VIA makes a x86 comeback with Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor cash

I can't remember how long it's been since I've last written a news post about VIA. This company used to make x86 processors for the consumer market but sometime last decade they moved to more niche markets as they just couldn't compete with Intel (or even AMD, for that matter).

Now the firm is making a new effort to create higher-performance chips as China wants to reduce its dependence on US chips. Thanks to fresh loads of cash from Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor, VIA is rolling out a new line of ZX family processors sometime later this year.

Zhaoxin boasts these chips will offer performance that nears the AMD Ryzen platform but TechPowerUp says the actual performance will probably be close to what's offered by Intel's Gemini Lake SoCs.

The KX-5000 chips feature 4 or 8 CPU cores without SMT, 2.00-2.20 GHz nominal CPU clock, 2.40 GHz boost clock, a dual-channel DDR4 IMC, a PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex, an integrated graphics core, and platform I/O that includes SATA 6 Gbps, and USB 3.1 gen 2. This chip debuted on only one product from a major OEM, the Lenovo M6200 desktop model launched in China. 2018 could see a broader launch of VIA-Zhaoxin chips, with the KX-6000. While the older chips were built on the 28 nm process, the KX-6000 series will be built on the newer 16 nm process, feature 4 or 8 CPU cores clocked at speeds of up to 3.00 GHz, while retaining the feature-set of the KX-5000 series.

Pretty interesting stuff but we'll probably see little of these chips in the West.