WinChip
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The WinChip C6 was designed and marketed by IDT as a low power x86 processor. The first design, launched in October 1997, ran at 200 MHz. IDT launched WinChip 2 in 1998 with 3D NOW! support at 225Mhz, and WinChip 2A in early 1999. The final designs peaked at 240MHz.
The fundamental design of the WinChip was different from other processors of the time. Instead of a large gate count and die area, IDT, using experience from the RISC processor market, created a small and electrically efficient processor. Although the small die size and low power-usage made the processor extremely inexpensive to manufacture, it never gained much market share. The industry's move away from Socket 7 and the release of the Intel Celeron processor signalled the end of the WinChip.
In 1999, the Centaur Technology division of IDT was sold to VIA. Although VIA initially branded processors as "Cyrix," the company used the WinChip technology in its Cyrix III line.
[edit] Core revisions under VIA
The Winchip continued to be developed under VIA's ownership, and was put through process shrinks codenamed Samuel and Samuel2. Bizarrely, and this perhaps reflects the fact the product was falling behind technically at the time compared to products from AMD and Intel, VIA introduced the new marketing name of C3 for the 130 nm manufacturing transition, even though there were no real core changes.
| Processor | Speed (MHz) |
FSB (MHz) |
L1 cache (KiB) |
L2 cache (KiB) |
FPU Speed |
Pipeline Stages |
Max TDP (W) |
Core (V) |
Process (nm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C3A (Samuel) | 500-667 | 100/133 | 128 | 0 | 50% | 12 | 8.5 | 1.9-2.0 | 180 Al |
| C3B (Samuel2) | 700-800 | 100/133 | 128 | 64 | 50% | 12 | 12 | 1.6-1.65 | 150 AL |
| C3C (Ezra-T) | 800-950 | 100/133 | 128 | 64 | 50% | 12 | 15 | 1.35 | 150/130 Al |
| C3M (Ezra-T) | 800-950 | 100/133 | 128 | 64 | 50% | 12 | 15 | 1.35 | 150/130 Cu |
| C3N (Ezra-T) | 800-950 | 100/133 | 128 | 64 | 50% | 12 | 15 | 1.35 | 130 Cu |
The C3N (Ezra-T) was the last chip produced according to the old Winchip core, having only 12 pipelines internally, and the notoriously poor performing half speed FPU. Subsequently it was replaced by a much improved 16 pipeline core with a full speed FPU, also marketed as the C3, and later as the C7.
[edit] External links
- Centaur technology
- CPU-INFO: IDT C6, indepth processor history
- Winchip
- Winchip2
- http://www.cpushack.net/VIA.html
- http://www.digit-life.com/articles/viacyrix3/
- http://www.sandpile.org/impl/c5xl.htm
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