Intel Corp (INTC)

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By DON CLARK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 27, 2005; Page A3

Intel Corp. is facing a new challenge in the lucrative field of chips for the fast-growing mobile computer market.

Via Technologies Inc., based in Taiwan, is introducing chips that it says have about the same performance as midrange models in Intel's Pentium M line, the microprocessors at the core of the chip giant's popular Centrino technology for laptops. But Via says its new chips consume up to 40% less power, an increasingly important consideration for users concerned with battery life in laptops, and are much smaller in size....

Via's microprocessors are designed by Centaur Technologies Inc., an Austin, Texas, company that Via purchased in 1999. For the latest chips, Via for the first time turned for manufacturing to International Business Machines Corp., which is good at creating tiny circuitry with low power consumption, said Glenn Henry, Centaur's president.
The new Via chip, called the C7, is just 30 square millimeters in size, compared with 87 square millimeters for Intel's Pentium M chip. Small chips help reduce manufacturing costs. Mr. Henry said the chips will start at speeds of 1.5 gigahertz and 1.8 gigahertz, to be followed shortly with a model at 2 gigahertz.

Via estimates that a 1.8-gigahertz C7 chip draws a maximum of 15 watts of power, compared with 21 watts for the Pentium M. Another unusual selling point is built-in circuitry that handles data encryption, a technology used in security applications, faster than software alone, Mr. Henry said.

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