Taiwan's VIA Technologies has today unveiled its latest attempt at capturing the thin-and-light notebook market with the introduction of its Nano 3000 series processors.
Six new chips, scheduled to enter mass production in Q1 2010, promise support for 1080p HD video along with lower power consumption.
VIA first launched its Nano processor in May 2008, introducing Isaiah - its first first 64-bit, superscalar, speculative out-of-order architecture. Yet, despite its promise, VIA's Nano 1000 series and Nano 2000 series have thus far struggled to gain traction in a market dominated by Intel's low-power Atom processor.
Building on the Isaiah architecture, the Nano 3000 series adds support for the SSE4 multimedia instruction set and VIA's VT virtualisation technology, and claims to deliver up to 20 per cent higher performance whilst draining 20 per cent less power.
Arriving in the NanoBGA2 package, the 3000-series parts are backward compatible with VIA's existing sockets, providing OEMs with an easy upgrade path.
VIA will be hoping its latest Nano parts prove to be successful in thin-and-light notebooks or all-in-one PCs running Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, but it faces an uphill battle against Intel, who is expected to launch a new wave of Atom processors early in 2010.
The Nano 3000 series will initially be offered in the following six SKUs:
| Product Name | Speed | VIA V4 Bus | Idle Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| L3100 | 2.0GHz | 800MHz | 500mW |
| L3050 | 1.8GHz | 800MHz | 500mW |
| U3200 | 1.4GHz | 800MHz | 100mW |
| U3100 | 1.3+GHz | 800MHz | 100mW |
| U3300 | 1.2GHz | 800MHz | 100mW |
| U3500 | 1.0GHz | 800MHz | 100mW |
