Here's a little more on Via, from an interview with the Director of Marketing:
tech-junkie.com
Tj: VIA is now competing directly on Intel turf with the release of the Apollo Pro 133 and the KX133. Fighting against Intel seems like a David vs Goliath scenario, can VIA really take market share away from Intel?
Richard Brown: The Apollo Pro 133A has already been very successful and we believe that we have built up very strong momentum in the chipset market. The launch of the KX133 will help us to further strengthen our leadership position.
Tj: The Intel 820 chipset relies heavily on the success and adoption of RAMBUS,which has proven to be unfavourable due to exorbitant prices. Has Intel shot themselves in the foot by relying too much on RAMBUS? If the prices of RAMBUS does plummet and become viable, will VIA support it? Where does VIA see the memory industry going?
Richard Brown: We believe that the mainstream memory this year will be PC133, and that it will migrate to DDR 266 in 2001. RAMBUS memory will still be available, but we think that its market share will remain low because of the cost.
Tj: Motherboard manufacturers might be afraid to adopt VIA chipsets on their motherboards due to historical links with Intel. With this in mind, has VIA been able to penetrate the motherboard market effectively?
Richard Brown: VIA has been very successful in penetrating the motherboard market, and numbers all the major motherboard makers among our customers. We have achieved this by delivering high-quality, high-performance chipsets like the Pro 133A at a very reasonable cost. In addition, we provide strong customer support services.
Tj: Intel is seeking to ban the import of VIA-based products into the US. What is VIA's stand on this issue? Can Intel get away with this, and if so - where will VIA turn to?
Richard Brown: It is true that Intel has filed an application to the US International Trade Commission. However, we do not wish to make any comments on this at the moment.
Tj: VIA is intensely supporting AMD in the Ahtlon effort by developing the KX133. But VIA is also developing the Joshua processor. Wouldn't the support of Athlon hurt the success of Joshua? When Joshua is released, will VIA continue to support AMD by supplying chipsets?
Richard Brown: VIA regards AMD as a very close strategic partner and we are 110% committed to supporting the Athlon processor with our chipsets - now and in the future. Athlon is a great processor which is positioned in the performance segment of the market while Joshua is firmly targeted at the Value segment, so there are no potential market conflicts.
Tj: Cyrix already has a bad reputation when it comes to processors. Can VIA turn this around with the Joshua? What is the Joshua competing against- Intel's Celeron/PIII or AMD Athlons?
Richard Brown: I'm not sure I'd agree with you that Cyrix has a "bad reputation when it comes to processors". In the days the 6x86 it was very close to matching Intel in terms of performance, and the MII has been widely accepted in the value segment of the market. We do, however, realize that we have a lot of work to do in order to revive the Cyrix brand and the best way to do that is to bring high-quality, high-performance CPUs to market. Joshua is positioned in the value segment of the market, provide a plug-in replacement for the Intel Celeron. It includes a number of powerful new features not available on the Celeron, including support for a 133MHz FSB and 256KB internal cache. These will significantly boost performance.
-Scot |
