Intel orders rival to stop making CPUs

[Gizmo]

"Giant CPU maker Intel is pressuring smaller rival Via Technologies to exit the CPU market, industry sources in Taiwan claim."

Read more on the Front Page:
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/content/view/1417/2/

[madcatmk3]

viz makes CPU's? THis seems alittle like a shady business practice.

[skool h8r]

Yeah, Via have made CPU's for years but they've never really been mainstream. There's even a DIY CPU kit (not from VIA and it only runs at 1Ghz) out there! There's probably hundreds of CPU manufacturers out there we don't know of.

Intel are too greedy. I would love to see Via making some really good CPU's. They've got an awful lot of power behind them because they've made chipsets for years.

[raphael2040]

Long story short;

Intel are scared.

'nuff said.

[keithwalton]

via have only ever made ok chipsets, back in the day some of there p3 chipsets were used because they had less of a memory limitation than the corresponding intel chip of the time.
That and in the early days of athlon sucess they were the only ones really making chipsets for the platform, ever since others have come into the game they have done better (ati / nvidia)
As for the c7 cpu, its ok at integer calculations for its low clockspeed but floating point work it sucks compared to modern amd/intel cpu's.

Strange really as intel dont really have a threat from there cpu's except for in the budget / media pc sector, i suppose they see a lower threat from there chipset division

[Gizmo]

Via have a low power CPU that makes Intel's low-power stuff look positively gluttonous. In the world of work/watt, they are leading contenders, and they offer on-board hardware encryption capabilities as well.

Basically, Via are eating Intel's lunch in the low cost, low power niche, and Intel are getting tired of it. They can't tell Via to get out of the market in so many words, because that would be anti-competitive, but they CAN refuse to renew Via's chipset license if Via doesn't play ball with them on the CPU front.

[cloasters]

Poor Via. Personally, their chipsets left much to be desired. They're great processors in low power situations. WinTel just have to bully someone before breakfast. For shame.