VIA Centaur CHA

Something different than AMD or Intel? Both VIA and Centaur may ring a bell. Centaur dates back to 1995 and designed the IDT WinChip. The WinChip sailed under the name IDT because IDT funded the project. If you look at the CPU-string, you'll see that the WinChip has the vendor name 'CentaurHauls'. At some point in time VIA bought Centaur and that's where the name 'VIA Centaur' connects.

Years later, in 2016 to 2019, they started working on the Centaur CHA CPU. Based on the CNS-core, featuring the latest x86-64 instructions and features, and up to 8 CPU cores. Working samples exist, and Golem.de states that the performance (single-core) in Cinebench R23 is on the same level as the AMD FX-8150.

However, Intel bought the Centaur IP in November 2021, which cancelled the project. The facility located in Austin, Texas, got dismantled, releasing these A0-engineering sample CPUs in the process.

I don't have a motherboard for the CPU so I can't test it. The handwritten remarks on the CPU aren't very hopeful in a working CPU. One might notice it's listed as LGA2011 CPU: physically it is LGA2011 but it's not electrically compatible with Intels' CPU's so never try running these CPU's in motherboards with an Intel chipset.