VIA's GMB netbook platform reviewed

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Comments Posted on Oct 20, 2009 Posted by Song Jiang

Here's an interesting and very thorough review of a shanzhai netbook PC powered by VIA's CPU platform. Known as the Chupin VIA C855, this 12.2 inch offering is the result of VIA's GMB Alliance program which works directly with Mainland Chinese manufacturers tempting them away from Intel'sAtom with promises of superior HD video playback.

Traditionally speaking, when we talk about Intel's closest competitors we'd be talking about AMD, the perennial underdog of the broader microprocessor market. But recently in the low-powered netbook space AMD failed to come up with a compelling platform to compete with Intel's power-sipping Atom. Enter VIA Technologies; once upon a time a chipset powerhouse, making a modest but well fought living designing and producing a range of silicon for everything from Audio to USB.

VIA's C7 processor has been around for quite sometime and has proved popular with embedded developers looking for a truly low power x86 processor. More recently however VIA has been talking up its VIA Nano processor, a CPU that meets Atom head on. VIA is currently courting Chinese manufacturers with their GMB (Global Mobility Bazaar) alliance, which they hope will help ween Chinese netbook and notebook vendors away from Atom, and onto the VIA Nano CPU.

This review offers an interesting look at one of the first deceives to emerge from the GMB alliance and the surfboard platform that VIA is touting which involves a VIA CPU and the new VX855 chipset; marketed as an apparent HD video monster. The Chupin VIA C855, which I think must surely be a working title, is a 12.2 inch device (1366x768 resolution) that uses a VIA Nano 1.3GHz processor paired with a their latest chipset. The device includes a HDMI port from which our reviewers have hooked up a proper flat screen TV.

VIA claim that their VX855 chipset has world class hardware acceleration for HD video codecs like VC1 and H.264. A quick look at these benchmark shots below tells us that they're not wrong. A comparative Intel Atom system, say for example the ubiquitous N270, would struggle to do anything close to smooth playback, with the CPU taking a far greater hit than you can see here.

Here's the VIA silicon, the VX855 is the larger chip on the left, the VIA Nano on the right.

gmbnetbookreview5

In this shot you can see that the CPU usage remains fairly low during HD video playback, notsome thing your average Intel Atom system is capable of.

Analysis:

The review is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly it's refreshing to see a company other than Intel manufactuer and design a CPU that can be used in a netbook product. AMD have clearly abandoned the segment which would lead the Shanzhai and indeed other manufacurers facing a virtual monopoly.

Secondly it seems that VIA actually have a fairly compelling alternative to the Atom, one that seems to offer better scope with intensive 'high definition' video codecs. Most netbooks struggle severely with these kinds of videos so it's good to see Intel's competitor have a decent point of differentiation. Face it. Intel would prefer us not to be able to play HD video on our netbook, forced instead to cough up the dough for a full (read more lucrative) notebook.

Conclusions:

Choice is a good thing. In ARM we have several players that compete for the cell phone markets, why should it be any other way in Intel dominated x86 market that powers PCs?

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