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.


Analysis: