VIA Nano

"VIA CN" redirects here. "VIA CN" can also mean that VIA Rail uses CN trackage.
VIA Nano
Marketed by VIA Technologies
Designed by Centaur Technology
Common manufacturer(s)
FSB speeds 533 MHz to 1066 MHz
Instruction set x86-64
Microarchitecture VIA Isaiah
Cores 1, 2, 4
Package(s)
Core name(s)
  • Isaiah (CN)

The VIA Nano (formerly code-named VIA Isaiah) is a 64-bit CPU for personal computers. The VIA Nano was released by VIA Technologies in 2008 after five years of development[1] by its CPU division, Centaur Technology. This new Isaiah 64-bit architecture was designed from scratch, unveiled on 24 January 2008,[2][3][4][5] and launched on May 29, including low-voltage variants and the Nano brand name.[6] The processor supports a number of VIA-specific x86 extensions designed to boost efficiency in low-power appliances.

History

Unlike Intel and AMD, VIA uses two distinct development code names for each of its CPU cores. In this case, the codename 'CN' was used in the United States by Centaur Technology. Biblical names are used as codes by VIA in Taiwan, and Isaiah was the choice for this particular processor and architecture. It is expected that the VIA Isaiah will be twice as fast in integer performance and four times as fast in floating-point performance as the previous-generation VIA Esther at an equivalent clock speed. Power consumption is also expected to be on par with the previous-generation VIA CPUs, with thermal design power ranging from 5 W to 25 W.[7] Being a completely new design, the Isaiah architecture was built with support for features like the x86-64 instruction set and x86 virtualization which were unavailable on its predecessors, the VIA C7 line, while retaining their encryption extensions. Several independent tests showed that the VIA Nano performs better than the single-core Intel Atom across a variety of workloads.[8][9][10] In a 2008 Ars Technica test, a VIA Nano gained significant performance in memory subsystem after its CPUID changed to Intel, hinting at the possibility that the benchmark software only checks the CPUID instead of the actual features supported by the CPU to choose a code path. The benchmark software used had been released before the release of VIA Nano.[11]

On November 3, 2009, VIA launched the Nano 3000 series. VIA claims that these models can offer a 20% performance boost and 20% more energy efficiency than the Nano 1000 and 2000 series.[12] Benchmarks run by VIA claim that a 1.6 GHz 3000-series Nano can outperform the ageing Intel Atom N270 by about 40–54%.[13] The 3000 series adds an SSE4 instruction set, which was first introduced with Intel Core i7.

On November 11, 2011, VIA released the VIA Nano X2 Dual-Core Processor with their first ever dual core pico-itx mainboard. The VIA Nano X2 is built on a 40 nm process and supports the SSE4 instruction set.[14] Via claims 30% higher performance in comparison to Intel's Atom with a 50% higher clock.[15]

Features

VIA Isaiah floorplan

Architecture overview

VIA Isaiah Architecture die floor-plan

Around 2014/8/31 rumors appeared about a potential Isaiah II refresh.[16]

See also

References

  1. "VIA to launch new processor architecture in 1Q08". DigiTimes. Retrieved 25 July 2007. (subscription required (help)).
  2. Stokes, Jon (23 January 2008). "Isaiah revealed: VIA's new low-power architecture". Ars Technica. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
  3. Bennett, Kyle (24 January 2008). "VIA's New Centaur Designed Isaiah CPU Architecture". [H]ard|OCP. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
  4. "Via launches 64-bit architecture". LinuxDevices.com. 23 January 2008. Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
  5. Wasson, Scott (24 January 2008). "A look at VIA's next-gen Isaiah x86 CPU architecture". The Tech Report. Retrieved 24 January 2008.
  6. "VIA Launches VIA Nano Processor Family" (Press release). VIA. 29 May 2008. Retrieved 29 May 2008.
  7. "VIA Isaiah Architecture Introduction" (PDF). VIA. 23 January 2008. Retrieved 28 May 2008.
  8. Bennett, Kyle (29 July 2008). "Intel Atom vs. VIA Nano". [H]ard|OCP.
  9. Chiappetta, Marco (29 July 2008). "VIA Nano L2100 vs. Intel Atom 230: Head to Head". HotHardware.
  10. Shrout, Ryan (29 July 2008). "VIA Nano and Intel Atom Review – Battle of the Tiny CPUs". PC Perspective.
  11. Hruska, Joel (29 July 2008). "Low-end grudge match: Nano vs. Atom". Ars Technica.
  12. "VIA Introduces New VIA Nano 3000 Series Processors" (Press release). VIA. 3 November 2009.
  13. "VIA Nano Processor". VIA.
  14. "VIA Releases New Nano X2 Dual-Core Processor". Tom's Hardware.
  15. "VIA Nano x2 Processor SPECfp2000 Benchmarks". VIA.
  16. "VIA’s new Isaiah x86/ARM hybrid CPU outperforms Intel in benchmarks". ExtremeTech. Retrieved 16 November 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to VIA Nano.

Press

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