VIA Graphics & Other Vintage GPUs Still Interest At Least One Developer In 2017

[phoronix]

Phoronix: VIA Graphics & Other Vintage GPUs Still Interest At Least One Developer In 2017

Kevin Brace, the sole active developer left working on the OpenChrome driver stack for VIA x86 graphics, presented yesterday at XDC2017 about his work on this driver and how in the years to come he still hopes to work on other vintage GPU support...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OpenChrome-2017-XDC

[schmidtbag]

Really kind of a shame VIA didn't focus more on Linux. Once Intel and AMD became the sole suppliers of their own motherboard chipsets (instead of VIA, SiS, Nvidia, etc also making some) VIA really faded into obscurity, and I don't think they had to. Their own CPU lineup was (maybe not so much anymore) a decent alternative to ARM, where you had very low-power multi-core systems with a small form factor and a decent price. The advantages of VIA's platforms were software compatibility with x86 while still packing their motherboards full of modular features that you couldn't get on ARM. The problem was their CPUs were just too weak for any Windows OS newer than XP, and their GPUs were mostly useless on anything that wasn't Windows. If you just wanted an embedded system, ARM and MIPS were cheaper. So, VIA's market became very niche - PoS machines where the client's software required Windows. Only once have I personally worked on a VIA machine, and it was a cash register.

If VIA put more attention or effort toward Linux, they probably would've seen a decent revenue increase, and maybe have had an influence on products like the Arduino Galileo, Intel NUC, or the AMD Gizmo.

Anyway, what exactly is the newest VIA/S3 graphics chip? I haven't heard of any new releases of VIA products for at least 5 years.

[Adarion]

Yes, they could have had a niche for them, established their own (smaller) fanbase. They came at the time of the reckless-Intel-vs.-AMD-MHz-race with a low computing power - but also low power consumption, cool, efficient CPU. Added a few ASICs for computing intensive task and brought it with their Mini-ITX form factor. Would have been ideal as SOHO sever machine, HTPC. machine driving via RS-232 and whatnot. Sadly, they failed at the drivers. So interest (and hope) vanished over time and later AMD came up with fusion -> E-350 and the likes which had very good driver support and the hardware would run circles around a VIA. Intel offered Atom and even the RISC side came from "below" with ARM (though shitty drivers).
Well, I'm still happy that someone cares about old hardware. :-)
I watched his talk with interest last night (9 h difference or something).

[starshipeleven]

Really kind of a shame VIA didn't focus more on Linux.

Seconded. I would have really liked having SBC-like systems with x86 and a BIOS so I could deal with them as if they were PCs.

[bug77]

What is this guy testing on?

[Dr. Righteous]

Wow, I've not seen a VIA anything in a decade. That is the last time I read about any products from them. If they are still around what have they been up to?

[AndyChow]

What is this guy testing on?

He doesn't say, but in his slides he mentions a 1.2Ghz cpu, so I'm guessing it might be a nanobook. There are various ones from China with 9" screens, and they are all-around terrible.

[schmidtbag]

Wow, I've not seen a VIA anything in a decade. That is the last time I read about any products from them. If they are still around what have they been up to?

Still kicking, mostly in China from what I hear. They seem to be moving onto ARM, and a few of their controllers (audio, IDE, network, etc) are still being used in some cases.

[AndyChow]

I remember how excited I was when I upgraded my Pentium 90MHz to a Cyrix P-150+. I could finally play Duke Nukem without stuttering graphics on my Diamond Viper VLB. Was almost as exciting as putting a Cyrix FastMath coprocessor in a 386-25 and having it bench out like it was 70Mhz. Man those Excel 1.0 spreadsheets recalculated fast! Woohoo!

Pity all that free-market competition was destroyed by phony fiat currency feeding mergers and acquisitions. Some people just can't lose. The banksters just keep giving them money to buy successful corporations.

Cyrix never, ever, made a single penny. Having a company built by debt, and never achieving any profits, tends to end in it being sold off. Cyrix was never successful.

[coder]

Wow, "vintage GPUs" almost makes them sound cool.