Product History
The C7 delivers a number of improvements to the older VIA C3 cores but is nearly identical to the latest VIA C3 Nehemiah core. The C7 was officially launched in May 2005, although according to market reports, full volume production was not in place at that date. In May 2006 Intel's cross-licensing agreement with VIA expired and was not renewed, which was the reason for the forced termination of C3 shipments on March 31, 2006, as VIA lost rights to the socket 370. The C7 appears still to be found in the marketplace, for example, on the bargain-priced Everex TC2502, sold by Wal-Mart with a Linux distribution preinstalled and on the HP Mini-Note.
A 1 GHz C7 processor with 128kB of cache memory is used in VIA's own PX10000G motherboard which is based on the proprietary Pico-ITX form factor. The chip is cooled by a large heatsink that covers most of the board and a small 40mm fan.
In early April 2008 the schoolroom-use oriented, ultra-portable HP 2133 Mini-Note PC family debuted with an entirely VIA-based, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.6 GHz C7-M processor portfolio, where the lowest speed model is optimized for running an SSD-based 4GB Linux distribution with a sub $500 price tag, while the middle tier carries Windows XP and the top model comes with Windows Vista Business, factory default. HP chose the single-core VIA C7-M CPU in order to meet the already fixed ??$ 499 starting price, even though Intel's competing Atom processor line debuted on 2 April 2008.
The C7 is sold in three main versions:
- C7: for desktops / laptops (1.5-2.0 GHz) - FCPGA Pentium-M package, 400, 533, 800 MHz FSB
- C7-M: for mobiles / embedded (1.5-2.0 GHz) - NanoBGA2, 21mmx21mm, 400, 800 MHz FSB
- C7-M Ultra Low Voltage: for mobiles / embedded (1.0-1.6 GHz) - NanoBGA2, 21mmx21mm, 400, 800 MHz FSB
- C7-D: similar to original C7, but RoHS-compliant and marketed as "carbon-free processor". Some variants do not support PowerSaver
Read more about this topic: VIA C7
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