Via's already very low-power processors may get the chance to be even more energy-friendly, with Via's slow march towards a functional 45nm process. Intel and AMD may have them beat by a number of years and a massive amount of performance, but the niche market they have carved and are trying to expand will warmly welcome even more improvements in their CPU lineup. Their exact date for having 45nm CPUs available isn't clear, but it's likely to coincide with the release of their first dual-core CPUs.

The dual-core processors they have planned are tentatively scheduled for sometime next year, and will put them in a curious position of having extremely low power CPUs with multiple cores available. While they'll never be able to take on the performance throne that AMD and Intel battle over, it is very feasible that they might come out with a CPU that uses a miniscule amount of power but is able to handle parallel loads very efficiently. A multi-core CPU destined for a home media server that uses a tenth of the power of a competitors CPU would be attractive to many.