• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

VIA CenTaur Develops a Multi-core x86 Processor for Enterprise with in-built AI Hardware

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,283 (7.69/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
Tasting Intel's blood in the water with AMD's return to competitiveness, dormant x86 licensee VIA wants to take another swing at the market, this time with a multi-core processor targeted at enterprises and possibly workstations, developed by its subsidiary CenTaur. The company appears to want to cash in on the AI boom, and could develop turnkey facial-recognition CCTV solutions with the chip. CenTaur is ready with a working prototype. It features eight 64-bit x86 CPU cores, and an on-die "AI co-processor" named NCORE. A ringbus connects the eight CPU cores and the NCORE with the processor's other components. The processor features 16 MB of shared L3 cache, a quad-channel DDR4-3200 memory interface, and a 44-lane PCI-Express gen 3.0 root-complex, along with a fully integrated southbridge, making it an SoC. It also appears to be multi-socket capable, although VIA didn't detail the interconnect in use.

The NCORE is a PCI-mapped device to the software, which provides functions such as DNN building and training acceleration. From the looks of it, there's more to NCORE than simply a fixed-function hardware that multiplies matrices. Its developers state that the device accelerates AI at a rate of "20 trillion AI operations/sec with 20 terabytes/sec memory bandwidth." The CPU cores on the processor tick at 2.50 GHz, and while VIA hasn't made any IPC claims, it has mentioned support for the cutting-edge AVX-512 instruction-set, something even "Zen 2" lacks, which possibly indicates a powerful FPU. The silicon measures 195 mm², and has been built on 16 nm FinFET node at TSMC. VIA will demonstrate the unnamed processor and its testbed at ISC East 2019, held on November 20 and 21.



The full technology announcement slide-deck follows.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2011
Messages
6,457 (1.41/day)
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-13700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX
Cooling Noctua NH-D15
Memory 32GB(2x16) DDR5@6600MHz G-Skill Trident Z5
Video Card(s) ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 AMP Holo
Storage 2TB SK Platinum P41 SSD + 4TB SanDisk Ultra SSD + 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Display(s) Acer Predator X34 3440x1440@100Hz G-Sync
Case NZXT PHANTOM410-BK
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIe
Power Supply Corsair 850W
Mouse Logitech Hero G502 SE
Software Windows 11 Pro - 64bit
Benchmark Scores 30FPS in NFS:Rivals
That would be great to have again a 3rd competitor on the CPU market, however by the look of it, this is made for a different purpose and area.
 

tabascosauz

Moderator
Supporter
Staff member
Joined
Jun 24, 2015
Messages
7,457 (2.33/day)
Location
Western Canada
System Name ab┃ob
Processor 7800X3D┃5800X3D
Motherboard B650E PG-ITX┃B550-I Strix
Cooling PA120+T30┃AXP120x67
Memory 64GB 6000CL30┃32GB 3600CL14
Video Card(s) RTX 4070 Ti Eagle┃RTX A2000
Storage 8TB of SSDs┃1TB SN550
Display(s) 43" QN90B / 32" M32Q / 27" S2721DGF
Case Caselabs S3┃Lone Industries L5
Power Supply Corsair HX1000┃HDPlex
The NCORE is interesting. One of the big advertising points of Cascade Lake-SP was to [try and] close the gap with traditionally favoured GPU compute in the form of RTX Titan (though it seemed to be more about being "a little bit faster than before" than "competitive"), with the two new VNNI instructions under AVX-512. Apparently, fancy new instructions suck compared to something that's just built for the image recognition job.

But the selling point of the NCORE would be that those 8 other cores could be freed up to do other things, and yet, there isn't a whole lot of information on how well those other 8 cores can do general purpose compute, which seems kind of important given the stance they've taken here. And what's "high" IPC relative to? 2.5GHz is a rather middling max clock.

I guess this throws more a wrench into AMD's works, since AVX-512 is a leg up, but Intel is the big player here, and they have those instructions too with a lot more cores for general compute. But those Xeon Silvers and Bronzes look ripe for the picking with half the AVX-512 hardware, if these really run 2.5GHz all-core.

@TheLostSwede piss poor marketing slides, I suspect. From the NCORE block diagram slide, it appears to imply that the NCORE is multi core and it runs at 2.5GHz, but another slide infers that the entire platform (cores + NCORE) runs at 2.5GHz.
 
Last edited:

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
16,001 (2.26/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/5za05v
The NCORE is interesting. One of the big advertising points of Cascade Lake-SP was to [try and] close the gap with traditionally favoured GPU compute in the form of RTX Titan (though it seemed to be more about being "a little bit faster than before" than "competitive"), with the two new VNNI instructions under AVX-512. Apparently, fancy new instructions suck compared to something that's just built for the image recognition job.

But the selling point of the NCORE would be that those 8 other cores could be freed up to do other things, and yet, there isn't a whole lot of information on how well those other 8 cores can do general purpose compute, which seems kind of important given the stance they've taken here. And what's "high" IPC relative to? 2.5GHz is a rather middling max clock.

I guess this throws more a wrench into AMD's works, since AVX-512 is a leg up, but Intel is the big player here, and they have those instructions too with a lot more cores for general compute. But those Xeon Silvers and Bronzes look ripe for the picking with half the AVX-512 hardware, if these really run 2.5GHz all-core.

They're going to be doing some demos tomorrow ISC East and release more details on the 2nd of December.

It looks like it's only the NCORE that runs at 2.5GHz, which technically isn't one core in the traditional sense.
Also keep in mind that this is only a reference design so far, not MP, so they might still be able to make it run faster.

From a chat with one of their guys a while ago, they're apparently getting similar IPC to Ryzen, so it should still be pretty decent in terms of performance.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
8,115 (2.29/day)
Location
SE Michigan
System Name Dumbass
Processor AMD Ryzen 7800X3D
Motherboard ASUS TUF gaming B650
Cooling Artic Liquid Freezer 2 - 420mm
Memory G.Skill Sniper 32gb DDR5 6000
Video Card(s) GreenTeam 4070 ti super 16gb
Storage Samsung EVO 500gb & 1Tb, 2tb HDD, 500gb WD Black
Display(s) 1x Nixeus NX_EDG27, 2x Dell S2440L (16:9)
Case Phanteks Enthoo Primo w/8 140mm SP Fans
Audio Device(s) onboard (realtek?) - SPKRS:Logitech Z623 200w 2.1
Power Supply Corsair HX1000i
Mouse Steeseries Esports Wireless
Keyboard Corsair K100
Software windows 10 H
Benchmark Scores https://i.imgur.com/aoz3vWY.jpg?2
I'd like to know more about the ring bus, I'm guessin that might be a choke point of sorts.
 
Joined
Feb 18, 2010
Messages
1,850 (0.36/day)
System Name Eldritch
Processor AMD Ryzen 5 5800X3D
Motherboard ASUS TUF X570 Pro Wifi
Cooling Satan's butthole after going to Taco Bell
Memory 64 GB G.Skill TridentZ
Video Card(s) Vega 56
Storage 6*8TB Western Digital Blues in RAID 6, 2*512 GB Samsung 960 Pros
Display(s) Acer CB281HK
Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro PH-ES614P_BK
Audio Device(s) ASUS Xonar DX
Power Supply EVGA Supernova 750 G2
Mouse Razer Viper 8K
Software Debian Bullseye
Joined
Sep 6, 2013
Messages
2,973 (0.77/day)
Location
Athens, Greece
System Name 3 desktop systems: Gaming / Internet / HTPC
Processor Ryzen 5 5500 / Ryzen 5 4600G / FX 6300 (12 years latter got to see how bad Bulldozer is)
Motherboard MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max (1) / MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max (2) / Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
Cooling Νoctua U12S / Segotep T4 / Snowman M-T6
Memory 16GB G.Skill RIPJAWS 3600 / 16GB G.Skill Aegis 3200 / 16GB Kingston 2400MHz (DDR3)
Video Card(s) ASRock RX 6600 + GT 710 (PhysX)/ Vega 7 integrated / Radeon RX 580
Storage NVMes, NVMes everywhere / NVMes, more NVMes / Various storage, SATA SSD mostly
Display(s) Philips 43PUS8857/12 UHD TV (120Hz, HDR, FreeSync Premium) ---- 19'' HP monitor + BlitzWolf BW-V5
Case Sharkoon Rebel 12 / Sharkoon Rebel 9 / Xigmatek Midguard
Audio Device(s) onboard
Power Supply Chieftec 850W / Silver Power 400W / Sharkoon 650W
Mouse CoolerMaster Devastator III Plus / Coolermaster Devastator / Logitech
Keyboard CoolerMaster Devastator III Plus / Coolermaster Devastator / Logitech
Software Windows 10 / Windows 10 / Windows 7
The last time I heard the name CenTaur there was also a nice counter that was going down for over a months. Then it gone to zero, it was reset, kept going down and then, nothing. I don't really expect anything from them. Are they making real products or just designs for academic reasons? Isn't also VIA behind those Chinese processors, the Zhaoxin series? I doubt they have their focus on whatever their subsidiary is making. I could be completely wrong here.
 

TheLostSwede

News Editor
Joined
Nov 11, 2004
Messages
16,001 (2.26/day)
Location
Sweden
System Name Overlord Mk MLI
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
Motherboard Gigabyte X670E Aorus Master
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 SE with offsets
Memory 32GB Team T-Create Expert DDR5 6000 MHz @ CL30-34-34-68
Video Card(s) Gainward GeForce RTX 4080 Phantom GS
Storage 1TB Solidigm P44 Pro, 2 TB Corsair MP600 Pro, 2TB Kingston KC3000
Display(s) Acer XV272K LVbmiipruzx 4K@160Hz
Case Fractal Design Torrent Compact
Audio Device(s) Corsair Virtuoso SE
Power Supply be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850 W
Mouse Logitech G502 Lightspeed
Keyboard Corsair K70 Max
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores https://valid.x86.fr/5za05v
The last time I heard the name CenTaur there was also a nice counter that was going down for over a months. Then it gone to zero, it was reset, kept going down and then, nothing. I don't really expect anything from them. Are they making real products or just designs for academic reasons? Isn't also VIA behind those Chinese processors, the Zhaoxin series? I doubt they have their focus on whatever their subsidiary is making. I could be completely wrong here.

Yes, Centaur designed the Zhaoxin chips, but most of that is really old hat stuff.
I guess there's a reason why this is an SoC and doesn't need a chipset, as VIA was never very good at supporting Centaur...

This thing is about a year late, but I believe this should be a lot more competitive, if not quite up there with AMD and Intel in terms of overall CPU performance, but as I said, the Centaur people I've spoken to (that I've known for well over a decade) told me that the IPC should be very similar to Ryzen.
 

Frick

Fishfaced Nincompoop
Joined
Feb 27, 2006
Messages
18,914 (2.86/day)
Location
Piteå
System Name Black MC in Tokyo
Processor Ryzen 5 5600
Motherboard Asrock B450M-HDV
Cooling Be Quiet! Pure Rock 2
Memory 2 x 16GB Kingston Fury 3400mhz
Video Card(s) XFX 6950XT Speedster MERC 319
Storage Kingston A400 240GB | WD Black SN750 2TB |WD Blue 1TB x 2 | Toshiba P300 2TB | Seagate Expansion 8TB
Display(s) Samsung U32J590U 4K + BenQ GL2450HT 1080p
Case Fractal Design Define R4
Audio Device(s) Line6 UX1 + some headphones, Nektar SE61 keyboard
Power Supply Corsair RM850x v3
Mouse Logitech G602
Keyboard Cherry MX Board 1.0 TKL Brown
VR HMD Acer Mixed Reality Headset
Software Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores Rimworld 4K ready!
Nano ITX with Ryzen like IPC and four ethernets would be massively sweet.
 
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
281 (0.05/day)
Location
Antwerp, Belgium
Isn't this just the Zhaoxin ZX-E?

From Wikipedia:
ZX-E / KX-6000 / KH-30kLujiazui201916nm8 (up to)3GHz (up to)DDR4
PCIe 3.0
SoC
Edit:

I'm wrong. This has a GPU instead of the NCORE, a dual channel memory interface and is probably still using Nano cores.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
1,586 (0.34/day)
Location
Kaunas, Lithuania
System Name my box
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Motherboard ASRock Taichi x470 Ultimate
Cooling NZXT Kraken x72
Memory 2×16GiB @ 3200MHz, some Corsair RGB led meme crap
Video Card(s) AMD [ASUS ROG STRIX] Radeon RX Vega64 [OC Edition]
Storage Samsung 970 Pro && 2× Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB in Raid 1
Display(s) Asus VG278H + Asus VH226H
Case Fractal Design Define R6 Black TG
Audio Device(s) Using optical S/PDIF output lol
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Mouse Razer Naga Epic
Keyboard Keychron Q1
Software Funtoo Linux
Benchmark Scores 217634.24 BogoMIPS
Keep in mind, guys, this is a x86 chip, NOT a AMD64 (or x86-64 if you only speak plebian) chip. While VIA does have a x86 (owned by Intel) license due to historical reasons, it doesn't have a license for AMD64 (owned by AMD).

EDIT: disregard the above; I'm a brainlet
 
Last edited:
Joined
May 31, 2016
Messages
4,323 (1.51/day)
Location
Currently Norway
System Name Bro2
Processor Ryzen 5800X
Motherboard Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite
Cooling Corsair h115i pro rgb
Memory 16GB G.Skill Flare X 3200 CL14 @3800Mhz CL16
Video Card(s) Powercolor 6900 XT Red Devil 1.1v@2400Mhz
Storage M.2 Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500MB/ Samsung 860 Evo 1TB
Display(s) LG 27UD69 UHD / LG 27GN950
Case Fractal Design G
Audio Device(s) Realtec 5.1
Power Supply Seasonic 750W GOLD
Mouse Logitech G402
Keyboard Logitech slim
Software Windows 10 64 bit
This would have been awesome if VIA joined the desktop CPU market :D I remember Cyrix processors and they were not so bad :D
 

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,283 (7.69/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
Keep in mind, guys, this is a x86 chip, NOT a AMD64 (or x86-64 if you only speak plebian) chip. While VIA does have a x86 (owned by Intel) license due to historical reasons, it doesn't have a license for AMD64 (owned by AMD).

Nah, VIA has access to x86-64 ISA. CenTaur Nano "Isaiah" (2011) was very much an x86-64 processor.
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2007
Messages
20,714 (3.41/day)
System Name Pioneer
Processor Ryzen R9 7950X
Motherboard GIGABYTE Aorus Elite X670 AX
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory 64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s) XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage 2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Display(s) 55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s) TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
Power Supply FSP Hydro Ti Pro 850W
Mouse Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches
Software Windows 11 Enterprise (legit), Gentoo Linux x64

btarunr

Editor & Senior Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
46,283 (7.69/day)
Location
Hyderabad, India
System Name RBMK-1000
Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
Motherboard ASUS ROG Strix B450-E Gaming
Cooling DeepCool Gammax L240 V2
Memory 2x 8GB G.Skill Sniper X
Video Card(s) Palit GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER GameRock
Storage Western Digital Black NVMe 512GB
Display(s) BenQ 1440p 60 Hz 27-inch
Case Corsair Carbide 100R
Audio Device(s) ASUS SupremeFX S1220A
Power Supply Cooler Master MWE Gold 650W
Mouse ASUS ROG Strix Impact
Keyboard Gamdias Hermes E2
Software Windows 11 Pro
Lookie, this guy and his 8 GB of RAM: https://valid.x86.fr/vubuk5

1574242584683.png


VIA implemented SSE4.1 even before AMD could. Now it's going to beat AMD to AVX-512.
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2007
Messages
20,714 (3.41/day)
System Name Pioneer
Processor Ryzen R9 7950X
Motherboard GIGABYTE Aorus Elite X670 AX
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory 64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s) XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage 2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Display(s) 55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s) TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
Power Supply FSP Hydro Ti Pro 850W
Mouse Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches
Software Windows 11 Enterprise (legit), Gentoo Linux x64
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
1,586 (0.34/day)
Location
Kaunas, Lithuania
System Name my box
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Motherboard ASRock Taichi x470 Ultimate
Cooling NZXT Kraken x72
Memory 2×16GiB @ 3200MHz, some Corsair RGB led meme crap
Video Card(s) AMD [ASUS ROG STRIX] Radeon RX Vega64 [OC Edition]
Storage Samsung 970 Pro && 2× Seagate IronWolf Pro 4TB in Raid 1
Display(s) Asus VG278H + Asus VH226H
Case Fractal Design Define R6 Black TG
Audio Device(s) Using optical S/PDIF output lol
Power Supply Corsair AX1200i
Mouse Razer Naga Epic
Keyboard Keychron Q1
Software Funtoo Linux
Benchmark Scores 217634.24 BogoMIPS
Joined
Aug 8, 2019
Messages
430 (0.25/day)
System Name R2V2 *In Progress
Processor Ryzen 7 2700
Motherboard Asrock X570 Taichi
Cooling W2A... water to air
Memory G.Skill Trident Z3466 B-die
Video Card(s) Radeon VII repaired and resurrected
Storage Adata and Samsung NVME
Display(s) Samsung LCD
Case Some ThermalTake
Audio Device(s) Asus Strix RAID DLX upgraded op amps
Power Supply Seasonic Prime something or other
Software Windows 10 Pro x64
Am I the only one with horrible memories of Via processors?

They did make some pretty cool chipsets though at times. K7 with 4 slots of dual channel ram and sata built in... mind bending... lol

*still hates Nforce with a passion*
 
Top