VIA gives PC a Brazilian makeover
Leaves a strip up the middle
TAIWANESE CHIP FIRM, VIA unveiled,a souped-up Bitway Flex PC for the Brazilian market.
The company claims the new desktop, based on VIA's pc2500 mainboard, could cut Brazilian techies' power costs by up to 40 per cent.
Brazil has among the highest electricity costs in the world, but according to VIA Technologies company spinners, the Bitway Flex could save a 100 PC organisation over $7000 a year, with its 1.5GHz VIA C7-D processor which it claims uses about 76 per cent less power than standard desktops.
The VIA pc2500 Platform is compatible with both the Vole's Windows XP/2K and Linux operating systems, supports up to 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM memory and is based on the VIA CN700 digital media chipset.
VIA's Brazilian partner, Phitronics, started to manufacture VIA pc2500 mainboards towards the end of 2007 and is now increasing its production to meet demand in a market desperately seeking ways of cutting down on their electricity bills.
Vice President of Corporate Marketing at VIA Technologies, Richard Brown, said that he was pleased his company was meeting "the growing worldwide demand for energy-efficient computing." Bitway is one of Brazil's five largest computer manufacturers, with manufacturing units in Bahia and Parana, produces about 30,000 computers a month.
A Bitway Flex PC, available throughout Brazil, would set you back about $460 including monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. µ
Comments
Great news
I like to hear when companies strive to meet infrastructure restrictions (power) AND manage to make a profit at the same time. But when I read this article I get a sense that Vista might be too power hungry to run on these low power & efficient chips/boards. I hope Linux is more popular in Brazil with the average PC user / office than it is in the States.Good News for Brazilians
As a Brazilian, I am really glad to see that efficiency-driven solutions are coming.But this will need to come with low-costs too, because that's the most important adoption factor here.
Hope VIA doesn't try to sell us US$800 low-performance machines.