VIA Technologies, is planning a comeback to the x86 processor market, with R&D investment by Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor.
VIA and Zhaoxin have co-developed the ZX family of x86 processors for rollout in 2018.
The new VIA-Zhaoxin CPU family, introduced by the KX-5000 "Wudaoku", is full-fledged SoC, which completely integrate the chipset (including the southrbidge).
The KX-5000 chips feature 4 or 8 CPU cores without SMT, 2.00-2.20 GHz nominal CPU clock, 2.40 GHz boost clock, a dual-channel DDR4 IMC, a PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex, an integrated graphics core, and platform I/O that includes SATA 6 Gbps, and USB 3.1 gen 2. This chip has debuted on only on the Lenovo M6200 desktop launched in China.
2018 could see a broader launch of VIA-Zhaoxin chips, with the KX-6000, built on the newer 16 nm process, feature 4 or 8 CPU cores clocked at speeds of up to 3.00 GHz, while retaining the feature-set of the KX-5000 series.
These chips could realistically be touted as low-cost alternatives to Intel "Gemini Lake" SoCs, although Zhaoxin is making bold claims about its performance nearing that of AMD Ryzen processors.