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All posts tagged "via"


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

VIA Offers Low Cost Android Board

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 01:00 PM

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/12/...-ships-in-july/

"VIA Technologies' small -- but not bite-sized -- Neo-ITX-based barebones Android PC is now up for pre-order. Folks willing to plunk down $49 now will be among the first to play with the APC's version of Gingerbread that's been modified for use with a mouse and keyboard."

Tiny computing boards have been around for a while. Mini, micro and nano-itx based systems have seen uses as light use PCs in living rooms, offices and cars. The race for extremely low cost general purpose computers continues with VIA's entry. At $49, it is slightly more expensive than the popular Raspberry Pi board, but offers different strengths. Whatever platform you go with, what I think is most important when it comes to these devices is developer support. Tiny computers such as the Gumstix and Arduino are great old school devices, but I suspect that they have not taken off as much partly because of the amount of tinkering needed. It looks like we are approaching a point where it is accessible to more people and should see these devices or things based on these devices becoming much more popular.

Tags: hardware, android, via

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

VIA's Attempt at Dethroning the Atom

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 01:00 PM

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4017/...ipset-previewed

"Compared to Atom, Nano is a bit of a beast. Both Atom and AMD’s Bobat core can fetch and issue up to two instructions. Nano can do three. Like AMD’s Bobcat, Nano has a full out of order execution engine. Atom, for the time being, is in-order. The execution engine is well matched to the front end. Nano features seven dispatch ports and can retire up to three instructions per clock. In this sense, Nano is more like AMD’s Bobcat than Intel’s Atom."

When you find yourself shopping for a computer, you will usually only see one of two names that make up the brains of your new toy; Intel or AMD. While Intel dominates the market and AMD holds on to its own sizable share of the industry, VIA still manages to hang around with its own line of x86 based CPUs. Their latest attempt with a dual-core Nano seems to be a reasonable competitor to both the mighty Atom and AMD's latest offerings with its Bobat based CPUs. VIA has had a long history with making low-power CPUs and I find it interesting that none of the major manufacturers have really embraced the Nano or its previous generations. Do they know something we do not? Or is it just a matter of brand recognition. How much does the average consumer really care of it is an Intel, AMD or VIA cpu in their computer?


Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Tiny PC, Big Aspirations

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 11:00 AM

http://www.slashgear.com/via-artigo...eview-27104456/

"It’s certainly compact enough to get lost under your HDTV, just 5.7 x 3.9 x 2.0 inches and made of sturdy metal and silver plastic. Although there are rubber feet for standalone use, you can also VESA mount it to the back of your display. Ports include audio in/out/microphone on the front, together with two USB 2.0 and a miniUSB, then VGA, HDMI, two further USB 2.0 and gigabit ethernet on the back."

Tiny PCs are nothing new. In fact, there are some PCs which are considerably smaller. Traditionally smaller PCs have also offered smaller processing power though recently, these liliPCs have been growing more and more powerful. The ARTiGO A1100 is no exception though it bucks the trend of most recent PCs that go with Atom CPUs. VIA is the little known competitor to AMD and Intel offering x86 compatible CPUs with really low power profiles. Unfortunately, it seems as if the A1100 seems better designed for office type applications, lacking in multimedia strength. For those of you thinking this might make a great tiny server to tuck away in a small corner, there are other options as well, even smaller, like the SheevaPlug. The A1100, which a nice concept, looks like it may be seeking a niche to fill.


Thursday, September 17, 2009

Netbooks and Notebooks, Say Hello to the NetNote

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 06:30 AM

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/1...tnote-platform/

"These NetNote systems are “turnkey” in the sense that manufacturers can choose between ultra low-voltage VIA C7-M processors or VIA’s newer Nano processors, then add up to 2GB of RAM, mobile broadband chips, and Windows or Linux operating systems."

Just when you thought that netbooks were becoming notebooks, Via has decided to make the market simple and easy to understand by introducing the NetNote platform! Via isn't actually selling any NetNotes themselves, but providing a new platform that other manufacturers or brands can sell. The specifications are hardly earth-shaking, though Via claims the ability to offer 1080p output and idling at 2.3 watts of power. The NetNote can also supposedly work as an mp3 player without booting the system (as if someone would love to cart around a netbook sized mp3 player) and an fm transmitter. What it comes down to though is that Via just wants a piece of the netbook pie. With ION and Pine Trail imminent, it looks like we will all at least have a choice we can gladly look over.


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Maximum PC Examines the Legacy of x86

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 09:00 AM

http://maximumpc.com/article/featur...MC-R3A917316679

"Invented by Intel in 1978, the x86 architecture has evolved through the ages, not only getting faster, but increasingly flexible as more and more extensions and instruction sets accompany each new release. It's been a wild ride the past 30 years, and whether you lived through it all or have only recently picked up your first processor, we invite you to join as we look back at not only the most popular x86 CPUs in its history, but ones you may never even have heard of."

Maximum PC takes a trip down memory lane to celebrate the 31st year of the x86 legacy. Despite competition from various other types of processors and its current battle against the ARM chip, x86 from the 8086 to the Core i7 has dominted the PC market. The look back on the history of this line covers the arms race between Intel, AMD and Via as well as some other notable events. I have to admit that I'm surprised that the Pentium-M was not touched on, which I consider to probably be one of the biggest turning points in recent history, especially for Intel. It's still good to get a get a sense of how we got where we are with PCs and for those of us who have lived through most or all of this legacy, it brings up some points of nostalgia. I for one miss the "Turbo" button.


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