Via will return to the market for x86 processors with zhaoxin

When we talk about x86 processors we all think of Intel and AMD, as they are the only ones that make this type of chip today. Despite this, there is a third contender with licenses to manufacture processors under this architecture, it is VIA that would be about to return to this market.

VIA prepares to fight with Intel and AMD

VIA is already working on its return to the market for x86 processors, to do so will have the support of Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor. These two companies have already been working together on the development of the new family of KX processors that will be launched on the market throughout this year 2018. They are low-power processors, so they do not come with the Intent to fight with Ryzen and Core architectures, but instead seek another niche market like Intel's Gemini Lake SoCs.

Intel Announces Pentium Silver and Celeron 'Gemini Lake' Processors

These new VIA KX processors will come in four to eight processor core configurations, which will operate at an approximate base speed of 2-2.2 GHz and will be able to reach 3 GHz under turbo. All of them will have a SoC design so they will include all the logic they need to function, making it a very energy efficient platform. These processors will feature a dual-channel DDR4 memory controller, PCI Express 3.0 lanes, USB 3.1 ports, and SATA 6Gb / s ports for storage.

The star processor will be the KX-6000 that will be manufactured with a 16 nm process and will reach a maximum speed of 3 GHz, on the other hand, the KX-5000 will be manufactured at 28 nm and will only reach 2.4 GHz maximum. These new processors will be a cheap alternative to the Gemini Lake so we should not expect higher performance than these.

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