Wen Chi Chen
Encyclopedia
Chen Wen-Chi has been President and CEO of VIA Technologies
, Inc. since 1992, and has overseen its transition from chipset
designer to a leading developer of silicon chip
technologies and PC platform solutions. Chen's strong background in logic design, marketing, and business strategy has propelled VIA to be one of the foremost fabless semiconductor
design houses in the world.
Prior to VIA, Chen co-founded and was President and CEO of Symphony Laboratories. He also held positions of Sales & Marketing VP at high tech start-up ULSI and senior architect at Intel. Chen holds a masters degree in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University
and a masters in computer science from the California Institute of Technology
.
Under Chen's leadership, VIA has become the world’s leading developer of PC core logic chipsets, successfully enabling the industry wide adoption of PC133 and DDR266 SDRAM as the next generation memory standards. Building on the company’s strength in core logic chipsets, Chen has expanded the company’s technology leadership into low power x86 microprocessors with the acquisition of Cyrix and Centaur, high performance graphics with the S3 Graphics joint venture, networking, communications, and multimedia chips, as well as innovative form factor mainboard solutions.
In June 2008, The Forbes
ranked him with his wife Cher Wang
, the chairperson of HTC, as the fifth richest of Taiwan
.
VIA Technologies
VIA Technologies is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory, and is part of the Formosa Plastics Group. It is the world's largest independent manufacturer of motherboard chipsets...
, Inc. since 1992, and has overseen its transition from chipset
Chipset
A chipset, PC chipset, or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product.- Computers :...
designer to a leading developer of silicon chip
Silicon Chip
Silicon Chip is an Australian electronics magazine. It was started in November, 1987 by Leo Simpson. Following the demise of Electronics Australia, it is the only hobbyist-related electronics magazine remaining in Australia.- Magazine :...
technologies and PC platform solutions. Chen's strong background in logic design, marketing, and business strategy has propelled VIA to be one of the foremost fabless semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...
design houses in the world.
Prior to VIA, Chen co-founded and was President and CEO of Symphony Laboratories. He also held positions of Sales & Marketing VP at high tech start-up ULSI and senior architect at Intel. Chen holds a masters degree in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University
National Taiwan University is a national co-educational university located in Taipei, Republic of China . In Taiwan, it is colloquially known as "Táidà" . Its main campus is set upon 1,086,167 square meters in Taipei's Da'an District. In addition, the university has 6 other campuses in Taiwan,...
and a masters in computer science from the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
.
Under Chen's leadership, VIA has become the world’s leading developer of PC core logic chipsets, successfully enabling the industry wide adoption of PC133 and DDR266 SDRAM as the next generation memory standards. Building on the company’s strength in core logic chipsets, Chen has expanded the company’s technology leadership into low power x86 microprocessors with the acquisition of Cyrix and Centaur, high performance graphics with the S3 Graphics joint venture, networking, communications, and multimedia chips, as well as innovative form factor mainboard solutions.
In June 2008, The Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
ranked him with his wife Cher Wang
Cher Wang
Cher Wang is a Taiwanese entrepreneur. Wang is a co-founder and the chairperson of the HTC Corporation and VIA Technologies. Her father was Wang Yung-ching, who was one of the richest individuals in Taiwan...
, the chairperson of HTC, as the fifth richest of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.