Many people wondered why HP used a Via chip in the subnotebook we used to call the Compaq 2133 but now know as the HP Mini, especially as Intel was on the point of launching its tiny Atom system. Well, it was the pragmatic choice at the time, as CNet's Crave blog reports:
The Via C7-M offered what HP needed now, according to Robert Baker, a notebook product marketing manager for HP. "Via gave us that right mix of performance and price for the type of environment that this product is going into -- content consumption."
And HP would have missed some of the key education market if it had waited:
"The other key thing was we were designing for education. We had to bring the product to the market now. A slip of a month kills you," he said. Educators need to get their hands on units "so they can make decisions for purchases they'll roll out during the summer when they're doing the vast majority of their purchases."
HP will, however, consider other processors such as the Atom when it's time to refresh the lineup. "There will be an interim refresh about six months in. If the Atom is the right processor, that's what we'll go with. We'll look at everything in the market at that time," he said. Via is slated to bring out a higher-performance "Isaiah" processor in the June time frame. HP will also look at that, he said.
It will be interesting to see how Isaiah stacks up for performance, of course. But customers are much more familiar with Intel's branding.
