for them to consider. If their needs aren't the same as yours, then they should look elsewhere.

    No matter how cheap a product is...if it does not perform it is most certainly not worth buying.

    The thing is that different people have different standards on whether something performs or not.

    (I think you can guess on my opinion of thier performance).

    The Winchip wasn't intended for game kiddies, but it is more than adequate for running general office automation software (word processing, light spreadsheets, etc). I probably wouldn't consider it for a serious workstation, but if I was building a machine for a secretary, it would be an excellent choice.

  • sorry, but it dosnt' matter *how* these companys are purchaced. if the company can gobble up these guys they must have a lot of capital laying around
    "Subtle mind control? Why do all these HTML buttons say 'Submit' ?"

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