Monday, August 11th 2008
VIA Quits Motherboard Chipset Business
In a rather surprising for me move VIA, the company that has always been third in the motherboard and processor battle for supremacy, announced today it's stepping down from the motherboard business. Production of future chipsets for third party AMD and Intel processors will be halted. Instead, VIA will migrate in the x86 processor business and the integrated motherboard market. Speaking to Custom PC, VIA's vice president of corporate marketing in Taiwan, Richard Brown, explained that "One of the main reasons we originally moved into the x86 processor business was because we believed that ultimately the third party chipset market would disappear, and we would need to have the capability to provide a complete platform." That time has come and moving to the x86 processor business is the right decision to make. Most of the chipset business is now handled by Intel and NVIDIA. ATI and AMD also have complete solutions to offer. VIA's departure from the motherboard business won't make a big gap in the market. Chipsets from the above named companies will quickly share the left piece of the cake in between each other.
Source:
Custom PC
27 Comments on VIA Quits Motherboard Chipset Business
This was the company that made high-end chipsets for AMD processors when they were at their lowest during their K6~K7~early K8 days after ALi (ALladin series chipset) left them in the cold.
However to be confident enough to make this move they must have something up their sleeve in the CPU and complete unit markets.
via should stick with their own CPU and mobo combinations, as its a different market to intel and AMD
I hope VIA does better in their new businesses though. The importance of the northbridge isn't what it used to be.
They were announcing something like this for almost two years now. A few years from now, the only places you will be able to find VIA components will be inside cell-phones, PDAs, desktop media boxes, and portable media players. They will be gone on the desktop/notebook market within few years. In reality, they can't afford to stay around. It's either scaling back or selling off their assets and turning into some sort of Transmeta clone.
I for one am glad Via has bitten the dust. Everybody I know has had major problems with their sh!tty chipsets, so I say good riddance! :toast:
not to mention that if you want new with old Via is the way to go K8M890 supports phenoms+AGP P4M890 support C2Q (even the QX9650!) +AGP and i have seen QX chips hit 4ghz+ on a Via P4M890 no issues
before everyone sits here and shits on Via they did damn good on a budget and just cause you had one bad one or never had on at all doesn't mean you can call there stuff crap. they had good and bad like evrey other company. think intel and P4, nvidia and the FX series, ATi and everything up until the 9 series.
The VIA chipsets of note
Apollo Pro 133A - Brought the features of the i820 and i810 into a price that worked and offered near 440BX preformance
KX133 enabled the wide spread use of the Athlon, as the 750 was in short supply
KT133A offered the first real 133mhz bus for AMD, the 760 was an option but like the 750 in short supply
KT266A just a great little chipset
KT400A cheap alternative to the Nforce2 400
KT600 best chipset for the socketA
K8T800 one of the best early Athlon 64 chipsets, it wasnt till the Nforce3 250 that it wasn't the king
K8T890 The first PCIe chipset for the AMD64, no one should forget it
K8M800 one of the better IGP based solutions for AMD 64 before the Nforce4 6100 arrived.
We have the normal ones of course the KT133, KT266, KT333. I don't know about the intel side never used them, but VIA has always been a good solid chipset maker and always feature compatabile with the nearest compitor untill the Nforce 5 arrived