[ContentiousObjector]

The VIA C3 is actually the Centaur C5A and it designed in Austin Texas by Centaur.

It follows a differant design methodology than the Intel and AMD chips, it concentrates on IPC performance instead of FPU performance. infact the VIA C3 or Centaur C5A was never intended to be a desktop processor, but after Cyrix flamed out VIA had little choice but to use the Centaur design for their processor. It was breifly known as the Cyrix III, but after endless bitching from the boys in Texas VIA agreed to rename it the VIA C3

The performance is pretty good, for things like Microsoft Office and the Internet you would never know the differance from an Intel or AMD based system

But for things like games or creative design or video or anything that is FPU intensive the C3 isn't for you.

[dr_who]

IPC? Bloody abbreviations. I take it you're talking about integer instruction handling, yes?