14 DAY TRIAL // One might think that there is no market left for older chips and platforms, but VIA and Simmtronics beg to differ, as they have teamed up in order to sell products on emerging markets.
Back in March, 2010, Simmtronics established a collaboration with IBM, through which it began to deliver Intel Atom-powered netbooks with IBM software to South Africa, India, Thailand and Vietnam.
Now, the same company has joined hands with Toshiba and will use its manufacturing facility in Roorkee, Uttaranchal, India, to make integrated, low-power VIA pc-1 motherboards.
The goal of the two is to provide personal computers to even people and organizations with low incomes.
Granted, the VIA pc-1 platforms that are to be employed are actually based on outdated microprocessors, such as the VIA C7-D (launches in 2001) and VIA C3 (2005).
They only support DirectX 9 graphics, for instance, and some can only handle first-generation DDR memory that no DRAM makers produce anymore.
Still, the two new partners may very well pull off what they are trying to do if they offer prices low enough,
The markets targeted, at this time, are those in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Algeria, Turkey, Iraq, Ghana and the UAE, among others.
"We are extremely excited to be teaming up with Simmtronics Semiconductors to bring our Via pc-1 mainboards to India and surrounding regions,” said Timothy Chen, head of global sales and marketing at Via Technologies.
“With their world class manufacturing capabilities and extensive distribution channels, Simmtronics are the perfect partner for us and we look forward to closely working with them to develop these high fast growing markets," he added.
“We are delighted to be working with VIA, which has for many years been a global leader in developing high-performance yet energy-efficient x86 processors and motherboards for Green PCs,” commented Indrajit Sabharwal, Managing Director, Simmtronics Semiconductors Ltd.
“We believe that their VIA pc-1 mainboards have huge potential not just in India but also in the other markets where we operate.”
The prices that the low-end systems will sport are unknown.