Chipmaker VIA Launched Latest Isaiah Processor
The new Nano Processor family from Via, based on Isaiah CPU architecture is going to hit the market very shortly. The Nano processors offer a significant performance boost over Via’s existing C7 line of processors and will compete against Intel’s Atom processors. Via Nano is also pin compatible with C7 processors allowing them to be used in existing motherboards and integrated systems
The new range of 64-bit processors are built using Fujitsu’s 65nm process technology and have an idle power draw of just 100mW, making them well suited to miniature notebooks.
“The Nano is definitely faster,” said Glenn Henry, president of Centaur Technology, the Via subsidiary that designed the processor. “I said that originally and I’m very sure of that now.”
The Nano’s performance boost is because of the manufacturing process that shrinks the size of transistors on the chip to 65 nanometers versus 90 nm for the C7. More transistors on a chip translate into higher power-to-performance ratios. VIA designs the chips and contracts manufacturing with Fujitsu.
The Nano line supports a full 64-bit instruction set and has a 1-MB L2 cache. The chip’s VIA V4 Front Side Bus has a speed of 800 MHz. The processors have on-die hardware cryptographic acceleration and security features.
Source: PC World
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