Via Announces 1-Watt Processor for Mobile Devices

Via Technologies Inc. has developed a processor that consumes a maximum of 1 watt of power and is intended for use in mobile devices and embedded applications.

The latest Eden ULV chip was announced on Thursday at the Embedded Systems Conference in Taipei, where customers showed off systems based on the chip. Previously, the lowest power chip in the Eden lineup was the 1GHz Eden ULV, which consumes a maximum of 3.5 watts. The 500MHz version consumes 0.1 watt of power in idle mode.

Like other Via processors, the 500MHz Eden ULV processor is based on the same x86 instruction set found in CPUs from Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and is capable of running Windows or Linux. But instead of desktop PCs or laptops, the new chip is intended for embedded applications, like point-of-sales systems, thin-client computers, set-top boxes, and security systems.