NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Intel Corp. is facing a new challenge in the growing mobile computer market, a news report said Friday.

Via Technologies Inc., based in Taiwan, announced a new chip called the C7 that The Wall Street Journal said was comparable in performance to models in Intel's (Research) Pentium M line, the microprocessors at the core of the chip giant's Centrino technology for laptops.

But Via says its new chips are smaller and consume 40 percent less power, which is an important consideration for users concerned with battery life in laptops.

Via's new chips are targeted at thin and light notebooks, mini PCs, personal electronic devices and some servers, the company said.

Combined with recent product introductions by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Research), the new Via chips could start to attract some computer manufacturers looking for alternatives to Intel, which could help push down prices in the market for lightweight laptop computers, the Journal said in its report.

Intel had nearly 82 percent of the market for PC microprocessors in 2004, the paper said, citing Roger Kay, an analyst at the research firm IDC.

"With the rest of the market moving towards low power, heat efficient processor design and distributed platforms, the industry is clearly starting to follow the direction we have been championing for many years," VIA President Wenchi Chen said in a statement.

"This is definitely moving their products into a different segment," Dean McCarron, an analyst at Mercury Research in Scottsdale, Ariz., told the paper. "The product is targeted at a pretty good segment of the PC market right now."

An Intel spokesman declined to comment on Via's introduction, the Journal said.

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