TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Via Technologies Inc. will soon ship processors to some of China's top OEMs, opening the way for the company to enter the largest PC market in Asia.
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.
RSS
Digital
HDD roadmap:
The hard disk drive (HDD) industry finds its lifeblood in a technology roadmap. The areal density roadmap describes the number of magnetic bits per unit area on the disk platter--thereby defining the storage capacity.
10 CEOs out in 2009:
It's been a tough year for the global electronics industry and CEOs. We survey the dismissal of 10 industry CEOs during the first three quarters of 2009 and what's ahead for the rest of the year.
Top 10 IC vendors with cash:
The world's biggest IC companies by revenue rank not only among the best in their respective industry segments but are also more likely to have huge piles of cash that can be used to fund acquisitions, R&D and product development
10 companies in trouble (revisited):
What follows is an updated version of 10 companies in trouble. Some companies have been removed since the last version, others remain. Still others have been added to the mix.
MIPS to go after the cellphone?:
ARM dominates the global cell phone market, and many industry observers scoff at MIPS as a viable player in mobile phone designs. But MIPS disclosed that over the next one or two years' time, there will be MIPS-based handsets shipped.
Hot technologies to watch for in 2009:
Every technologist, marketer, industry analyst and reporter on a hunt for the next big thing is bracing for the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show scheduled less than a month away.
Notable women in microelectronics
EE Times has compiled an international list that celebrates women who are business and technology leaders in microelectronics.
EE Times updates Silicon 60
Seventeen companies have been added to the lastest version of our Silicon 60 list of emerging startups. Forty-three companies survived as emerging companies that are still worth watching.
RSS| 
Digital| 
Mobile
