This story originally appeared at http://www.forbes.com/2000/09/27/0927tenam.html
but is now no longer there. I recovered the text from this copy at The Internet Archive

Future Tech Ten O'Clock
Tech: VIA Sees Dollars In PC Bargain Basement
By Arik Hesseldahl, Forbes.com, 09.27.00, 1:55 PM ET

NEW YORK - Just in case you forgot there was at least one other PC processor company besides Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, Taiwan's VIA Technologies tried to remind the world last week that it's still running a distant third.

Best known for its chipsets that let the main processor talk to other components in the PC, VIA shocked the semiconductor world last year when it bought the assets of two also-rans in the PC chip space: National Semiconductor's (nyse: NSM) Cyrix chip business and Integrated Device Technology's (nasdaq: IDTI) WinChip PC processor business.

While the Cyrix brand name had established some traction in the lower end of the PC market, IDT's WinChip never went anywhere. During a pause in the bloody price wars between Intel (nasdaq: INTC) and AMD (nyse: AMD), both National and IDT decided they had had enough and put their PC processor units up for sale.

Enter VIA, whose chief executive, Wen-Chi Chen , a former Intel chip designer, bought his way into the PC processor business by scooping up both units for a combined total of $218 million.

Last week VIA, which trades publicly on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, announced its latest chip: the Mobile Cyrix III. Available in clock speeds of 500 MHz and 600 MHz, it is actually a Cyrix in name alone. In an odd game of mix-and-match, VIA has essentially shut down its Cyrix business, keeping the brand name. It latest Cyrix-branded chips are really based on WinChip designs.

Consumers, however, may never see these chips in any brand-name PC systems. While it was under National, Cyrix chips showed up in systems from Compaq Computer (nyse: CPQ), among others. But since the VIA acquisition, no major PC makers are using the chip. VIA has promised that will change by the first quarter of next year, when at least one major PC maker--VIA won't say who--will commit to using the chips in some of its product offerings.

Still, at $55 a pop, some enterprising off-brand vendor might see VIA's chip as a bargain and offer it in an ultra low-cost notebook PC. Comparable chips from Intel can still easily sell for $100 or more. But the current PC market is hypersensitive to price, so every dollar counts.