Inside VIA: Beneath the Hull of WenChi's Ship

One of the biggest problems you run into at tradeshows is that you're often booked solid with meetings. At Computex the situation is exceptionally severe since you've got every single motherboard manufacturer in Taiwan and they've all got interesting things for you to see. A sacrifice you almost have to make if you want to cover everything is to give up any sort of healthy lunch at a regular time during the day.

The only exception to this rule is if you're fortunate enough to have a lunch appointment - a meeting that takes place over a good meal. At the time, I was on my way to one such appointment on the third day of Computex 2002, eagerly awaiting the relatively Westernized food that was sure to be served (Chinese food is great, but you can only take so much frog soup and fish balls before you begin to crave pizza).

Outside the restaurant stood a group of my colleagues and John and Fiona Gatt of VIA Technologies (you may have heard of the company, I believe they make chips or something). My colleagues had some good news and some bad news for me; the good news was that we were moments away from eating, the bad news was that John Gatt wanted to take me on a tour of VIA. Bad news to them, but an opportunity like this is one anybody would jump on; even if it meant going hungry for a few more hours.

Hungry and off to VIA's tower - luckily VIA was kind enough to feed us. Be warned if you ever get Taiwanese pizza (from Pizza Hut nonetheless) - seafood on your pizza is apparently not uncommon.