VIA Technologies is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. The company supplies the highly efficient x86 processor platforms that power the personal computer, client, embedded and ultra mobile markets. Its main product line consists of motherboard chipsets, memory and CPUs, energy-saving solutions that provide enhanced connectivity for an array of computing, networking, communications and multimedia platforms. Best known for its awarding line of VIA chipsets, the company also produces audio and network controllers, low-power processors and chipsets for CD/DVD writers. Over the years, VIA has achieved international reach with state of the art production facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Its client base includes global leading OEMs, system integrators and consumers around the world.
VIA was officially established in 1987 from the Symphony Company, a computer company based in the Silicon Valley of Taiwan. The founder, Wen Chi Chen, was an Intel employee before joining Symphony, where he still presides as CEO. In the late 1990s, the manufacturer focused on diversifying its core logic solutions and has since acquired a number of subsidiaries. Some of its most notable acquisitions include a CPU division, a sound division and a graphics division acquired from S3 Graphics. With Taiwan’s manufacturing sector constantly increasing the level of integration and functionality in chipset products, these divisions have helped VIA remain afloat in the competitive core logic market.
Coupled with the S3 Graphics merger, the company has been able to hold onto a respectable share of the PC graphics market due to the efficiency of their VIA graphics cards. In 2008, the company announced the launch of official 2D accelerated drivers for Linux chipsets with 3D accelerated drivers in the works. Just releasing the VX855 Media System Processor, a fully integrated all-on-one chip designed for mobile PC systems, VIA looks to take its innovative ways into another decade of success.