VIA Technologies announced today the new VIA VIPRO VP7710 touch-screen panel PC – a full featured fanless PC panel system designed for industrial and commercial applications. The VIPRO VP7710 comes with a 10.4 inch TFT LCD and resistive touch-screen display housed in a heavy steel and aluminum chassis providing shock and vibration protection.

Key features and specs to the VIPRO VP7710 include the following:

• Fanless and ultra-low power consumption
• Built-in VIA Eden ULV 1.6 GHz or C7 1.0GHz processor
• 10.4 inch 800 x 600 TFT LCD panel with touch-screen
• IP65 front panel compliant against water and dust
• Integrated VIA UniChrome Proll 3D/2D AGP graphics with MPEG2/4 and WMV9 video decoding acceleration
• Gigabit Ethernet and optional Wi-Fi
• Two USB 2.0 ports, three COM ports, external VGA port
• Internal CF sock and 2.5 inch internal HDD drive bay
• VIA CX700M2 all-in-one system processor
• Up to 1GB DDR2 memory
• Measures 11.82″ x 8.1″ x 2.17” and weighs 7.9 lbs

No word on pricing but VIA states that the VIA VIPRO is available now to system developers. You can read more in their press release or product information page.

Technorati Tags: VIA Technologies, VIPRO VP7710 fanless touch-screen panel PC

One other VIA Technologies related news note – DigiTimes reported that VIA plans to launch an even smaller board than the Pico-ITX board called the Mobile-ITX motherboard somewhere between the end of 2008 and during the first quarter of next year. The Mobile-ITX form factor will supposedly be one half the size of the Pico-ITX form factor which is already super small – coming in at 100 x 72 mm. The Mobile-ITX board will support VIA Eden, C-7, and Nano processors. Great stuff for folks looking to build super small systems.

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Technorati Tags: VIA Technologies, Mobile-ITX

Continuing to push miniature motherboard form factors, VIA Technologies introduced on Friday their first Nano-ITX motherboard to feature the VIA VX800 media system processor. The motherboard, known as the EPIA N700, features either a 1.5GHz VIA C7 processor or a 500MHz VIA Eden processor, and comes with nearly everything you need to build a low heat, compact system.

The EPIA N700 board has two SATA ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port, one COM port, two USB 2.0 ports, and a single VGA port. On-board headers are also available for additional COM, LVDS, and IDE connections.

Other specs include:

• Support for up to 2GB of memory
• One mini PCI slot
• Support for Windows XP, Linux, Windows CE, XPe
• Measures 12 x 12 cm

The VIA VX800 media system processor is an integrated digital media IGP chipset featuring:

• Integrated VIA Chrome 9 graphics with full DX9 support
• VIA Chromotion video engine for hardware acceleration of MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9, VC1, and DivX video formats
• VMR capable HD video processor
• Integrated multi-configuration 24 bit dual channel LVDS transmitter – enables display connections to embedded panels

The EPIA N700 is available now for developers and will be available through distributors starting around the middle of Sept.

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Technorati Tags: VIA EPIA N700, Nano-ITX, VX800 Media System Processor

ExtremeTech ran an interesting article comparing the new VIA Nano processor against the Intel Atom processor here on their website. Both processors (and their respective platforms) are geared towards mobile devices aiming to deliver good performance, good battery life, and low heat dissipation. Since the Intel Atom supports hyper-threading one would assume that the Atom would do better than the Nano at multi-process/multi-threaded oriented benchmarks.. and guess what? It does. However, benchmarks that are single-threaded show the performance to be somewhat of a wash between the two processors. Ultimately what the deciding factor might boil down to is the power consumption of these processors – with the Nano and it’s platform consuming slightly more than the Atom and it’s platform. Of course, having been manufactured on a 45nm process certainly helps the Atom’s cause.

For more details, check out the ExtremeTech article.

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Technorati Tags: Intel Atom, VIA Nano, ExtremeTech, Performance Benchmarks

Despite all the tough talk that NVIDIA is directing at Intel over the last few months, the fact of the matter is – NVIDIA still needs to work with the chip giant in order to be successful. Case in point – a report from DigiTimes citing that NVIDIA is negotiating with Intel to allow NVIDIA’s IGP chipsets to support the Intel Atom processor. But wait – didn’t NVIDIA enter into an alliance with VIA you say? Well yes, they did but some PC manufacturer sources are citing that the alliance was simply used as a bargaining chip for NVIDIA – a chip they hoped to use to break into the Atom platform. If Intel lets NVIDIA support the Atom processor, you will probably see NVIDIA terminate the alliance with VIA.

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Technorati Tags: NVIDIA, Intel, Atom, VIA

VIA Technologies introduces a new processor family today called the VIA Nano processor. Based on the VIA Isiah architecture, the Nano is pin compatible with VIA’s current C7 line of processors yet offers as much as four times the performance within the same power range as the C7. The VIA Nano is expected to compete against both Intel’s Atom processor on the ultra-mobile front as well as Intel’s low end Celeron processors for notebooks and desktop systems. The Nano is VIA’s first 64 bit, superscalar, speculative out of order processor in VIA’s x86 family of processors.

Features of the Nano include:

• Built using Fujitsu’s 65 nanometer process
• 21 x 21 mm  nanonBGA2 package
• Uses as little as 100mW in idle power
• 64 bit superscalar speculative out-of-order microarchitecture
• FSB starting at 800MHz
• Support for new SSE instructions
• Two 64 KB L1 caches and 1MB exclusive L2 cache with 16 way associativity
• New C6 power state
• Adaptive PowerSaver technology
• “Greener” – product manufacturing will be halogen-free and lead-free
• Enhanced VIA PadLock Security Engine

There are five models available across the two series:

The VIA Nano will be launched initially in two SKUs – the Nano L-series for desktop and mobile PC systems and the ultra low voltage U-series for small form factor systems and ultra-mobile devices.

The introduction of the Nano could be great news for the ultra-mobile front where we’ve seen a lot of action recently with the ASUS Eee PC and the HP Mini-Note. The Mini-Note already uses VIA C7 processor so it’s not hard to imagine the possibility of an upgraded Mini-Note later on with one of these VIA Nano processors since they are pin-compatible with the C7 processor family.

The Nano is available now for OEMs and motherboard vendors. Systems with Nano processors are expected in the third quarter.

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Technorati Tags: VIA Technologies, VIA Nano

VIA Technologies announced a new Pico-ITX motherboard today called the VIA EPIA PX5000EG. The PX5000EG features the 500 MHz VIA Eden ULV processor which has a maximum power draw of just one watt! The board is ideal for applications and environments that are space constrained and heat-sensitive. The PX5000EG measures 10 x 7.2 cm and includes both LVDS/DVI and VGA support, integrated 5.1 channel sound, 10/100 Ethernet, IDE/SATA drive support, and up to six USB ports and a COM port.

VIA Technologies is also running a contest called the “Naked Pico Challenge” over at VIA Arena where you can get a chance to win a VIA ARTiGO Pico-ITX Builder Kit. They’ll have a VIA EPIA PX5000EG board running under full load without any cooling whatsoever. All you need to do is guess how long the board can take the strain. Check out VIA Arena for more info.

Other specs for the VIA EPIA PX5000EG include:

• Fanless 500MHz VIA Eden ULV processor
• Supports up to 1GB of DDR2 memory
• VIA UniChrome Pro II IGP 3D/2D graphics
• MPEG2/4 and WMV9 hardware decoding acceleration
• Pin support for LVDS, DVI, and VGA
• Onboard IDE and SATA connectors
• Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet
• PS/2 keyboard and mouse
• Multimedia connector to support external TV out
• Video capture port interface
• LPC interface
• Audio connector for line out, line in, mic-in, S/PDIF in and 5.1 channel audio output

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Technorati Tags: VIA Technologies, EPIA PX5000EG, Pico-ITX,

DigiTimes has some interesting articles on ASUS, the Eee PC, HP, VIA and the Intel Atom processor today. First up, ASUS (or rather ASUSTek) President Jerry Shen, has revealed that the company will be launching new Eee PC’s in June featuring the Intel Atom processor. The company has supposedly ordered around 2.5 to 3 million Atom processors from Intel.

While we’re on the Atom processor front, DigiTimes is also reporting sales volume numbers for other vendors.

• Acer has ordered approximately 1 million Atom processors and may place an order for another million if market demand keeps up
• Dell has ordered 300,000 to 500,00 Atom processors

Meanwhile, on the VIA processor front, HP has ordered approximately 100,000 VIA C7-M processors for their new HP Mini-Note lineup (which also competes against the ASUS Eee PC). 100,000 sounds a bit light but the order is expected to increase to 500,000 by the end of the year.

Now back to the Eee PC. ASUS is also planning to release a 10 inch display version of the ultra-compact notebook at some point this year. This will certainly help keep the Eee PC competitive against current competitors as well as upcoming competitors such as the MSI Wind. Finally, ASUS is mulling over giving free battery upgrades to first day Eee PC 900 buyers in Hong Kong. Apparently several buyers who purchased the Eee PC 900 on the first day in HK received a 4 cell 4400mAh battery when review samples sent to the media received 4 cell 5800 mAh batteries. ASUS claims the 5800 mAh batteries were sent to the media by mistake and that they are meant for later products (hmm.. one still wonders whether ASUS was trying to increase the battery scores on review units though..)

Technorati Tags: ASUS, Eee PC, Atom Processor, Intel, HP, Via

VIA Technologies announced details of their new processor architecture which is called the VIA Isaiah Architecture. Designed from the ground up by VIA’s US based processor design subsidiary, Centaur Technology, the Isaiah Architecture comes with features such as 64 bit superscalar speculative out-of-order microarchitecture, high performance multimedia computation, and a new virtual machine architecture. VIA’s aim is similar as before – deliver a high performance processor which also minimizes power consumption thus enabling small footprint systems such as ultra-mobile PCs and small form factor PCs.

The very first processors based on the Isaiah Architecture will use a 65 nm process technology and will also be pin compatible with the VIA C7 processor family which will enable a smooth transition for system builders.

Highlights of the Isaiah Architecture include the following:

• 64 bit Superscalar Speculative Out-of-Order Microarchtecture
• Initial clock speeds of up to 2GHz and a high speed, low power front side bus scalable from 800 MHz to 1333 MHz
• Two 64KB L1 caches and 1MB exclusive L2 cache with 16 way associativity
• Integrates the world’s fastest x86 processor floating point unit with ability to execute four floating point adds, and four multiples per clock
• Support for new SSE instructions
• 128 bit wide integer data path
• Utilizes new low power circuit techniques
• New C6 power state where power is turned off to the caches
• Pin to pin compatible with VIA C7 processor
• VIA PadLock Hardware Security features including random number generator, AES encryption engine, SHA-1 and SHA-256 hashing

You can read more about the new architecture here on VIA’s website. You can expect to see processors based on the VIA Isaiah Architecture to start shipping during the first half of 2008.

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Technorati Tags: VIA Technologies, Isaiah Architecture