The Taipei-based company said that it would deliver more than 10,000 Samuel processors per month starting this month on a trial basis to the Legend Group and Founder. The volume is expected to increase in the future.

Although the size is small, selling processors to big names like Legend -- which owns 30% of the Chinese PC market -- can help boost Via's reputation as a processor brand there. It was only last year that the company started making CPUs.

The shipment "is a recognition for our efforts," said Frank Jeng, a spokesman of VIA. "We're targeting the $600 or less commercial PCs due to their huge demand on the mainland."

Via's move puts the chipset design house in competition with Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which have established great presences in China. According to the U.S. researcher IDC, China's PC consumption rose 45 percent to 7.2 million units last year, making it Asia's biggest market excluding Japan.

"When you??re in the CPU business, image and perception is the key," said Tony Tseng, a research vice president at Merrill Lynch in Taipei. "The challenge for Via would be how they can persuade users that their processors have better value" in price performance ratio.

Via, whose popular low-end PC 133 platform has grabbed a lion share of chipset from Intel, tends to price its processors 25 percent lower than those of the two U.S. chip makers, making the products more competitive, some analysts said.

The processor shipment is part of China's program to encourage its schools to use PCs, where demand is estimated at two million units to three million units a year, Jeng said.

Also, it would help Via's goal to expand its global market share to 5% to 7% this year, compared with a fraction of that in 2000, he said, adding that the earnings contribution would be limited for this year.

Legend now uses as many as 70% of chipsets designed by VIA in some of Legend's products, Jeng said.