Cher Wang: Most Influential Women in Technology

The 2011 list of female movers and shakers has been released by Fast Company and VIA's Cher Wang, better known as the Chairman of HTC, has made the list as one of the top five executives.

"Wang is also half of one of Taiwan's richest couples. Her husband is Wen Chi Chen, president and CEO of integrated circuit manufacturer VIA Technologies. In 2008, the joint wealth of Wang and Chen was estimated at US$3.5 billion by Forbes. Wang is also VIA Technologies' chairperson.

Her greatest corporate gambit was turning HTC into an indispensable ally of both Google and Microsoft. In the coming years, HTC is poised to be Google and Microsoft's secret weapon in selling their respective smartphone operating systems to the masses."

Cher in the running for China's CCTV Person of the Year

For entrepeneurial skill and for driving a company, HTC, which has gained a higher market share of the mobile phone market than Apple, Cher Wang, who is also the owner of VIA  is up for China's CCTV Person of the Year. In this bad translation of a press article, it appears that Cher has made it through to the top 20.

"Cher Wang SAN December 9 morning news, CCTV, China's recently released 2011 annual figures, a total of 20 finalists with the group, including a number of central enterprises, private enterprises and government officials, HTC (microblogging) Chairman Cher Wang is also ranked which, as the selection of finalists since the founding of the first Taiwanese entrepreneur. Market participants pointed out that Cher Wang selected the CCTV annual economic figures, can be recognized Taiwan as the mainland's economic contribution of a performance, while HTC is not only a few from overseas, 'Red' brand back to the mainland, more mobile in overseas market and Apple's rival, quite representative."

VIA's claims against Apple to be investigated

TaiwanNews.com reports that the International Trade Commission (ITC) in the US said that it will conduct and investigation and assign a judge to hold an evidentiary hearing concerning VIA's complaints that Apple has breached three of its patents related to mobile phone and tablet processors. Although this does not indicate that the ITC agrees with VIA, it does respect the complaint and takes it to the next level.

Cher Wang says she loves shopping

Oooh, I cringe at myself for the potentially sexist slant of that title. I am certainly not suggesting that HTC's recent acquisitions have been the result of their female chairwoman's love of shopping; she is a very intelligent business person who had made a number of smart acquisitions over the years.

Cher Wang is the chairman (yes chairman is used on both websites and not chairwoman) of HTC and of VIA. HTC bought S3 Graphics from VIA earlier in the year in order for HTC to own some key patents. And of course VIA is looking forward to a patent lawsuit against Apple due to start in the US next month.

"Wang said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday patents are increasingly important in the smartphone market and that she was confident the Taiwanese firm could defend itself against patent suits brought by competitors."

Source: TotalTelecom.com

VIA scoops up six awards from local government initiative

The Taiwan Ministry of Economic Affairs has started what will almost certainly be an annual event where local corporations are honoured for their green initiatives. VIA has been awarded no less than seven "Taiwan Green Classic Awards".

"VIA received awards for seven of its products, including, the VIA Quadcore processor, VIA dual core processors (the VIA Nano X2 and the VIA Eden X2), the VIA VX900 MSP, the VIA VX11 MSP, the VIA ARTiGO A1100 compact system, the VIA EPIA-P720 Pico-ITX mainboard and the VIA ART-5450 in-vehicle system. The awards were rewarded based on criteria broken into four categories including, Products and Services Green Value, Green Supply Chain Management, Innovative Technology and Green Marketing and, Corporate Social Responsibility."

More info on VIA's site.

Imagine if VIA actually won its case against Apple?!

VIA announced a lawsuit against Apple last week, claiming that the company has infringed three patents. VIA seeks the ban of the sale of Apple products, including the iPod, iPhone and iPad. It sounds far fetched, but what if it actually happened? After all, Apple was successful in banning Samsung Galaxy Pad sales in Germany recently.

Market watchers are tipping that VIA actually has a strong case against Apple. Digitimes reports " ... that VIA Technologies has a good chance of winning its recently filed patent lawsuit against Apple."

The idea that a US district court would actually legally ban the sale of Apple's flagship products is rather eye-opening. What is more likely is that if Apple's lawyers became convinced that a guilty verdict was inevitable, a very costly deal would be made with VIA behind closed doors.

The CEO of VIA is the husband of the owner of HTC, a smartphone company that has been sued many times over by Apple ... not that I'm suggesting this is some sort of revenge lawsuit, especially since most analysts agree that VIA has a legitimate and strong case ... it's just an interesting observation.

VIA sues Apple

VIA has accused Apple of violating 2 patents. They are:

· US Patent No. 6253312, Method and apparatus for double operand load
· US Patent Nos. 6253311 & 6754810, Instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point data.
 
Apparently these patents are used, without license by Apple, in the Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple TV devices. Since many of these devices have been around for years, it makes we wonder why VIA have chosen now as the time to bring a lawsuit against Apple.
 
VIA joins a huge crowd of tech companies that take Apple to court over alleged patent infringements. Those companies are often counter-sued by Apple.

VIA Labs' USB 3.0 host controllers, certified

Both the VL800 and VL801 USB 3.0 host controllers have been certified by the USB Implementers Forum. The VL800, which is a 4 port host controller, and the VL801 which is a 2 port SuperSpeed host controller, are now certified to work with compliant USB 3.0 devices. Expect to see these chips drop up on everything from tablets, to notebooks, to desktops.

VIA Labs shows the new VL811 USB 3.0 Hub Controller in action

Following on from their Press Release last week, VIA Labs have released a video explains the difference between the VL810 and the VL811, and also shows it charging a device.

New VIA Labs second gen USB 3.0 controller charges devices faster than ever

The VIA Labs VL810 was the world's first USB 3.0 4 port hub controller. The second generation design, the VL811 ads a new feature called a Charging Downstream Port or CDP. A CDP port can charge a BCS-compatible device three times faster than regular USB 3.0 devices. In fact you can use the device at full speed whilst charging.

"The VIA Labs VL811 enables a single downstream port of a host computer or another hub to simultaneously interface with multiple USB devices. The VIA Labs VL811 hub controller supports the higher transfer rates of the USB 3.0 specification, allowing maximum data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, or ten times the maximum throughput available to USB 2.0 based devices, while remaining fully backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 hosts, hubs, and devices. In addition to rapid transfers, the VIA Labs VL811 also allows for rapid charging of BCS compatible devices through the CDP feature."

Find out more on the VIA Labs site.

China's Facebook now supported by VIA phone chips

Facebook is technical banned in China and although many people do still manage to use it, Weibo is in Chinese and far more popular. It's not quite the same thing as Facebook, it's more like micro-blogging than social connectivity. China Telecom, which is China's largest telecom service provider, signed an agreement last week with the owners of Weibo, Sina, so that China Telecom users can automatically log into their Sina accounts and access Weibo on their phones. As a CDMA chip provider, VIA Telecom participated in the launch, indicated that their chips would support Weibo too. Source: TelecomPaper.com

VIA's USB 3.0 chip certified

VIA's USB controller chips are still featured on heaps of motherboards and PCI cards. These days the USB chips are handled by VIA Labs and they've just announced USB-IF certifcation for their USB 3.0 Host Controller.

Digitimes says: "VIA Labs has already tapped the China market, and obtaining USB 3.0 Host certification will reinforce its marketing strength there."

No doubt that is quite correct. Most USB 2.0 PCI cards that feature VIA chips are made in China, often by unknown brands ... or unbranded when they go on sale at Dick Smith's anyway!

VIA Nano X2 wipes the floor with Intel Atom

A website titled "Bright Side of the News" is certainly an appropriate name for a site releasing news about a VIA whitepaper that was released recently which shows the VIA Nano X2 processor totally besting the dual-core Intel Atom. This is a VIA whitepaper, so obviously they're only going to publish favorable results, but they are none the less impressive. - Source.

VIA Labs launches new USB 3.0 to NAND Flash Controller

Boasting 100% more performance than VIA Labs' previous design, the VIA Labs VL751 controller has just got USB-IF certification. The controller will allow for mass storage connection of NAND Flash via USB 3.0, working under Windows, Mac and Linux plaforms with no additional driver required.

"In addition to high performance, the VIA Labs VL751 is also designed for ease of implementation and support. Powered by advanced in-house PHYs, VIA Labs VL751 is a single-chip solution that offers outstanding signal integrity characteristics while supporting popular 2X-3X nm flash memories." - more.

Samsung's VIA Telecom decision attracting more attention

Market Watch has published a correction and edition to statements from Business Wire about Samsung's recent decision to get CDMA chips from VIA Telecom instead of Qualcomm for its new Droid Charge phone.

"In what ABI Research sees as a significant shift in component sourcing strategy, Samsung has chosen Via Telecom to supply the CDMA chipset for new Droid "CHARGE" handset that it is providing to the US market via Verizon. This may represent the first salvo of a market assault on Qualcomm's long-undisputed command of CDMA markets in the US and elsewhere. In addition to the Via Telecom CDMA chip, Samsung is using its own proprietary baseband chip for the LTE.

According to vice president of engineering James Mielke, "We have been following Samsung's decision-making closely for some time, and we see a trend towards using suppliers from closer to home, in the East-Asia region. For example, the RF for both CDMA and LTE in this phone is supplied by Korean vendor FCI."

This represents Via Telecom's first venture into the CDMA market in the United States, although ABI Research believes versions of this phone will ship into all of Samsung's CDMA markets worldwide." - Source.

VIA Telecom beats Qualcomm to get Samsung Droid Charge contract

VIA Telecom, a subsiduary of VIA's, will provide EV-DO Rev modem chips for Samsung's new handset model. The deal went down in the US and VIA Telecom hopes that the win will help bolster their brand's visibility and popularity in that key market.

"I think the other operators, other Tier 1s, are taking notice," Daniel Lee, Via's director of international sales, told FierceWireless. "We believe that will lead to more commercialization for the company."

Read more: Via Telecom challenges Qualcomm in U.S. with Samsung Droid Charge win - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/telecom-challenges-qualcomm-us-samsung-droid-charge-win/2011-07-01#ixzz1RlS8EFLe

VIA sells S3 Graphics to HTC

VIA has sold its share of S3 Graphics to the mobile handset and tablet maker, HTC. VIA will still retain the rights to manufacture and sell current chips using S3 graphics designs.

VIA originally bough the graphics core division back in 2001 for $323 million. VIA are now selling their share to HTC for $147 million. Another company has sold their share to HTC for a further $153 million.

VIA tried to develop S3 Graphics into a rival of ATI and Nvidia, enjoying some success early on with the XP Savage range of video cards. But it's been some time since S3 Graphics has been part of the mainstream video card market. They are better known for graphics core designs that have found their way into VIA North Bridge chips and later media system processors.

HTC is not doubt looking to use the technology in smartphone and tablet PC designs. - Source.

20% of tablet PC are white-box, and most use VIA processors

A new story on Digitimes suggests just how successful the VIA Wondermedia chips are in the tablet PC space. Apparently 20% of global tablet PC shipments in Q1 this year were white-box models.
"Currently, most white-box tablet PCs are adopting 7-inch resistive touch screen panel with VIA Technologies' VIA8650 processor and the Android 2.2 operating system for a price as low as only NT$2,000 (US$69) ... "
Because they end up in tablets that don't carry a brand name and, let's face it, are sold as ultra-cheap tablets on eBay and Alibaba, VIA's success doesn't get a lot of headlines in the white-box tablet PC story.

VIA developing processors for servers

XBit Labs have published a very short little article that suggests that VIA are planning on developing a microprocessor just for the server market. The quote from VP Richard Brown that this seems to be based on is a little less certain however. He says "Our processors have been used quite extensively in low power blades for data center applications, and we are currently evaluating our future strategy and roadmap ..."
VIA Nano processors were featured in an innovative blade design by Dell a few years back but they never gained any real traction in the server market, which is dominated by the Wintel combo.

VIA agrees that BAPCo tests don't accurately reflect real world usage

AMD's PR agents would have lost some sleep last week over the media backlash that has accused them of being bad sports over how well Intel CPUs compare to AMD's in the most recent flavor of BAPCO SySMark benchmarks. AMD said they were pushed out of the BAPCO group and that the tests are not equal and not transparent.
Now VIA has come along and also decided to resign from the BAPCO group, with similar concerns. A VIA spokesperson said:
“We strongly believe that the benchmarking applications tests developed for SYSmark 2012 and EEcoMark 2.0 do not accurately reflect real world PC usage scenarios and workloads and therefore feel we can no longer remain as a member of the organization."
Oooh ... another disgruntled ex-member of the BAPCO group.

China needs 4G chips: VIA amongst crowd of companies wanting to supply them

China's mobile phone industry is just absolutely huge. The uptake of 3G in the country, however, has been surprisingly low. The biggest telecom operator in China, China Mobile, is moving ahead with 4G plans and along with Sequans Communications, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Innofidei, and Hisilicon Technologies, VIA is wanting to supply the hundreds of millions of chips required for the 4G handsets to be sold in China. More at Shanzai.com.

VIA's QuadCore targetting ... well, everything!

While Intel and AMD target their quad core processors at high end gaming rigs only (coupled with massive cooling) VIA says that it's low power consuming QuadCore chips are suitable for mainstream desktop PCs, laptops and servers.

"The new 1.2Ghz x86 chip offers a TDP (thermal design power) of 27.5 watts, which is about 21 percent more energy-efficient than comparable chips from Intel and AMD, according to Via officials. They said the chip could be used in everything from desktop PCs, notebooks and small form-factor PCs to all-in-one PCs and mini-servers." - eweek.com

VIA announces new Vinyl audio controllers

VIA has been in the business of producing audio codecs and controllers for ... must be over twelve years now. VIA AC97 was the most common audio controller on desktop motherboards for a time. Then came the VIA Vinyl audio controllers, also featured on desktop motherboards, and the high-end Envy24 controllers that were found on third party sound cards. VIA has today joined the two monikers together in their announcement of the VIA Vinyl EnvyUSB VT1730 and VT1731 audio controllers.

The chips are designed to be featured on USB sound cards and professional level audio equipment like headphones, audio hubs, MIDI devices, recording consoles, etc. The VT1730 is 8-channel whilst the VT1731 is 2-channel.

"The VIA EnvyUSB VT1730 and VIA EnvyUSB VT1731 also support the I2S standard enabling Blu-ray Disc™ audio content protection; solutions without this feature dramatically reduce audio quality to that of a regular CD, with a sampling rate of only 16-bit/48kHz."

Find out more in the official Press Release.

VIA Labs gets new VL701 chip certified as first USB 3.0 controller for hard drives

VIA Labs has been able to boast of being the first in a number of designs over the last couple of years. The VL701 Low-power USB 3.0 SATA Bridge Controller is the design to get USB-IF Bus-Powered certification for regular hard drives.

"Featuring an industry-first fully-integrated 5V switching regulator, the VIA Labs VL701 Low-Power USB 3.0 to SATA Bridge is a single-chip solution that achieves the highest power efficiency while offering users transfer rates up to 10 times that of USB 2.0."

VIA Labs will be hoping for a lot of sales of the new chip:

"Cal-Comp Electronics and Communications, a leading Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) and Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) that contracts with many name-brand customers worldwide, adopted and integrated the USB-IF Certified VL701 it into its upcoming USB 3.0 external storage products."
-Source.

Chips like WonderMedia's boom

A new IDC report has revealed that revenues from semiconductors for MIDs and eBooks rose 2000% in 2010. The report includes x86 chips and ARM architecture chips like VIA's WonderMedia WM8505, which can be found in entry level tablet PCs. The report on Digitimes suggests that ARM architecture is holding its own against x86 competition in this market. - Source: Digitimes.

Google ARM cooperative platforms to assist WonderMedia

Google and ARM are looking into standardizing features so that tablets and other devices running Android can be updated. At the moment, a lot of smaller players, including VIA's WonderMedia which uses an ARM processor, are part of tablets that run Android but can't have the version updated. Digitimes is reporting that Google and ARM are now working together towards Android 3.0 having known platform features. This would make it easier for smaller players to offer a more robust solution.

VIA Labs and others trying to secure USB 3.0 business

It is a little macabre but VIA Labs and other Taiwanese chip makers are speeding up their certifications in the hope of securing new business that would normally be the domain of Renesas of Japan.

Renesas has closed several plants in Japan because of the earthquake and tsunami, leaving notebook vendors wondering where their alternative suppliers might be when stocks run out.

According to Digitimes, VIA Labs, ASMEdia Technology and Etron Technology are all trying to see if they can supply any of the shortfall, although other reports suggest that Renesas will simply outsource production. - Source.

New VIA8650 Wondermedia chip in E86 Suntoo tablet

VIA's subsidiary, Wondermedia, quietly launched a new SoC for tablets and it has found its way into the E86 tablet from Suntoo. The new 600MHz chip provides a zippy experience with Android 2.2, including Android Market support. The VIA8650 is aiming at the sub-$100 price point and if I'll end up being able to get an Android Market capable tablet for under $100 then I sure am going to be one happy camper!

The E86 Suntoo has an 8-inch resistive touchscreen, 356MB RAM, 2GB flash storage, 3G and Wi-Fi. It's a nice looking tablet, with a glossy black and grey design around the 4:3 aspect ration screen. - Source: Shanzai.com.

VIA Velecom extends agreement with China Telecom

China Telecom is the biggest telecom operator in China. That makes it the biggest telecom operator in the biggest telecom market in the world. VIA Telecom and China Telecom yesterday renewed a year old agreement of cooperation in working together to enhance and develop the CDMA market in China.

"In view of the achievements from this bilateral cooperation on CDMA market development in China over the past two years, the two parties agreed to enhance the depth and breadth of their cooperation to promote the greater prosperity of the whole industry, develop a rich CDMA product line, and drive market competitiveness through the renewal and strengthening of their strategic cooperation agreement." - Source: Press Release.

USB 3.0 external drives on their way

One of VIA's subsidiaries, VIA Labs, is a week or so away from starting to ship the VL701 USB 3.0 controller. The chip is for use with external hard drives. I remember the huge different between an external hardware drive at USB 1.1 speeds and USB 2.0. Let's hope USB 3.0 cracks up to be everything they say it is for external hard drives! Source: Digitimes.

Simmtronics in India and VIA launch green PCs

A few years ago all of the major manufacturers were pitching energy efficient computers. Quite frankly, only VIA could really claim that their desktop PC designs were in fact super power efficient. Is it just me or has the "green" message gone out of favor when it comes to computing in the West? Well in India, where reliable power supply can be an issue, green computing is not only good for the environment, it makes sense if you need to be able to run your PC on a backup generator on a semi-regular basis. That's why I think that the green computing pitch that VIA is reviving for that market, with the help of manufacturing and distribution partner Simmtronics, might actually get a better uptake in India.

The sub-10K rupee VIA pc-1 mainboard PC (that's just over AUD$220) features a 1.6GHz VIA C7-D processor, 512MB RAM, 250GB HDD and a 15.6" LCD monitor. The keyboard and mouse are thrown in as well, with the case matching their red trim.

Source: ChannelTimes

VIA Labs promoting their USB 3.0 controllers with Zero clients

Thin clients are complete but low powered systems, connected to shared software and other resources. Zero clients are not completely independant systems at all. They're like dumb terminals, dependant on a server and bandwidth. VIA Labs are showing off their USB 3.0 portfolio at CES this year by demonstrating a host, hub and device controller products in Zero client solution.

"VIA labs is the only company in the world to have a complete USB 3.0 solution with host, hub and device controller products that are quickly setting industry standards. With an emphasis on delivering leading bandwidth performance while also pursing aggressive power-savings, VIA Labs is paving the way forward for new applications and devices in the broader electronics industry."

For more information, read the Press Release.