VIA's C3 Hits 1 GHz

Socket 370 Lives!

Now that Intel is able to provide server systems based on E7500, DDR-SDRAM and the Pentium 4 Xeon, Socket 370 is sentenced to death by Chipzilla. Though Pentium III and Celeron models based on the Tualatin core will be available for a few more months, the platforms to go for at the moment are Socket mPGA478, i845E and i845G. The low-cost market, whicn includes AMD Duron and VIA C3, will be targeted by the new Celeron (mPGA478) and the upcoming 845GL chipset.

Still it's very likely that Socket 370 will stay in service for at least 9 more months. For one thing, this platform is very mature and reliable and helps to keep costs down. Also, there are several applications that simply don't require the extra performance that these new technologies deliver. Just think about set-top boxes, micro-size computers, smaller file servers or Microsoft's X-Box - they can all live with processors running below 1 GHz.

VIA's latest EPIA board using a C3 processor at 800 MHz: it contains all the important components and enables systems at the size of hifi components. See the C3 desktop processor 1 GHz for size comparison.