Centaur Technology Tour in Pictures @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Centaur Technology Tour in Pictures - Before VIA showed off their latest processor architecture this week, they gave us the "grand tour" of the Centaur offices in Texas. There is a lot more to this place than a bunch of engineers sitting around playing with their slide rules.

Centaur is a small company of less than 100 folks stuck away in Central Texas happily designing, building, and testing their processors. No matter what lies ahead for the CN processor, you have to admire the hands on, no nonsense, low budget approach that Centaur is employing in the development of their products. Centaur has taken semiconductor design down off its pedestal and placed it where we can all admire it in all its complexity.
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I read every word in the article. Seriously.

I am so excited about what the VIA C7 can bring to the marketplace it has me brimming with joy.

Imagine the possibilities with this new processor intel has been dreaming of but has not achieved as of yet. The applications are tremendously unlimited. :)
 
Very cool, I wonder how it compares to Intel or AMD. Also, I may have misunderstood, but is each cpu made manually ( re: placing die on package). That's crazy!
 
skadebo said:
Very cool, I wonder how it compares to Intel or AMD. Also, I may have misunderstood, but is each cpu made manually ( re: placing die on package). That's crazy!
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These are just the CPUs they TEST on....preproduction CPUs. They do all the testing and bug squashing in their Austin offices before sending out the tweaked product to be fabbed and then packaged elsewhere. Sitll seeing that all done in one facility is impressive. But yes, all the test CPUs, probably running into the thousands easily, are built by hand. Mainly by Elizabeth. :D
 
Wow this is simply amazing. What a good read and what an awesome company. This is some serious geek porn...lol. Im glad to see a small company successfully design a cpu that can compete against intel in its targeted market (umpc, low voltage,ultra mobile). Not to mention the fact that intel has like a bagillion employees and these guys have only 100. I bet those guys really love their jobs...could you imagine how cool it would be to work somewhere like that? Stuff like this makes me want to change my major from IT to electrical engineering but then theres that whole calc 3 and diff equations problem...me+math=disaster. Also Kyle I too have never seen a twist on/off HSF...but its a genius idea not only is it quicker but you usually have to twist the HSF to get the thermal compound to free up anyway. I wonder if its custom or if you can buy them somewhere?
 
That's pretty sweet. We get to see how they test cpu's never seen a testing center before.
 
That was a very interesting read, thanks for the article and the good pictures!
 
DId you ask them whatever happened w/the interesting but quickly discontinued S3 Chrome S27 graphics card? Would be nice to see that back on track.
 
thats awesome, and those devices look awesome too... hopefully they actually get off the ground and not just sizzle out like transmeta did with their crusoe chips...
 
Really enjoyed this article.

I am an Austin native and I have to say, these guys look exactly like some dudes you'd see hanging out at any bbq/beer joint in South Austin. Never know they were working on a 2Ghz 93 million transistor cpu.

Classic.
 
Nice email address there Kyle. I went to email you a link to a HSF that had the twist cam and it bounced. ;) Gee.. surprise surprise.
 
there should be an extreme geek warning on this tour. I almost OD'd !! When I die i now know what my heaven looks like + a few 1000 cheerleaders of course :cool:
 
jonnyGURU said:
Nice email address there Kyle. I went to email you a link to a HSF that had the twist cam and it bounced. ;) Gee.. surprise surprise.
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LOL! I have not written anything with a little tongue in cheek lately. It was fun.
 
What on earth is that? Reminds me of a GTX with some CNs on it... interesting.

*dreams* I wish Centaur would/could successfully bring on some video card competeition. AMD is not bringing it very well...:D
 
wrangler said:
Really enjoyed this article.

I am an Austin native and I have to say, these guys look exactly like some dudes you'd see hanging out at any bbq/beer joint in South Austin. Never know they were working on a 2Ghz 93 million transistor cpu.

Classic.
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Yep. They do fit that Austinite profile. Up here in Round Rock. They seem like the Austin Java types to me.
 
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