With the release of ICH2, Intel brought CNR, a new low-cost riser card standard to the market. As is the case these days, VIA is part of a group fielding a competing standard named ACR, or Advanced Communications Riser. ACR is an upgrade slot standard that has direct access to logic onboard the southbridge. Unlike CNR, ACR is a completely open standard. You can install modems, Ethernet, DSL, extra USB ports, audio, and more in an ACR port.

VIA is using Centaur Technology to design their Cyrix III processor. The Cyrix III processors are not performance chips. They are small and relatively low-clocked processors, which translates into low-cost and low power. VIA's target users are not power users demanding extreme floating-point performance. Instead, VIA is aiming for those doing average desktop and mobile application use: web browsing, MS Office, and similar applications, where the speed of VIA's processors will be more than sufficient.

VIA has several processor generations in the works. The current available processor is codenamed Samuel. Samuel's replacement is called Samuel II, uses a smaller die size process, runs with less power, and integrates 64k of L2 cache. Matthew will combine Twister video with a Samuel II processor. Ezra will use an even smaller process and carry many architecture enhancements. Then there is the C5X, which will integrate a 128k L1 cache and a 256k L2 cache. We'll have more details on these processors later on.

VIA's Cyrix III processors use a technology called LongHaul to reduce power usage. LongHaul is a system that lets the Cyrix III's multiplier and voltage levels change on the fly with a one-millisecond delay. The changing is software controlled so its rate can be adjusted to a company or user's preferences. Lowering the clock speed through lowering the multiplier cuts peak power usage. LongHaul bears a strong resemblance to AMD's PowerNow, Transmeta's LongRun, and Intel's SpeedStep.

This past year, VIA has grown like a kudzu, rapidly dominating the chipset market. Now, with the economic slow down as well as hurting PC sales, VIA still expects strong growth, though not as strong as 2000. VIA has a history of making grand claims about growth, and with added competition from SiS and ALi getting back into the chipset running in addition to the slowing PC market, we expect VIA will still grow, but not as rapidly as they may think.