Joshua Continued

Performance Rating

VIA has chosen to retain Cyrix's "PR" performance rating system for the Cyrix III processor. Intel processors carry numbers denoting their clock speeds -a Celeron 500 runs at 500MHz. In the past, Cyrix used PR ratings to rate CPUs with Intel speed grades even though clock speeds for the Cyrix chips were significantly slower. According to the PR numbers, the Joshua processors will offer performance similar to 433MHz, 466MHz, 500MHz, and 533Mhz Intel Celeron processors.

ZDNET will be the third party tester that determines the performance ratings for the Cyrix III processors. VIA showed two graphs comparing the Cyrix 500 and 533 processors to their Celeron counterparts. The Cyrix 500 and Celeron 500MHz had the same Winstone99 score, 19.5. The Cyrix and Celeron 533s both scored 19.9. Configuration: Soltek SL65KV MB, GeForce 32MB DDR, Maxtor 8.7GB HD, 64MB Micron PC133 memory, and Win98 SE.

According to a VIA/Cyrix representative we spoke with, a PR 500 Cyrix III processor we saw on display was running on the 133MHz FSB, but only had a 3X clock multiplier for a 400MHz clock speed. The actual clock speeds for Cyrix processors will be about 100MHz slower than their Celeron counterparts. On a good note, VIA's Steve McMahan indicated that the Cyrix III processor was not going to be clock-locked like Intel processors.

The C3 design doesn't leave much room for frequency increases. According to McMahan, the C3 isn't a GHz CPU -it will max out at around 600MHz.

Value Segment

Wen Chi Chen made it clear that VIA is only targeting the value segment. AMD is taking the performance processor route, and Intel is alone in the Socket 370 market. In VIA's opinion, the industry needs another Socket 370 processor because consumers need choices. VIA intends to stay in the value segment for the long haul, and the Cyrix III is only the first step. Integrated systems have huge cost advantages, but only offer low-end performance. The market is moving towards the sub-$1000 and sub-$800 market, and VIA wants to be there.