Just months after it introduced the first Nano dual-core processor, VIA has shown off a quad-core version.
The idea is rather simple, VIA slapped two stitched Nano cores into the same package and voila, it came up with its first quad core. Although this approach has some deficiencies over native quad-cores, it is much easier to construct, hence the new chips could appear on the market rather soon.
Clock speeds start at 1.2GHz and the quad-core nano features 128KB of L1 cache and 4MB of L2 cache. The memory controller is in the northbridge and it uses a 1333MHz bus. The TDP stands at 27.5W, which is quite a bit higher than Atom and Brazos.
However, this is a quad-core and VIA seems confident that it can outperform both platforms. In some multithreaded tests VIA managed to leave Brazos in the dust, but in others it was neck and neck. Overall the quad-core Nano is apparently about 10 percent faster than AMD’s E-350 and some 25 percent faster than a dual-core Atom.
It is hard to see where VIA will find the niche for such a product. Although it offers decent performance, its TDP is too high for ultraportable notebooks or nettops, so it will be relegated to big and cheap notebooks or small form factor desktops.
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Two stitched Nano cores
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