Centaur Technology

Centaur Technology was founded in 1995 as a subsidiary of Integrated Device Technology ( IDT) with the idea that a small team of microprocessor engineers can develop a low-cost x86 processor for the sub-$ 1000 PC market. Since mid-1999, Centaur heard as an independent subsidiary to VIA Technologies. Over the past 9 years Centaur developed the smallest x86 processor and delivered 10 different CPUs. Centaur is similar Cyrix a fabless company ( German: fabless company ) and can also manufacture the CPUs from IBM and TSMC. The philosophy of Centaur is to develop a possible effective and economical design to keep production costs and the selling price as low as possible.

  • 3.1 IDT WinChip
  • 3.2 VIA Cyrix III
  • 3.3 VIA C3 ( M )
  • 3.4 VIA C7 ( M )
  • 3.5 VIA Nano
  • 3.6 VIA Eden

History

IDT WinChip series

The first CPUs from Centaur was marketed under the name WinChip of IDT. After the takeover by VIA Technologies WinChip the series was terminated and superseded by Cyrix III or C3.

VIA Cyrix III & C3

Mid-2000 was then placed III on the market of Centaur VIA Samuel as Cyrix. This CPU was a ported onto the base 370 WinChip 3 with higher clock rates and improved production technology in principle. The architecture remained basically unchanged since the WinChip C6 and was only marginally changed also at the following C3 models. The biggest change came as the Nehemiah 3DNow! was replaced by SSE. The big plus of C3 CPUs is the fact that they can be passively cooled relatively simple. The CPUs are therefore used mostly as embedded CPUs ( VIA Eden ) on the EPIA motherboards. These models require less than 7 W in operation.

VIA C7

In mid-2005 came the new model Esther ( C5J ) than VIA C7 (-M) on the market. This CPU offers support for SSE3 SMP. This model is gradually replacing the C3 CPUs and also holds in the VIA Eden series feeder.

VIA Nano

In early 2008, the new processor architecture was finally presented named Isaiah. Most important new features include support for x86 -64 and a tremendous improvement in both the ALU and the FPU.

The future

The next development step will be the structural miniaturization of the current Nano CPUs from 64 nm to 45 nm in 2009 and the introduction of dual core processors.

Processors

IDT WinChip

  • WinChip C6
  • WinChip 2
  • WinChip 2A
  • WinChip 2B
  • WinChip 3

VIA Cyrix III

  • Samuel ( C5A )

VIA C3 ( M )

  • Samuel 2 ( C5B )
  • Ezra ( C5C )
  • Ezra -T ( C5N )
  • Nehemiah ( C5XL )
  • Nehemiah ( C5P )

VIA C7 ( M )

  • Esther ( C5J )
  • Nimda ( CJB)
  • Pablo ( CKA )

VIA Nano

  • VIA Nano

VIA Eden

  • Samuel 2 ( C5B )
  • Nehemiah ( C5XL )
  • Nehemiah ( C5P )
  • Esther ( C5J )
Types of business entity Austin (Texas) Fabless manufacturing Socket 370 List of microprocessors VIA CoreFusion
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