VIA Launches VN800 Chipset

As Laptopical recently reported, the VIA Technologies C7-M processor may break the processor market wide open-or at least give laptop buyers and manufacturers an alternative to Intel and AMD. Now VIA announces the release of a chipset to go with its processor, the VIA VN800.

The VN800 is one of the low power, high integration type chipsets that are making notebooks such the fashionable options these days. Geeks love the DDR2 memory support, the hardware MPEG-2 decoding. Your average computer user loves that the VN800 can make their notebooks perform quicker, last longer on battery, and play their DVDs with the clarity of the TV at home.

The key to this performance is the chipset’s Flexi-Bus Technology, which allows it to work with either VIA and Intel processors, and the S3 Graphics UniChorme Pro Integrated Graphics Processor, which provides dual pipeline graphics performance at 128 bits with shared DDR memory. If you understand none of this, reread the last sentence of the second paragraph, starting, “Your average computer user loves that…”

The chipset doesn’t stop with hyped-up memory and battery life capabilities. It can be matched together with other VIA chips, such as the VT8237A South Bridge. Playing around with such combos can increase audio power to 6- or 8-channel, juice up your Ethernet or wireless WAN connection, and open up USB and other ports.

Located in Taiwan, VIA hopes to spread its innovative chipset and process solutions across the oceans, into all PCs. To this end, it was a smooth move on VIA’s part to make the VN800 compatible the Intel Pentium-M processors, to keep it useable in all sorts of newer laptop lines.

Related article:

– Chips at the OK Coral – Can the C7-M send AMD and Intel to Boot Up Hill?

By Matthew Brodsky

Tuesday, September 06, 2005