Clawhammer clone . . . . VIA Cyrix 4 ???

[dimmreaper]

I just realized something fantastic.

Both the HyperTransport standard, and the JEDEC DDRSDRAM standard, are open standards. Meaning anyone can use them without paying royalties.

It's pretty much official, s370 is at the end of it's last life.

What will VIA do with no platform to support it's Cyrix line of CPUs???

Well since the ClawHammer has no FSB, but instead has an on-die memory controller, and uses HyperTransport to interface with the chipset, it's whole interface is pretty much free.

In theory, it wouldn't take too much to strip the Cyrix 3 of it's FSB interface logic, and replace that with a memory controller similar to those used by VIAs chipsets and a HyperTransport controller. And *poof* say hello the the Cyrix 4. X86-64 extensions are optional, but since it's an open standard too why not throw it in if it doesn't effect die-size too much, and the R&D expenses are not too great.


This could happen . . . .

[cloasters]

Most interesting. Thanks Jeff! Unless there are other constraints that complicate the sitch, your idea of Via's next logical step for their C3 processors seems obvious. After you broached the idea, of course!

The very first box I bought (from a local VAR, naturally. Funny, I never considered a tier one OEM) had a Cyrix PR 166. Since then I've avoided other than AMD and Intel processors. As the C3 costs more than a CII, I'm not in a rush to buy one. They certainly have a niche, just not with me.

Changing a C3 into a C4 may be a bit more complicated, though.

[dimmreaper]

Originally posted by cloasters
Changing a C3 into a C4 may be a bit more complicated, though.

I'm sure that no matter how you slice it, it would be a complicated ordeal. But my point was that VIA wouldn't have to start from scratch, there current CPU is adaptable I'm sure . . . .

[SteveI]

It would be really nice to have a third major competitor in the CPU market.. Intel is letting the marketers run the show atm, and AMD will have to let their accountants take over soon.... A competitive C4 could be a nice addition for the DIY market.

[dimmreaper]

The VIA Cyrix CPU's arn't really targeted at the DIYer crowd. They are targeted at the on the cheap, low power consumption, 1U rackmount, South East Asia crowd. But still, competition of any kind is good for the consumer . . . .

If VIA does it right they might come up with something close to P3 tic-per-tic performance with low power consumption that runs around 1.5GHz . . . .

They could go the way of Transmeta and use firmware emulation. They could probably emulate both x86 and x86-64 on a RISK type core, keeping power consumption way down and performance at acceptable levels . . . .

But as VIA has no fab of there own(see my signature for a laugh) they will never be on the cutting edge as far as clock rates go . . . .

[mrpcman]

Originally posted by dimmreaper
I just realized something fantastic.

Both the HyperTransport standard, and the JEDEC DDRSDRAM standard, are open standards. Meaning anyone can use them without paying royalties.

It's pretty much official, s370 is at the end of it's last life.

What will VIA do with no platform to support it's Cyrix line of CPUs???

Well since the ClawHammer has no FSB, but instead has an on-die memory controller, and uses HyperTransport to interface with the chipset, it's whole interface is pretty much free.

In theory, it wouldn't take too much to strip the Cyrix 3 of it's FSB interface logic, and replace that with a memory controller similar to those used by VIAs chipsets and a HyperTransport controller. And *poof* say hello the the Cyrix 4. X86-64 extensions are optional, but since it's an open standard too why not throw it in if it doesn't effect die-size too much, and the R&D expenses are not too great.


This could happen . . . .

your right, that could happen..