Via, Micron, ST Tout Cost Over Performance

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October 11, 2000 (6:15 AM EDT)

By Mark Hachman,

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- While Advanced Micro Devices and Intel rev up their microprocessors past the gigahertz mark, Via's Centaur Technology thinks they're speeding right past the market.

Centaur and its irascible founder, Glenn Henry, sell microprocessors for the other guy. The company's argument has always been that Intel Corp. (stock: INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (stock: AMD) deliver more performance than customers need, and those customers would rather not pay for that extra speed.

"Once again, I'm following the world's fastest microprocessor, which is also the world's most expensive microprocessor," Henry said, noting his place in line behind a paper presented by Intel here at the Microprocessor Forum, sponsored by analyst company MicroDesign Resources.

Optimizing performance with cost in mind was also the focus of papers by STMicroelectronics NV (stock: STM), which demonstrated the next-generation STPC X86 system-on-a-chip (SOC), and Micron Technology Inc. (stock: MU), which formally disclosed its long-awaited Mamba chip that uses logic-enhanced, level-3 PC cache.

Centaur, which was purchased by Taiwan's Via Technologies Inc. in August, has reshuffled its roadmap almost annually, trying to juggle price and performance. On Tuesday, Henry said the company is instead moving forward using its established roadmap, with only minor adjustments through 2001. Centaur also chose to use its own internal code names. Via CEO Wen-Chi Chen has preferred to use religious code names instead, and the chips are sold under a third brand, Cyrix Corp., the name of a design house Via also bought and later dissolved.

Centaur is shipping the C5A -- which Via calls Samuel -- in volumes of a few hundred thousand units per month, although none are being shipped within the performance-hungry U.S. market, Henry said. The 32-bit processor is now shipping at 550 and 600 MHz. A 650-MHz speed grade will ship by the end of the year, "but that's it," he said.

Instead, Via will then shift to the C5B, a 0.15-micron reduction that shrinks the C5A to 52 sq. mm. With some minor improvements to the architecture, the C5B will ship in either December or January at speeds of about 600 MHz, then ramp up to 733 MHz over time. The C5B is sampling, Henry said.

"We've got a process for manufacturing this at sub-$50 and make a profit at it," Henry said. "That enables a lot of users ... for people who think that a 600-MHz machine is a supercomputer. In running Cyrix with a 600-MHz [PC], I found that the only applications that need more [performance] are digital video editing and large-scale simulations."

In 2001, Centaur's roadmap will bifurcate, generating the Matthew, an integrated chip containing the C5B chip and a graphics core from S3 Inc. (stock: SIII); and the C5C, which taped out in August 2000. The C5C should be manufactured in a 0.15-micron process with a 0.13-micron-manufactured transistor, which will push speeds to from 733 to 867 MHz.

ST Microelectronics, Grenoble, France, also has its eye on the low-cost market. ST has shipped what it calls the STPC for some time, using an embedded MII core from the now-defunct Cyrix. Now, through a partnership with Rise Technology, the STPC has been enhanced to serve new markets.

Unlike Centaur, ST doesn't see the STPC line as a standard product it can distribute to customers. Instead, the company views the X86 core as just another intellectual-property block that ST can mix and match to provide customized solutions for customers, executives said. The new Rise-based products are part of what ST has termed its galaxy of STPC product offerings, said Luigi Mantellassi, director of silicon systems development at ST.

"I have to make clear that STPC does not compete with [ST's other] SOC solutions," Mantellassi said. "It extends SOC into the consumer market, consumer applications."

As an example, ST introduced two new SOC designs, basically collections of intellectual property blocks designed around the basic 200- to 300-MHz CP250 core developed by Rise. The STPC Vega is a collection of 64-bit UMA SDRAM controller, an ATA-66 storage interface, Fast Ethernet interface, serial port, and other I/O. The STPC Pictor, meanwhile, also combines a 645-bit memory controller, but also a 2-D graphics core, NTSC port and TV encoder, and ATA-33 interface. Mantellassi didn't clarify when the systems would be available.

Finally, Micron Technology, Boise, Idaho, disclosed its Mamba chip, which it had hinted at, tipped, and indicated since Micron agreed to acquire graphics house Rendition Inc. in June of 1998. Micron executives had disclosed the concept behind Mamba about a year ago, and then formally described its architecture at this year's Forum.

The Mamba is what Dean Klein, vice president of integrated products at Micron, described as eCache: an off-chip level-3 cache enhanced with logic. Although an early version of the Mamba chip contained the Rendition V4440 core, the current version embeds 8 Mbytes of RAM surrounding an Athlon CPU interface, a GP interface, and PCI link. Micron did not release shipping details about the part.