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The future is here: Yes, it is Microsoft Surface 2 with modern apps only! (And ARM, not x86/x64!)

November 17, 2013 3:59 pm / Leave a comment

This video is speaking for itself (and for the title): Why I Love my Microsoft Surface 2 : Tips and Tricks [Sean Ong YouTube channel, Nov 3, 2013]

In this video I show off my favorite features in the Microsoft Surface 2, with windows 8.1 RT. I show off voice control (windows speech recognition), multiple monitor support, and a variety of accessories via USB hub (including external hard drive, mouse, keyboard, and Xbox 360 controller integration). I show how I connect the Surface 2 to my HDTV as well as wireless casting of music and video! I also go through some other features, such as Spotify web player, and icloud web. Also kid friendly applications and multiple accounts. There’s so much stuff this thing can do, it will blow your mind away

That is how Sean Ong, a senior consultant at Navigant (focussing there on “technical, economic, and policy analysis of energy efficiency and renewable energy systems”) and himself an energy analysis engineer, was able to present the above, truly incredible customer value from current and especially future point of view for Windows 8.1 in geneneral and Surface 2 (ARM based) in particular. It is even more remarkable as nobody, I REPEAT NOBODY, from Microsoft worldwide could do that. I know even a highly professional, true world class Windows 8/Windows 8.1 expert who was not only fascinated himself by the above video, but acknowledged honestly that he was unaware of the speech recognition progress in Windows 8.1. And we are talking about an internal expert who has already been involved in the internal expert network of similar, most devoted Microsoft specialists in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 for years.

For me this video is incredibly important because:

NOT ONLY FOR THE FUTURE OF MICROSOFT BUT FOR THE WHOLE STATE OF COMPUTING
AS THE MISSING COMMUNICATIONS FROM MICROSOFT, EVEN THE TOTAL INABILITY OF MICROSOFT TO COMMUNICATE THE INHERENT WINDOWS 8.1/SURFACE 2 VALUES, WERE CLEARLY POINTING TO TOTAL LACK OF MARKETING COMPETENCY FOR ITS GAME-CHANGING, MICROSOFT-ONLY, POST PC AREA INNOVATIONS INHERENT IN WINDOWS 8.1/SURFACE 2

Although these signs (both the positive and negative ones) were coupled with a number of competitive positive changes for Microsoft, such as:

But a number of competitive negative changes for Microsoft became even more worrisome (than any time before) lately, such as:

Fortunately we already know:

Board of directors initiates succession process; Ballmer remains CEO until successor is named.
Microsoft Corp. today announced that Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer has decided to retire as CEO within the next 12 months, upon the completion of a process to choose his successor. In the meantime, Ballmer will continue as CEO and will lead Microsoft through the next steps of its transformation to a devices and services company that empowers people for the activities they value most.
“There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time,” Ballmer said. “We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing Senior Leadership Team. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company’s transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction.”
The Board of Directors has appointed a special committee to direct the process. This committee is chaired by John Thompson, the board’s lead independent director, and includes Chairman of the Board Bill Gates, Chairman of the Audit Committee Chuck Noski and Chairman of the Compensation Committee Steve Luczo. The special committee is working with Heidrick & Struggles International Inc., a leading executive recruiting firm, and will consider both external and internal candidates.
“The board is committed to the effective transformation of Microsoft to a successful devices and services company,” Thompson said. “As this work continues, we are focused on selecting a new CEO to work with the company’s senior leadership team to chart the company’s course and execute on it in a highly competitive industry.”
“As a member of the succession planning committee, I’ll work closely with the other members of the board to identify a great new CEO,” said Gates. “We’re fortunate to have Steve in his role until the new CEO assumes these duties.”
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has always been a speaker and performer like no other — his absolute enthusiasm for his company is electric in person, turning ordinary corporate events into raw displays of emotion that are often criticized but never forgotten. Read more at The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/27/4779036/exclusive-video-steve-ballmers-intense-tearful-goodbye-to-microsoft
Steve Ballmer paced his corner office on a foggy January morning here, listening through loudspeakers to his directors’ voices on a call that would set in motion the end of his 13-year reign as Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT -0.47% chief executive.
Microsoft lagged behind Apple Inc. AAPL -0.60% and Google Inc. GOOG -0.16% in important consumer markets, despite its formidable software revenue. Mr. Ballmer tried to spell out his plan to remake Microsoft, but a director cut him off, telling him he was moving too slowly.
“Hey, dude, let’s get on with it,” lead director John Thompson says he told him. “We’re in suspended animation.” Mr. Ballmer says he replied that he could move faster.
But the contentious call put him on a difficult journey toward his August decision to retire, sending Microsoft into further tumult as it began seeking a successor to a man who has been at its heart for 33 years.
“Maybe I’m an emblem of an old era, and I have to move on,” the 57-year-old Mr. Ballmer says, pausing as his eyes well up. “As much as I love everything about what I’m doing,” he says, “the best way for Microsoft to enter a new era is a new leader who will accelerate change.”
Mr. Ballmer, in a series of exclusive interviews tinged with his characteristic bluster and wistfulness, tells of how he came to believe that he couldn’t lead Microsoft forward—that, in fact, Microsoft would not be led by him because of the very corporate culture he had helped instill.
Mr. Ballmer and his board have been in agreement: Microsoft, while maintaining its strong software business, must shake up its management structure and refocus on mobile devices and online services if it is to find future profit growth and reduce its dependence on the fading PC market.
The board’s beef was speed. The directors “didn’t push Steve to step down,” says Mr. Thompson, a longtime technology executive who heads the board’s CEO-search committee, “but we were pushing him damn hard to go faster.”
Investors, too, were pushing for transformation. “At this critical juncture, Wall Street wants new blood to bring fundamental change,” says Brent Thill, a longtime Microsoft analyst at UBS AG. “Steve was a phenomenal leader who racked up profits and market share in the commercial business, but the new CEO must innovate in areas Steve missed—phone, tablet, Internet services, even wearables.”
The Microsoft board’s list of possible successors includes, among others, former Nokia Corp. NOK1V.HE +0.25% CEO Stephen Elop, Microsoft enterprise-software chief Satya Nadella and Ford Motor Co. F -0.12% CEO Alan Mulally, say people familiar with the search. In conjunction with Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting Nov. 19, the board plans to meet and will discuss succession, says a person familiar with the schedule.
Representatives for Mr. Elop and Mr. Nadella say the men have no comment on the search. A Ford spokesman says “nothing has changed” since November 2012, when Ford said Mr. Mulally would remain CEO through at least 2014, adding: “Alan remains absolutely focused on continuing to make progress on our One Ford plan. We do not engage in speculation.”
Microsoft’s next chief will be only the third in its history. Mr. Ballmer joined in 1980 at the suggestion of his Harvard University pal, co-founder Bill Gates, and is its second-largest individual shareholder and a billionaire.
After growing up in Detroit, where his father was a Ford manager, Mr. Ballmer roomed down the hall from Mr. Gates at Harvard. He dropped his Stanford M.B.A. studies to become Microsoft’s first business manager.
He was Mr. Gates’s right-hand man, helping turn Microsoft into a force that redefined how the world used computers. He took the reins in 2000, further solidifying Microsoft’s position in software markets and keeping the profit engine humming. Revenue tripled during his tenure to almost $78 billion in the year ended this June, and profit grew 132% to nearly $22 billion.
But while profit rolled in from Microsoft’s traditional markets, it missed epic changes, including Web-search advertising and the consumer shift to mobile devices and social media.
Last year, Mr. Ballmer sought to reboot. In an October shareholder letter, he declared Microsoft would become a provider of “devices and services” for businesses and individuals.
He told the board he wanted to lead the charge and remain until his youngest son graduated from high school in four years. He began his own succession planning by meeting potential candidates in what he calls “cloak-and-dagger” meetings.
Mr. Ballmer’s reboot plan required a corporate overhaul. For guidance, he called his longtime friend, Ford’s Mr. Mulally, once a top Boeing Co. BA +0.73% executive. They met Christmas Eve at a Starbucks on Mercer Island near Seattle.
Mr. Ballmer brought a messenger bag, pulling out onto a table an array of phones and tablets from Microsoft and competitors. He asked Mr. Mulally how he turned around Ford. For four hours, he says, Mr. Mulally detailed how teamwork and simplifying the Ford brand helped him reposition it.
The Ford spokesman says: “Ford and Microsoft have a long-standing business partnership, and many of our leaders discuss business together frequently.”
It was a wake-up call for Mr. Ballmer, who had run the software giant with bravado and concedes that “I’m big, I’m bald and I’m loud.”
Microsoft’s culture included corporate silos where colleagues were often pitted against one another—a competitive milieu that spurred innovation during Microsoft’s heyday but now sometimes leaves groups focused on their own legacies and bottom lines rather than on the big technology picture and Microsoft as a whole.
He recalls thinking: “I’ll remake my whole playbook. I’ll remake my whole brand.”
The board liked his new plan. But as Mr. Ballmer prepared to implement it, his directors on the January conference call demanded he expedite it.
Pushing hardest, say participants, were Mr. Thompson, who had held top jobs at International Business Machines Corp. IBM +0.54% and Symantec Corp. SYMC +0.38%, and Stephen Luczo, CEO of Seagate Technology STX -2.33% PLC. Mr. Luczo declines to comment.
“But, I didn’t want to shift gears until I shipped Windows,” Mr. Ballmer says he told the directors on the call, explaining that he hadn’t moved faster in late 2012 because he was focused on releasing in October the next generation of Windows, Microsoft’s longtime cash cow.
Mr. Ballmer swung into gear, drafting a management-reorganization plan to discuss during a March retreat at a Washington mountain resort. He invited Mr. Thompson and another director, to get board perspective on his plan.
Instead, he got more pressure. Mr. Thompson says he told Mr. Ballmer and his executives: “Either get on the bus or get off.”
Mr. Ballmer says he took that as an endorsement of his plan. That evening, some of them played poker, drank Scotch and gathered around the lodge’s fireplace.
The next month, hedge fund ValueAct Capital disclosed a $2 billion Microsoft stake. ValueAct’s CEO Jeffrey Ubben at a conference said Microsoft’s stock was undervalued. Other shareholders were urging it to increase its dividend and shed noncore businesses. A ValueAct spokesman declines further comment. In September, Microsoft increased its dividend but hasn’t sold off businesses investors have urged it to, such as the Bing search engine.
Mr. Ballmer hewed to Mr. Mulally’s recommendations. For years, he had consulted with Microsoft’s unit chiefs individually, often dispensing marching orders. Now, he began inviting them to sit together in a circle in his office to foster camaraderie.
It was a lurching corporate-culture change. “It’s not the way we operated at all in Steve’s 30-plus years of leadership of the company,” says Mr. Nadella, an executive vice president.
Mr. Ballmer says his senior team struggled with the New Steve. Some resisted on matters large—combining engineering teams—and small, such as weekly status reports.
Qi Lu, an executive vice president, submitted a 56-page report on applications and services. Mr. Ballmer sent it back, insisting on just three pages—part of a new mandate to encourage the simplicity needed for collaboration. Mr. Lu says he retorted: “But you always want the data and detail!”
Mr. Ballmer says he started to realize he had trained managers to see the trees, not the forest, and that many weren’t going to take his new mandates to heart.
In May, he began wondering whether he could meet the pace the board demanded. “No matter how fast I want to change, there will be some hesitation from all constituents—employees, directors, investors, partners, vendors, customers, you name it—to believe I’m serious about it, maybe even myself,” he says.
His personal turning point came on a London street. Winding down from a run one morning during a May trip, he had a few minutes to stroll, some rare spare time for recent months. For the first time, he began thinking Microsoft might change faster without him.
“At the end of the day, we need to break a pattern,” he says. “Face it: I’m a pattern.”
Mr. Ballmer says he secretly began drafting retirement letters—ultimately some 40 of them, ranging from maudlin to radical.
On a plane from Europe in late May, he told Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith that it “might be the time for me to go.” The next day, Mr. Ballmer called Mr. Thompson, with the same message.
Mr. Thompson called two other directors, Mr. Luczo and Charles Noski, former Bank of America Corp. BAC +0.84% vice chairman, and says he told them: “If Steve’s ready to go, let’s see if we can get on with this.”
At the board’s June meeting in Bellevue, Wash., Mr. Ballmer says he told the directors: “While I would like to stay here a few more years, it doesn’t make sense for me to start the transformation and for someone else to come in during the middle.”
The board wasn’t “surprised or shocked,” says Mr. Noski, given directors’ conversations with Mr. Ballmer. Mr. Thompson says he and others indicated that “fresh eyes and ears might accelerate what we’re trying to do here.”
Mr. Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, told Mr. Ballmer that he understood from experience how hard it was to leave when Microsoft was your “life,” says someone familiar with Mr. Gates’s thinking. Mr. Gates told the board he supported Mr. Ballmer’s departure if it ensured Microsoft “remains successful,” this person says.
That night, after Mr. Ballmer watched his son sing at his high-school baccalaureate ceremony—a Coldplay song with the lyrics: “It’s such a shame for us to part; nobody said it was easy; no one ever said it would be this hard”—he says he told his wife and three sons he was probably leaving Microsoft. They all cried.
On Aug. 21, the board held a conference call to accept Mr. Ballmer’s retirement. Mr. Gates and Mr. Thompson sat with Mr. Ballmer in his office. It was over in less than an hour.
Mr. Ballmer vows not to be a lame duck.
“Charge! Charge! Charge!” he bellows, jumping up from an interview and lunging forward while pumping his fist forward like a battering ram. “I’m not going to wimp away from anything!”
He has remained active, shepherding a $7.5 billion deal to buy Nokia’s mobile businesses and fine-tuning holiday-marketing strategies for Microsoft’s Surface tablets and new Xbox game console. In October, Microsoft reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
At his final annual employee meeting this September, Mr. Ballmer gave high-fives and ran off the stage to the song: “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from the movie “Dirty Dancing.”
Last month, walking along Lake Washington, Mr. Ballmer bumped into Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, who was fired from earlier jobs and now is thriving. Mr. Carroll says he told his neighbor he went through “something like this” and predicted it is “going to be great.”
Mr. Ballmer says he is weighing casual offers as varied as university teaching and coaching his youngest son’s high-school basketball team. He plans no big decisions for at least six months—except that he won’t run another big company. He says he’s open to remaining a Microsoft director.
At a recent executive meeting, he perched on a stool to review developments. His third slide was labeled “New CEO.”
“Not a soul in this room doesn’t think we need to go through this transition,” he said. As he stood up, his voice started to crack: “As much as I wish I could stay your CEO, I still own a big chunk of Microsoft, and I’m going to keep it.”
He walked back toward the stool, then turned around and said in a near-whisper: “Please take good care of Microsoft.”

You could read also Reporter’s Notebook: Two Days With Steve Ballmer [The Wall Street Journal, Nov 15, 2013] ending this way: 

… This summer when he was deciding whether to step down, Mr. Ballmer quietly met with big institutional investors in Boston and San Francisco. The head of one big institution told him, “Microsoft would be better served with you gone.” Mr. Ballmer, who’s the second largest individual shareholder, knew the investor might get his wish. Yet, he argued, “Who cares more about Microsoft than I do? I own a lot. It’s my life.”

And that showed how his emotions alternate between bluster and wistfulness. The deed is done, the decision has been made, a new CEO is imminent. But Mr. Ballmer is struggling because Microsoft has been so much more than a job … as he said, “my life.”

My closing remarks:

  1. The next CEO problem to be solved is definitely the #1 issue for the future of the Microsoft
  2. The #2 issue is how successfully the Unique Nokia assets (from factories to global device distribution & sales, and the Asha sub $100 smartphone platform etc.) will now empower the One Microsoft devices and services strategy [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Sept 3, 2013] for which the Microsoft answers to the questions about Nokia devices and services acquisition: tablets, Windows downscaling, reorg effects, Windows Phone OEMs, cost rationalization, ‘One Microsoft’ empowerment, and supporting developers for an aggressive growth in market share [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Sept 4, 2013] is providing an interim answer, i.e. till the arrival of the new CEO
  3. The #3 isssue is How the device play will unfold in the new Microsoft organization? [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, July 14, 2013]. If Stephen Elop, former CEO of Nokia, and a previous senior executive of Microsoft, will become the next CEO then Minutes of a high-octane but also expert evangelist CEO: Stephen Elop, Nokia [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, July 13, 2013] could provide some clue for changes to be expected as a strategic evolution of the current one described in the already mentioned [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, July 14, 2013]. Even in case when he will not be selected by the Microsoft board as the next CEO he will have very strong influence on the device play for the initial first year integration of the acquired Nokia businesses into Microsoft, for very simple reason, that nobody could do this, and a successfull integration is a higher priority, #2 issue.
  4. Strategically, however, the most important issue is the

    5. Microsoft reorg for delivering/supporting high-value experiences/activities [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, July 11, 2013]

  5. Everything else which might be a crucial issue during this process is highly controversial, without any official clues from Microsoft or any other stakeholder sources. The most controversial among all of them is the issue of non-profitable and/or not necessarily integral to Microsoft businesses. These are the Bing and the Xbox businesses. The range of external opinions is extremely large with investment circles firmly believing that neither Bing nor Xbox are inherently integral to Microsoft, and most of the external development community with an exacly opposite belief of those businesses being inherently internal.

  6. My personal opinion is that with spin-off both extremes could be served sufficiently well, and even open completely new business development opportunities for both Bing and Xbox to grow substantially faster and bigger than otherwise. I would be especially enthusiastic for an Xbox spin-off as that business is already (with upcoming Oct 22 introduction of Xbox One) not a gaming console, but an entertainment ecosystem type of business. As such it would get enormous growth opportunities with its spin-off from the tightly integrated Microsoft mother ship.

  7. The ultimate issue for me, however, is how the currently quite crippled and/or bureaucratic marketing machinery of Microsoft could be completely overhauled as part of Nokia integration, and how fast that could be achieved, if any? I mean a new marketing machinery which is thriving on the huge number of opportunities provided by already delivered game-changing products and technologies, instead of not understanding them at all. I mean not simply an ability to produce videos like the one in the beginning of this post, but a competency to produce whole storyboards for production of such videos and other communication materials. One might call it “high-octane marketing” for simplicity. Even more I envisage such integration of the marketing activities into the whole supply chain management (SCM) as is done in Samsung. See my Samsung has unbeatable supply chain management, it is incredibly good in everything which is consumer hardware, but vulnerability remains in software and M&A [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Nov 11, 2013] post for that, from which I will copy the following illustration here as well:

Can VIA Technologies save the mobile computing future of the x86 (x64) legacy platform?

November 23, 2012 8:30 pm / 6 Comments on Can VIA Technologies save the mobile computing future of the x86 (x64) legacy platform?

Update: The Third x86-based SoC Player: VIA & Centaur’s Isaiah II [PC Perspective, July 11, 2014]

… VIA, through their Centaur Technology division, is expected to announce  [on Sept 1, 2014] their own x86-based SoC, too. Called Isaiah II, it is rumored to be a quad core, 64-bit processor with a maximum clock rate of 2.0 GHz. Its GPU is currently unknown. VIA sold their stake S3 Graphics to HTC back in 2011, who then became majority shareholder over the GPU company. That said, HTC and VIA are very close companies. The chairwoman of HTC is the founder of VIA Technologies. The current President and CEO of VIA, who has been in that position since 1992, is her husband. I expect that the GPU architecture will be provided by S3, or will somehow be based on their technology. I could be wrong. Both companies will obviously do what they think is best.

It would make sense, though, especially if it benefits HTC with cheap but effective SoCs for Android and “full” Windows (not Windows RT) devices.

Or this announcement could be larger than it would appear. Three years ago, VIA filed for a patent which described a processor that can read both x86 and ARM machine language and translate it into its own, internal microinstructions. The Centaur Isaiah II could reasonably be based on that technology. If so, this processor would be able to support either version of Android. Or, after Intel built up the Android x86 code base, maybe they shelved that initiative (or just got that patent for legal reasons). …

Update: VIA Isaiah II Gives Intel and AMD Reasons to Worry with Low-power CPUs [techPowerUp, July 7, 2014]

Only the third active licencee of Intel’s x86 machine architecture, VIA Technology, is readying its first x86 processor in years, codenamed Isaiah II. This chip is based on a brand new 64-bit x86 core design by VIA and the engineering team it acquired from Centaur Technology, another erstwhile x86 licencee, and features modern instruction sets such as AVX 2.0. VIA began sampling a quad-core processor based on Isaiah II, which was put to live test by the company, at its InfoComm 2014 booth. It was compared to Intel’s “Bay Trail” Atom and AMD’s “Kabini” Athlon chips. It turns out that the Isaiah II is pretty good, if it comes out soon enough.

The Isaiah II based quad-core chip, featuring 2.00 GHz clock speeds, and 2 MB of L2 cache, was put through SANDRA. The BGA chip was running on a VIA-made motherboard, with its own VIA VX11H chipset. It was compared to AMD Athlon 5350 (quad-core “Jaguar” with 2.05 GHz clocks), and Intel Atom Z3770 (quad-core “Silvermont” with 2.40 GHz clocks). The results are tabulated below. At 2.00 GHz, armed with the latest multimedia and cryptography instruction-sets, VIA’s chip is faster than Intel’s in most tests, despite lower clocks. It trades blows – and wins – against AMD’s chip, in most tests. VIA is expected to launch the first chips based on Isaiah II in late-August, 2014. VIA is hedging its bets with efficient compact PCs, kiosks, and digital signage, with its new chip.

Update: VIA reportedly moving x86 CPU resources to new joint venture in China [DIGITIMES, Feb 19, 2014]

VIA Technologies is rumored to have started shifting its x86 CPU technologies and related personnel to its newly formed IC design joint venture with a China government-owned investment firm, according to market watchers, adding that VIA recently notified clients that it will stop supplying x86 processors temporarily. VIA declined to comment about market rumors and pointed out that its x86 CPU business is still operating. The joint venture was announced in early 2014 with VIA owning a 20% stake in the company. The market watchers pointed out that if the rumor is true, it would mean VIA’s x86 processor platform has officially walked into history, and the China government will be able to get hold x86 technologies to develop related products. VIA has been pushing its CPU products in China for many years, mainly targeting the white-box market. With the new move, VIA may no longer release processors under its name and will instead use the name of the joint venture in the future, the market watchers said. Because VIA’s x86 CPU business is licensed by Intel, moving related resources to a new joint venture is expected to attract Intel’s attention. However, the chip giant may not be able to do much because Intel reached an agreement with the US’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) in 2010 to not interfere with competition in the CPU and chipset markets, and extend its licensing of PCI Express to VIA by at least another six years. Intel is also unlikely to wish to offend the China investment firm, which has support from the China government, the market watchers analyzed.

End of updates

After Urgent search for an Intel savior [this same blog, Nov 21, 2012] this [Can VIA Technologies save … x86 (x64) legacy platform?] is a quite legitimate and important question.

Watch Cher Wang, the founder and still the chairman of the VIA Technologies (also HTC), speaking about the enterpreneurship just February this year. One of the most important traits she considers important for the success is perseverance (as she is telling at [28:50] in the Q&A session starting at [22:37]). Looking at the current, moderate by any means success of VIA, one can clearly see this attribute of her which is helping to keep VIA still afloat. One cannot resist a suspicion that she sees great opportunity for the company to come out of its current troubles of decreasing revenue. She might quite well count on the expected failure of Intel to compete effectively in the mobile computing. As the x86 (rather the 64-bit x64) is still quite important for the transition of hundreds of millions of PCs into a full mobile computing era VIA Technologies x64 chips with their very competitive Isaiah cores, as much as 4 in a package and of sufficiently low-power and low-price might indeed become the kind of saviors of that legacy hardware platform for the year 2013 and beyond. Do not forget VIA Technologies is an extremely streamlined organisation which is using the same fabless semiconductor manufacturing model as all of the ARM ecosystem.

While Intel used the Bonnell microarchitecture for its Atom processors a significantly smaller competitor, VIA Technologies (Via Technologies Inc (2388.TW)) was relying on the processor design and development work of its 100 people subsidiary, Centaur Technology to compete with the giant, using its same time introduced Isaiah microarchitecture. Both microarchitectures were developed BTW for quite a long period of 5 years* and introduced in products in 2008. * The Bonnell story you could read in Intel’s Atom Architecture: The Journey Begins [AnandTech, April 2, 2008]

Note that Atom-powered Windows 8 tablets will use Intel’s new Clover Trail SoC, the follow-up from Medfield. Clover Trail is effectively a dual-core version of Medfield (using Saltwell core, while Saltwell contains a 32 nm shrink of the original Bonnell), but with a souped up GPU (a dual-core SGX 544MP2 rather than a single SGX 540). It’s still 32nm — but next year we’ll see the process-shrunk and rearchitected Silvermont-based [also the code-name of the new micro-architecture after Bonwell] Valleyview SoC, which technologically will be very exciting indeed. The “only” question mark is the price which I would think could not go below $50 as the latest (Q1’12 intro, with the same 32nm litography) traditional Atom model D2550, having price indication publicly available, has a published tray price (i.e. for 1K units) of $47. Intel’s whole business model is standing on those extraordinary high prices by today’s standards, and these will become unsustainable in the year 2013. Here comes VIA Technologies with its x64 foundation as described here.image (As it is a May 17, 2011 Investor Meeting slide we already know that the 22nm “Future Product” in the upper row is “Haswell”, and also that Silvermont will be incorporated into the same “Shark Bay” client platform as Haswell).

Let’s see first how VIA Technologies presented itself one and a half year ago in its VIA Embedded Intro Video [VIAMKT YouTube channel, June 9, 2011]

VIA Embedded round-up video of silicon platform products and solutions

Then as an update see Where is VIA? An interview with Christian Caldarone [Tom’s Hardware German Edition, Aug 30, 2012]

… My name is Christian Caldarone, born in 1972, and am currently in Germany as a company spokesperson for VIA Embedded. In addition, I am also responsible for the channel business [as Europe Business Account Manager]. TH: Our younger readers may know VIA only as a manufacturer of audio chips or Firewire controllers. So could you briefly introduce the company? CC: VIA was founded in 1987 in California. In 1992 the company moved its headquarters to Taipei, Taiwan. Towards the end of the 1990s it came to the acquisition of the processor manufacturer Cyrix / Centaur, and on the basis of purchased know-how we developed over the following years the C3 CPUs. In 2002 the VIA Embedded Platform Division was established. Since we are focusing increasingly on the embedded market [ VIA EPIA embedded platform, editor’s note]. In terms of the requirements of the future one has to primarily identify VIA for low power, high performance per watt, fanless and quiet design, and miniaturization. The synthesis of these factors from the manufacturer’s perspective can be found in the developed by VIA Mini-, Nano- and Pico-ITXdesigns. … <to be continued after the following short insert explaining these designs>

Embedded Boards [VIA Embedded microsite, Sept 5, 2012]

VIA Embedded Boards enable a new vision for the digital lifestyle, boasting low power consumption and rich integration on ultra compact form factors. Aimed at driving fast-emerging markets for smart connected devices, from stylish digital entertainment systems and feature-rich commercial embedded devices to mobile applications such as robotics and telematics, VIA embedded boards provide the ultimate platform for systems where size, low profile and power efficiency can be combined with a rich entertainment experience. VIA Embedded Boards EPIA Embedded Platform Innovative Architecture VIA EPIA® embedded boards are the embodiment of VIA’s feature rich and power efficient platform technologies. EPIA® boards come in a variety of flavors and form factors. A mix of low-power embedded processors, core logic, networking, connectivity and multimedia components make up the wide selection of available Mini-ITX, Nano-ITX, Pico-ITX and Pico-ITXe embedded boards.

Epan Wu discuss the past and future of the [10 years old] Mini-ITX Platform [VIAMKT YouTube channel, Dec 4, 2011]

Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division Epan Wu discusses the past and future of the 10 years old Mini-ITX Platform

The Mini-ITX was recognized as an industry open standard for small footprint embedded systems. The Nano-ITX and Pico-ITX received the same popularity for even smaller dimension embedded designs.

2002: Mini-ITX VB Series for emerging segment markets 2002: Mini-ITX Desktop Series for a wide range of uses including home media centers, PCs, and file servers 2002: EPIA Mini-ITX Series a flexible, cost effective platform for an almost unlimited variety of applications
2004: EPIA Nano-ITX Series the ideal building block for a wide variety of applications requiring even smaller dimensions March 2009: Em-ITX Series with flexible and easy to extend functionality and I/O ports for a specific vertical application end of 2009: NOW END OF LIFE EPIA Mobile-ITX Series only 6 cm x 6 cm — enabling x86 processing power in handheld system designs*
2007: EPIA Pico-ITX Series to enable x86 architecture for embedded systems where it was previously impractical for space reasons. 2012: ARM-based VAB Series ready-to-use platforms based on Pico-ITX form factor which feature ultra low power consumption, easy system integration, rich I/O and flexible software capabilities

* The EPIA Mobile ITX form factor was the smallest existing COM (Computer-on-module) form factor in the world. The total height of the board-to-board connectors was only 3 mm. It was meant to be used in areas of implementation such as: military, medical, robotics, industrial automation, transportation segments, and handheld devices. VIA_ITX_mainboards_Form_Factor_Comparison1 VIA ITX Mainboards Form Factor Comparison 3000_3210_assy-1 A technical drawing of Em-ITX board and expansion module.

A video showing you how Em-ITX can be assembled in a fanless configuration, using a specially designed chassis.

now continue with Where is VIA? An interview with Christian Caldarone [Tom’s Hardware German Edition, Aug 30, 2012]

VIA currently employs about 2000 people worldwide. The majority of them work in the Embedded Division and in chipsets/CPUs. TH: For a while, VIA chipsets were considered as viable alternatives to offerings from AMD, Intel and Nvidia. Today the company is no longer represented in this segment away from its own platforms, and also happens rather insignificant when compared to the product cycles of the above competitors. Has VIA been getting nowhere? CC: No, VIA again and again presents innovations as well, such as the recently announced QuadCore processor. It runs at 1.2 GHz, supports 64-bit instruction sets, uses adaptive overclocking, and achieved a TDP of only 27.5 watts thanks to its low-power design. In addition, it is an out-of-order architecture. Unlike the products of some competitors there are four real cores, and systems stuck with QuadCore Processor + Vx11 can handle up to 16 GB of RAM. The Vx11 chipset also includes a DirectX 11-compatible GPU called VIA Chrome 645. TH: Is VIA currently working on new x86 CPUs? The Nano/Nano X2 is now at least 5 years old [NOT TRUE as only the 65nm-based Nano is 5 years old, while the 40nm-based Nano X2 was introduced only in Q1 2011, see later] and is manufactured in 40 nm, and also the QuadCore processor is really just a variation of this design – two Nano X2 on one die. [NOT TRUE as 4 cores on 2 dies with access to the same FSB (Front-Side Bus) are integrated together on a carrier package, see later] CC: Of course, there will be new, further developed and improved processors, which is consequential, but currently there is nothing to announce. Our current products can compete well in their segment. [Note: In the article Skirmishes on the desktop: Nettop platforms compared [Tom’s Hardware German Edition, March 29, 2012] VIA’s Nano X2 beat in fact very well Intel’s current at that time Atom D2700, and in several cases could clearly outpace it.] Our customers appreciate not only our portfolio but also the long product life cycle of five to seven years. Therefore, in order to maintain pin compatibility and to support the appropriate longevity of the platform, it is not possible, for example, to perform a simple die-shrink. It sounds so simple: “The structure size is refined.” But the fact is that a die-shrink would require much reworking of the platforms.

… <to be continued later on>

Now see an Introduction To Centaur [Patrick Roberts YouTube channel, July 30, 2012]

Introduction To Centaur Technology … 400 million transistors are in their current processor design …

with the very recent Processor Whispers: About Austin powers and patents [Andreas Stiller on “The H”, Nov 5, 2012]

Austin is not only the capital of Texas and home to Dell’s headquarters, but also a hub of processor development. After all, processors from Intel (Atom), AMD and Apple are designed here. But there is another company… It’s been all but forgotten that, next to the big ones mentioned, you will also find a smaller processor company in Austin, the third of the remaining threesome of x86 developers: Centaur Technologies Inc. For 13 years now, the company has belonged to the Taiwanese chip manufacturer VIA technologies. … the chief of the centaurs, Glenn Henry, was expecting me. … In spite of dramatically poor financial figures for VIA – with around $86 million, the numbers for the first three quarters of 2012 are 23 per cent below the ones from last year – the 70-year-old is optimistic: “We don’t cost much, so even a single per cent of the x86 cake is sufficient. Also, we have interesting new markets in China and increasingly in Brazil too.” For years, the number of employees at his company – just below 100 – has remained mostly constant. And, ultimately, VIA boss Wenchi Chen is one of the richest citizens of Taiwan, with sufficiently deep pockets. Currently, work is being done on the CN-R, a small quad-core processor designed for TSMC’s 28nm process. About a year ago, Centaur released a processor called VIA QuadCore, internally referred to as CN-Q, which is divided onto two chips, in a similar way as the Pentium D was. Each single chip is a VIA Nano X2 manufactured in 40nm that was well able to compete with other chips of its class, like the Atom D510 and the AMD E-350. It is compatible with the classic Eden boards and a quad-core solution for mini-ITX boards was released a few weeks ago, the VIA EPIA P910. Centaur still doesn’t have an integrated memory controller, for external communication they are still using the VIA V4 bus with 1333MHz, which is mostly identical to the bus of the Pentium 4. It serves as a link to the much bigger companion chip from VIA with north and south bridge. However, according to Henry, there are plans to integrate the chips into a SoC. But first, the CN-R is supposed to hit the market in the classic format with clock speeds between 1.2 and 2GHz around mid-2013. Which market that’s going to be, Henry doesn’t know yet: tablets seem likely, the netbook market is all but dead, but there’s still a niche market for small desktop PCs [“mini PCs”] and mini-servers as well as the embedded sector. A few highlights could make the chip stand out among the competition: AVX2 and an advanced PadLock unit with new cryptography operations– Atom and Bobcat/Jaguar don’t offer either. In contrast to Intel’s Haswell processor, however, CN-R will neither support fused multiply-add nor offer a transactional memory extension, as the effort would have been too expensive. Just a few hours before I had arrived, another economically motivated cut had been decided: instead of the initially planned central L3 cache with 4MB, Centaur chose to go down to 2MB in order to save space, costs and, above all, energy. Centaur has to work on the latter in particularto be able to compete with the big players in the business. …

And here is the continuation of Where is VIA? An interview with Christian Caldarone [Tom’s Hardware German Edition, Aug 30, 2012]

Chipsets are passé, embedded products are the future … Chipsets in the traditional sense, such as Northbridge, Southbridge, LPC, etc., are now almost extinct. … This development has to do with the current situation. All manufacturers are increasingly focused on the platform. The idea also makes sense: when everything comes from a single source, the individual components ideally suit each other – and demands are implemented as you wish. Eventually AMD has decided with the acquisition of ATI, to develop their own solutions and to focus only on AMD platforms. The goals of AMD and VIA were simply too different: for AMD it was important to keep up in performance, while VIA’s vision was more of energy efficient platforms. VIA currently has no concrete plans for the return to the chipset division. This is however not a complete rejection. A renewed commitment to the chipset segment is possible and also necessary if customer and partner needs are pronounced strongly enough. TH: You repeatedly called the Embedded Division as VIA’s primary area of operation. The term “embedded” is often equated with tablets, industrial PCs and control systems. What is VIA’s definition of “embedded”? CC:That’s right, the term “embedded” in fact can be interpreted very differently. An early definition is that the CPU is directly soldered and a GPU is integrated. TH: According to this definition, even AMD and Intel build  “embedded” systems with GPU and other integrated components. What sets VIA apart? CC:VIA has offered such designs earlier. The unique selling proposition was also lower energy consumption, allowing a higher performance per watt. Here comes the platform approach to the game again, and AMD and Intel are just gone in the direction that VIA had already taken. There are products of higher integratin in the future, so there is a change to the name and the approach. One hears again and again: “The desktop is dead.” If you look at the current trends, we can see that everywhere. The classic desktop is ousted, various other devices take over its role. Requirements such as Always on the Move, Cloud Computing and Desktop Virtualization are put forward, thus other devices are needed and also user behavior is changed. In the thin-client area VIA is traditionally represented strong. The reason for not so clearly connecting VIA with this segment is because this is not so strongly coming from the brand. The device (as a platform) must work. … TH: How VIA currently defined (and future) its market. Formerly the most visible products are gone – which wants to make money and grow? What is the strategy? Hurts the discontinuation of Windows / PC market (in the old scale)? CC: This is a regional issue: Europe is an important market, and we are committed to continue in the embedded space. Other countries and regions specially for us are less strong on the radar. Then there is again the BRICS region [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, note by the editor], where it first comes to ever affordable PCs, namely to provide classical desktops. One element of this is the recently introduced APC [ a mini-PC platform with a 800 MHz ARM CPU from VIA and Android 2.3 operating system, editor’s note ]. In addition to these ARM based devices, of course x86-based Mini-PCs for the desktop market continue to play a role in our strategy. Here our ARTiGO product series is to be specially mentioned. The VIA ARTiGOs are indeed classic Mini-PCs for the desktop market, but they also have some embedded features and are therefore also suitable for the semi-embedded sector. In addition to the combination of ARTiGO with Windows XP and Windows 7, we were also able to test the ARTiGO A1150 and A1200 successfully with Windows Server 2008. Besides the various Windows versions Ubuntu and SuSE are also officially supported by VIA. TH: Where VIA will surprise us in the future? The fields that are particularly prominent? Where does the company see its biggest opportunities?

Published on Sep 13, 2012 by VIAMKT. VIA Embedded was in attendance at the 2012 Digital Signage Workshop in Taipei, showcasing their range of complete package solutions for dynamic digital signage including the latest VIA Magic Box and 3D Holographic display.

CC: Our products will still be much smaller, we will consume even less electric power, and we will put even more features in an even smaller space. We see special opportunities in Digital Signage, Medical Computing and Thin Clients. Here, the thin client must be understood as a device with which to connect to the cloud. … Thin Clients with a VIA CPU offer here a special advantage for security because our own integrated PadLock Security Co-processor can take over the encryption of data. Hardware encryption is classified as 100 times more secure than pure software-based encryption, loading the CPU significantly less, and this saves even more power here. Downright secure on-the-fly encryption can be seen as an essential component of cloud computing, and thus corresponds to the requirement of the customers. … … TH: Tablets are a growing market. Will VIA in this segment offer a suitable (processor) solution? Does VIA has an ARM license? If not, would an x86 design for Win8 tablets be possible? … In China, many manufacturers are already using [ARM] solutions from VIA. Exactly these markets are targeted by our subsidiary Wonder Media with the WonderMedia PRIZM SoC [an ARM-compatible, integrated processor, editor’s note]. … There are other products – medical devices or instruments – based on ARM designs. What they need is often enough to have a well-adjusted SoC. It is not always clear that there is a VIA-solution. As with the display and other components it is subject to special requirements (moisture, shock, heat, etc.). These customers also appreciate the long product life cycles. In the consumer sector, it is the opposite, since latest features require short product life cycles. We will definitely have platforms for Windows 8 in the portfolio, for whatever kind of application. So you see, VIA Technologies could theoretically have both an ARM-based Win8 tablet and one driven on the x86-base. … TH: How VIA stands for low-power servers? After all, AMD has just bought SeaMicro, and HP and other companies are now using ARM chips in servers. CC: This segment is one of the more interesting for VIA, and we expect a good chance. An ARM-based solution here would be particularly attractive and allow the clients to realize an effective and efficient platform. Linux versions and also Android run now everywhere, providing nothing in the way of the usage itself. An ARM-based server solution is limited by the performance and in scope – so to say, the usage is very specific to the application. Therefore x86 is also important for the foreseeable future. And also with our x86 CPUs we see good opportunities. There are efforts to use them as power-saving CPUs in all data centers of the world. We have even more advantages with our quad processor alongside the low power consumption: CPU virtualization, the just mentioned security co-processor, and a large L2 cache by which it can compete quite well in performance with server processors of the competitors. In terms of cache throughput in so-called heavy-lifting tasks, such as database applications, for example, there is only seven percent difference to the Xeon 5110. I had already mentioned another benefit as well: the VX11 chipset and the QuadCore processor can manage up to 16 GB memory. With Intel’s Atom CPUs it is 4 GB. Virtualization is a really exciting skill – not least for the administration. It is possible, for example, to measure the average power consumption per virtual machine and to measure the system accordingly. As the first choice it is advisable to use our platform together with the KVM [Kernel-based Virtual Machine] hypervisor since it is also officially supported by VIA. KVM is a very serious virtualization solution that for some time now is tightly integrated into the Linux kernel. The decision of the major Linux distributions Ubuntu and SuSE, to use KVM as their preferred hypervisor, has once again to be underlined. Another advantage arises also through the availability and development of the appropriate administrative and conversion tools, extensive cloud/IaaS and orchestrator solutions (see http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Management_Tools), which have also helped to pave the way in professional, commercial use of KVM. The combination of the VIA QuadCore and the KVM hypervisor currently has the best virtualization per watt ratio in the x86 market. Extrapolating 8 virtual machines per VIA QuadCore (27.5 watts TDP), the average per VM incurred is only 3.44 Watt, while for 10 VMs it takes only 2.75 watt. The long product life cycle of the VIA platform also enables a consistently homogeneous landscape, in which, for example, only a single hypervisor OS image is required, which can then be loaded from a central point to any number of platforms. But not everything can be virtualized. A good example are services such as VoIP. So one needs additionally a small server that will work then in the most cost efficient and energy saving way. And in this context, a long product life cycle and high reliability are important. Especially for the latter making electromechanical parts unnecessary is useful as well. An unnecessary fan for VIA Eden just could not fail.

Now look at

the current business situation of the VIA Technologies:

Intel’s market share was 83.3 percent in the third quarter [of 2012], growing from 80.6 percent in the same quarter the previous quarter. AMD’s market share was 16.1 percent, falling from 18.8 percent. VIA Technologies, which largely makes chips for low-cost PCs, had a 0.6 percent market share. [Mercury Research via IDG News Service]

For the full year 2011, Intel earned 80.1% overall worldwide unit market share, a loss of 0.6% compared to 2010. In 2011, AMD earned 19.7%, a gain of 0.7% compared to 2010. VIA Technologies earned 0.2%, a loss of 0.1%. [IDC]

In the full year 2010, Intel earned 80.7% unit market share, a gain of 1.1%, AMD earned 19.0%, a loss of 1.1%, and VIA Technologies earned 0.3%. [IDC]

VIA Announces October Sales Results [VIA Technologies press release, Nov 2, 2012]

Table 1: VIA October Sales Revenue In thousands of US dollars

Net Sales 2012 2011 Y-on-Y Change (%)
October 8,816 9,112 -3.25%
January through October 97,455 124,510 -21.73%

The company is selling a lot of products to the embedded market, also as boards (see: Nano based, Nano X2 based, Eden X2 based, and Quadcore E based), as well as some of its products are appearing in 3d party end-user products sold in volume globally. Below we could see some volume offerings in the end-user category which came to the market in the last 12 months. Examples of the 3d party thin client/mini PC products: Based on Nano and VX900 chipset (MSP): – Devon IT Launches Dual DVI VIA-Based TC5V Thin Client [Jan 18, 2012] where Devon IT is a U.S. based company with offices in London, Shanghai and Bangalore, selling globally. The TC5VX comes with Windows Embedded Standard 7 and the Devon IT Thin Client – TC5VX – 2 GB RAM – 1.3 GHz – 0 GB HDD is currently sold in 7 stores for $438 and up; while the TC5VL with DeTOS 7 (a Linux based thin client operating system developed by Devon IT and including RDP 7.1 and offering Microsoft RemoteFX functionality for Windows Server 2008 R2) and the Devon IT Thin Client – TC5VL – 1 GB RAM – 1.3 GHz – 0 GB HDD is currently sold in 13 stores for $281 and up. Based on Nano X2 and VX900H chipset (MSP): – ZOTAC Launches Affordable Palm-Sized ZBOX nano VD01 Series mini-PCs [Oct 6, 2011] where ZOTAC is a Macau based manufacturer of graphics cards, mini-ITX motherboards and mini-PCs sold in all continents around the globe, and with over 6,000 workers and a combined 100,000 square-meters of factory space. ZOTAC ZBOX nano – VD01 PLUS – 2 GB RAM – 1.2 GHz – 320 GB HDD with Windows 7 is currently sold in 79 stores for $230 and up or you can buy ZOTAC ZBOX nano – VD01 – 0 MB RAM – 1.2 GHz – 0 GB HDD with Windows 7 selling for $160 and up from 28 stores. Based on Eden X2: – HP Introduces Thin Clients with Unprecedented Security, Exceptional Flexibility and Performance [Feb 13, 2012]: “… the powerful new HP t610 Flexible Series Thin Client and HP t510 Thin Client … The HP t610 features a dual-core AMD G-series processor with integrated discrete-class AMD Radeon graphics … at 1.65 GHz … The HP t510 also features the VIA Eden X2 U4200 1GHz dual-core CPU …”. The HP Flexible Thin Client – T510 – 2 GB RAM – 1 GHz – 0 GB HDD is currently sold in 70 stores for $217 and up or you can the same HP Flexible Thin Client – T510 – 2 GB RAM – 1 GHz – 0 GB HDD for $195 and up from 55 stores. The HP t510 Thin client is pre-configured with one of the following: – Genuine Windows® Embedded Standard 7 – Genuine Windows® Embedded Standard 2009 – HP ThinPro – HP Smart Zero Client Service Example of a 3d party POS terminal: Based on Nano: – Product Launch Notice-KS-6715 series [Dec 7, 2011] from the Taiwanese Posiflex Technology focusing on POS Terminals and peripherals with 350 employees and selling globally through subsidiaries in China, Malaysia, India, Germany, USA and Argentina. The Posiflex Fan-Free – KS6715 – 2 GB RAM – 1.6 GHz – 160 GB HDD (a touch based POS terminal) with Windows Embedded POSReady7 is currently sold in 12 stores for $781 and up. Windows 8: only driver support is available as follows

VIA has released Windows 8 drivers for the VX11 Media System Processor, available through the driver portal. The VX900 drivers for Windows 7 do also support Windows 8 and VIA is working with Microsoft to have them re-classified as Windows 8 drivers. Until then, the VX900 drivers for Windows 7 can be used as a solution for Windows 8, available through the driver portal. Older VIA chipsets (than the VX900 and VX11) can run Windows 8 using the default drivers built into Windows 8, but some graphical features of Windows 8 may not be supported and it is not recommended.

(+ drivers for Windows 8 for the VIA HD audio chips)

Now it is time to have

a deep insight into the latest technology advances

made by VIA Technologies:

VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX Motherboard with a cassette tape for comparison

VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX Motherboard with a cassette tape for comparison

VIA_EPIA P910 45 with logo L_original_VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX board (measuring 10 cm x 7.2 cm) combining a 1.0GHz VIA QuadCore E-Series processor (the 2 chips on the “smaller brown” carrier on the right) and the latest VIA VX11H MSP (single chip on the “big brown carrier” on the left) for superior performance and outstanding display capabilities.

VIA EPIA-P910 board essential block diagramm from the datasheet

The essential block diagram of the VIA EPIA-P910 board from the datasheet

VIA Announces First QuadCore Pico-ITX Board with 3D Display Capabilities [VIA Technologies press release, Sept 6, 2012]

VIA EPIA-P910 features new VIA VX11H media system processor with DX11 support for immersive display environments Taipei, Taiwan, 6th September, 2012 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient computing platforms, today announced the VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX board, the first VIA board to feature the latest VIA VX11H MSP in combination with a VIA QuadCore E-Series processor. Providing superior performance and outstanding display capabilities, the VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX provides the ideal platform for a wide array of next-generation ultra compact devices for applications in health-care, logistics, fleet management and other vertical market segments. The VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX is the first VIA board to include the VIA VX11H MSP which provides the latest in graphic capabilities, including DirectX 11 support, for richer textures as well as 3D stereoscopic display. In combination with a 1.0GHz VIA QuadCore E-Series processor, the VIA EPIA-P910 offers high performance computing in an ultra compact, low power design with today’s latest connectivity options including HDMI and USB 3.0. “The VIA EPIA-P910 features the most advanced technology from VIA with the latest VIA VX11H MSP and VIA QuadCore E-Series processor,” said Epan Wu Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “It provides superior computing performance and the richest display capabilities allowing embedded system designers to innovate for immersive embedded environments.” About VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX Based on the incredibly compact Pico-ITX form factor, measuring 10 cm x 7.2 cm, the VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX combines a 1.0GHz VIA QuadCore E-Series processor and the latest VIA VX11H MSP to offer superior computing performance for ultra compact systems. The VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX supports up 8GB of 1333MHz DDR3 memory, HD audio, HDMI, VGA and LVDS display connectivity as well as a high performance hardware HD video decoder in the shape of the latest VIA Chromotion 5.0 video processor. On board pin headers and an extension board to board connector provide support for an additional 6 USB 2.0 ports, an LPC connector, SMBus connector, PS/2 support, audio jacks, LVDS, 4 pairs of DIO and two UART ports. Rear I/O includes one HDMI port, one VGA port, 2 USB 3.0 ports and 1 GigaLAN port. For more information about the VIA EPIA-P910 please visit: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/boards/1950/1/EPIA-P910.html For more information about the VIA VX11H MSP, please visit: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/processors/1951/1/VX11_(Single-Chip).html

VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX Motherboard in a hand VIA EPIA-P910 Pico-ITX Motherboard VIA_vx11_and_vx11H_blkdiagram_original_ VIA VX11 (and VX11H) Media System Processor (MSP) [“chipset” on a single chip] block diagram

VIA VX11 Media System Processor: Breathing Life into 3D and High Definition Video Playback [VIA Chipsets, Sept 5, 2012]

The VIA VX11 media system processor (MSP) family is designed for next generation desktop, small form factor and all-in-one PCs, offering a world-class HD multimedia platform for media-intensive applications. The VIA VX11 features the VIA Chrome 640\645, a genuine DirectX11 graphics processor that offers richer visual and 3D contentsfor immersive environments. The VIA VX11 DX11GPU is designed to leverage the power of parallel processing and provides support for sophisticated shading and texturing techniques such as tessellation for smoother 3D animation and more lifelike graphics. Including Shader 5.0 to integrate cohesive post graphic processing, DirectCompute 11 for scalable GPGPU computing, as well as better multithreading and control for parallel computing, the VIA VX11 MSP provides enhanced graphic capabilities for today’s media intensive applications and has been designed to support OpenCL™. The VIA VX11 MSP has received SuperSpeed USB certification from USB-IF and supports up to 3 USB 3.0 ports for data transfer speeds up to ten times faster than USB 2.0 with optimized power efficiency. The VIA VX11 MSP features the high-performance and versatile VIA Chromotion 5.0 video processor, providing ultra smooth decoding of MPEG-4, H.264, MPEG-2, and VC-1. It offers advanced filtering and cutting edge post-processing. Support for the latest connectivity standards includes Display Port, HDMI, DVP, VGA and LVDS. The VIA VX11 MSP supports up to 16GB of the latest DDR3 system memory at speeds of up to 1600MHz and is compatible with the VIA QuadCore, VIA Nano™, and VIA Eden™ processor families. Integrating all the features of a traditional North and South bridge solution into a 33mm x 33mm single chip package and leveraging the 40nm advanced manufacturing process, the VIA VX11 is a single chip solution that reduces overall silicon footprint and lowers system power consumption. VIA VX11 Media System Processor: Key Features

  • High Performance Hardware HD Video Decoder:Smooth hardware acceleration for MPEG-4, H.264, MPEG-2, and VC-1 for advanced browser streamed video technologies
  • Advanced Display Connectivity:Supports the latest display standards including DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI and VGA in multi-display configurations
  • DX11 Graphics Performance:TheVIA Chrome 640/645integrated graphics processor is fully DirectX 11 certified and includes a 128-bit 2D engine
  • SuperSpeed USB Certification:Has received SuperSpeed USB certification form the USB-IF and supports up to 3 USB 3.0 ports
  • HD Audio support:VIA Vinyl HD Audio controller supports up to eight high definition channels with a 192kHz sampling rate, delivering a richer all-round digital media experience
  • Memory Support:Memory controller technology supports the lower power, high-bandwidth DDR3 memory modules with speeds up to 1600MHz
  • Fully Integrated technology support: Supports the low power device interfaces of SDIO 3.0, UART, SPI, LPC as well as six USB 2.0 ports

VIA Chromotion 5.0 The VIA Chromotion 5.0 is a high performance video processor supports stereoscopic decoding in MVC format bringing 3D content to life. Also boasting hardware acceleration of the H.264 HD encoding technology that is driving today’s advanced online HD video streaming services, the VIA Chromotion 5.0 video processor brings crisp, smooth 1080p HD video contentto life without hogging key system resources or resorting to an additional third party decoder. The Chromotion 5.0 video processor supports the latest video codecsincluding full Blu-ray support at true HD screen resolutions, including dual 1080p HD decode and playback of MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9, VC-1 and H.264 content. Additional enhancements include H.264 HD encoder, motion compensation, transform, de-blocking, full VLD support, and AVS support. Full frame rate playback of MPEG-2, H.264 and Windows Media Video-based codecs, including VC-1 at full 1080p resolutions, is assisted by hardware acceleration assistance and includes Advanced Profile level 4 support on WMV/VC-1 content and High Profile level 4.1 for H.264-based content. Advanced Display Connectivity Integrated display support includes a dedicated CRT interface, integrated LVDS transmitter, a multiplexed display interface for DisplayPort and HDMI and parallel digital video output port (DVP) to external HMDI/LVDS/DVI transmitter. The VIA VX11 MSP provides multi-monitor extended desktop support where two independent display engines can display different content at different resolutions, pixel depths and refresh rates. VIA Vinyl HD Audio As the PC platform increasingly becomes the central device for home entertainment, the HD Audio codecs provide home theatre quality performance with support for the latest high definition audio content in Blu-ray and other popular HD audio formats. The VIA Vinyl HD audio codec is a low power, high-fidelity 8-channel high definition audio codec designed for desktop PC audio systems, supporting QSound, DTS Connect, Dolby1 Digital Live, Dolby PCEE program, SRS Lab and Creative technologies. HD DVD Audi Content protection is also supported for full-rate lossless DVD audio, and HD DVD audio content playback.

VIA_VX11 Chip_original_ The VIA VX11 chip (the VX11H looks the same) on its carrier VIA_VX11_internal_block_diagram VIA VX11 internal block diagram Note that it has Windows 8 support and the graphics and video capabilities in the VIA VX11 and VX11H are based on S3 Graphics technology about which we should know that VIA Technologies Announces Sale of Stake in S3 Graphics [VIA Technologies press release, July 6, 2011]:

Taipei, Taiwan, July 6, 2011 – VIA Technologies, Inc. (“VIA”) today announced the signing of definitive agreement to sell all of its shareholding in S3 Graphics Co., Ltd. (“S3 Graphics”) to HTC Corporation (“HTC”). S3 Graphics is a leading provider of innovative graphics visualization technologies used in PCs, game consoles and, more recently, mobile devices.
VIA acquired S3 Graphics in 2001 with the intention to accelerate integration of graphics capabilities with its processor and chipset products. S3 Graphics became undercapitalized in 2005, and VIA introduced WTI Investment International, Ltd. (“WTI”) as a new investor to help fund the operations and R&D initiatives. WTI is a private investment company, in which Cher Wang, Chairman of VIA, is a significant shareholder.
Under terms of the agreement with HTC, total consideration for all outstanding shares of S3 Graphics will be US$300 million. Of which, VIA will receive US$147 million; and WTI will receive US$153 million. VIA will recognize a capital gain of US$ $37 million and paid-in-capital of US$ 115 million in this transaction.

Note that this $300M acquisition of S3 Graphics by HTC was based on an ongoing lawsuit against Apple by S3 Graphics to be used in negotiating with Apple. This was lost in November last year but nevertheless could have figured positively for HTC’s recent settlement with Apple (as only HTC was able to negotiate a settlement with Apple so far) in which Apple To Get $6-$8 Per Phone Fee From HTC, Analyst Says [Forbes, Nov 12, 2012]:

Apple will receive an estimated $6-$8 per phone licensing fee from HTC under the patent litigation settlement the two companies announced on Saturday, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said in a research note this morning.
“Financial terms were not disclosed but we believe AAPL is likely getting a net licensing fee due to its much stronger patent portfolio and we think position as undisputed inventor of the modern smart phone with touchscreen,” he writes. “We view this as a positive and the big question is whether Samsung and Motorola will also reach settlement agreements.”
He estimates that at $6-$8 per HTC phone sold, the company will generate an additional $180 million to $200 million annual revenue; he says that is lower than the range that Apple initially proposed. Wu notes that there have been previous reports that HTC pays Microsoft $5 per phone running Android.
The bottom line, he notes, is that the deal is basically immaterial to Apple. “For a lot of companies, $180-280 million in annual licensing revenue from one vendor is material but for AAPL it will likely be immaterial to its financials given its large revenue base of $193 billion and $48 billion in net income that the investment community is forecasting for FY 2013,” he writes.

World’s Smallest x86 Quad Core System, VIA ARTiGO A1250 [VIA Technologies press release, Oct 31, 2012]

ARTiGO A1250_comparison_L_medium.jpg Features USB 3.0, stereoscopic 3D and HD video support, for an immersive multimedia experience Taipei, Taiwan, 31st October, 2012 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient computing platforms, today announced the world’s smallest x86 quad core system, the VIA ARTiGO A1250 slim system, featuring a 1.0GHz VIA QuadCore processor and the latest VIA VX11H media system processor (MSP), in chassis the size of a paperback novel. The ultra-compact VIA ARTiGO A1250, is suitable for a myriad of applications in the home or office, including home server, home automation, hotel management, media streaming, digital signage and surveillance as well as medical and healthcare applications. The VIA ARTiGO A1250 leverages the VIA VX11H MSP to deliver an immersive multimedia experience complete with 3D stereoscopic and HD display support in a low power envelope, which a typical power consumption of a mere 32W TDP. The VIA ARTiGO A1200 can fit easily into any environment, whether it is behind a monitor or on the wall with a 10 x 10 cm VESA mount or placed alongside other home media devices. For system developers, VIA provides third party software security through a unique hardware/software design. “By leveraging the ultra compact Pico-ITX form factor, the VIA ARTiGO A1250 is able to deliver a powerful x86 quad core computing experience in the smallest system design on the market,” said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA ARTiGO A1250 boasts the latest technology with 3D stereoscopic display and USB 3.0 support for an unparalleled ultra compact computing experience, making small truly beautiful.” VIA ARTiGO A1250 ARTiGO A1250_with mount_L_medium.jpg The VIA ARTiGO A1250 is the slimmest full featured quad core system on the market today with an ultra low-profile design measuring a mere 17.7cm x 12.5cm x 3.0cm (W X D X H), a full ten percent smaller than the VIA ARTiGO A1150 series. A power efficient 1.0GHz VIA QuadCore E-Series processor is combined with the latest highly integrated all-in-one VIA VX11H MSP which features the integrated VIA Chromotion 5.0 video processor with DX11 support for richer textures and 3D stereoscopic display. The VIA ARTiGO A1250 delivers an exceptional multimedia experience with advanced filtering and cutting edge post-processing to perform ultra smooth decoding of H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, and WMV9 for smooth playback of the most demanding multimedia titles at resolutions up to 1080p without incurring a heavy CPU load. The unique dual-sided I/O coastline interface includes one HDMI and one VGA display port, one GigaLAN Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, audio jacks (Line-in/out and mic-in) and 12V DC-in power. For more information about the VIA ARTiGO A1250 please visit: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/systems/1990/1/ARTiGO_A1250_(Pico-ITX).html

Here is an introductory video looking at the VIA ARTiGO A1250. The World’s smallest x86 quad core system on the market to date. The size of the new system is compared to the A1150 (as in the press release) and the previous generation A1200 model with fanless slim design.

Current ARTiGO pricing can be checked on E-ITX.com:

– VIA ARTiGO A1250 for $320 with VX11H MSP (for a configuration with 0 GB RAM, 0 ODD, 0 GB HDD, no IEEE802.11b/g/n WiFi Kit, no OS, no system testing and assembly) and up (when the missing things indicated are added), delivery is promised for December – VIA ARTiGO A1150 for $259 with [VX900H MSP] Chrome9 HD DX9 3D/2D Video Processor w/HDMI & VGA Display Outputs (for a configuration with 1 GB RAM, 0 ODD, 0 GB HDD, no 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Module Kit, no Antennas for Wireless LAN Module Kit, no OS, no system testing and assembly) and up (when the missing things indicated are added), next day shipment – VIA ARTiGO A1200 for $319 with VX900 MSP (for a configuration with 0 GB RAM, 0 ODD, 0 GB HDD, no Wireless LAN or 3G WAN Network, no WiFi Antennas, no OS, no system testing and assembly) and up (when the missing things indicated are added), next day shipment – Windows operating system prices (w/OEM License [and DVD]):

  • Win7 Home Premium 64-bit: $120
  • Win7 Professional 64-bit: $160
  • Win7 Ultimate 64-bit: $200
  • Win XP Pro 32-bit with OEM License ONLY: $185

CPUs used:

VIA Eden X2 Unveiled at Embedded Word 2011, World’s Most Power-Efficient Dual Core Processor [VIA Technologies press release, March 1, 2011]

VIA Eden X2 processors bring unrivalled power efficiency and fanless stability to embedded markets without compromising on performance Taipei, Taiwan, 1 March, 2011 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the new VIA Eden X2 processor, the industry’s lowest power dual-core processor, optimized for fanless implementation in a broad range of industrial and commercial embedded systems. VIA Eden X2 will debut at Embedded World 2011, Nuremberg, Hall 12, Booth No. 574 VIA Eden X2 processors combine VIA’s signature ‘Eden’ fanless design principles, in a highly optimized, power-efficient dual-core architecture. This guarantees rock-solid stability for mission critical embedded systems without compromising on performance or features. With a component longevity guarantee of 7 years, VIA Eden X2 processors are guaranteed to extend the reach of fanless system design for years to come. “Eden X2 shows how once again VIA is setting the pace when it comes to highly optimized, power-efficient processing,” said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Embedded developers will relish the opportunity to integrate a native 64-bit, dual-core processor in passively cooled, ultra stable systems.” VIA_Eden_X2_processor_Front_and_back_medium.jpg VIA Eden X2 – Dual-Core Processing on a Fanless Power Budget Leveraging the latest 40nm manufacturing process, VIA Eden X2 processors combine two 64-bit, superscalar VIA Eden cores on one die, offering enhanced multi-tasking and superb multimedia performance on a rigidly low power budget. VIA Eden X2 processors are the most power-efficient processors on the market, designed to offer the ideal solution for fanless system design. VIA Eden X2 processors bring additional features that include VIA VT virtualization, a technology that allows legacy software and applications to be used in virtual scenarios without impacting on performance. The unique VIA AES Security Engine offers hardware-based data encryption on the fly, and essential tool in content protection and system security. VIA Eden X2 processors are natively 64-bit compatible, facilitating an essential transition for the future of the embedded industry as 64-bit operating systems such as Windows® Embedded Standard 7 allow for vastly improved data throughput per clock cycle. This makes it easier to manipulate large data sets and improves overall performance. VIA Eden X2 processors are also fully compatible with Windows CE and Linux operating systems. VIA Eden X2 processors are based on the latest 40nm manufacturing process using a VIA NanoBGA2 package of 21mm x 21mm with a die size of 11mm x 6mm. All VIA Eden X2 processors and are fully pin-to-pin compatible with VIA Eden, VIA C7 and VIA Nano E-Series processors. Product Highlights

  • Industry-leading power-efficient architecture
  • 7 year longevity guarantee
  • Advanced multi-core processing
  • Native support for 64-bit operating systems
  • High-performance superscalar processing
  • Out-of-order x86 architecture
  • Most efficient speculative floating point algorithm
  • Full processor virtualization support
  • Advanced power and thermal management
  • VIA AES hardware security features
  • Pin-to-pin compatibility with VIA processors range

VIA cProcessors are sampling now to project customers. Systems and boards featuring the VIA Eden X2 will be available in Q2 2011. For information about VIA Eden X2 processors, please visit: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/edenX2/

Basic RGB

VIA Announces VIA Nano X2 Dual-Core Processor [VIA Technologies press release, Jan 4, 2011]

Brings advanced multi-core performance to energy-efficient PCs without raising the heat Taipei, Taiwan, 4 January 2011 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced its latest VIA Nano X2 processor for mainstream PC markets. Based on a 40 nanometer fabrication process, the VIA Nano X2 delivers better computational performance and improved multi-tasking ability without consuming more power. “The VIA Nano X2 processor arrives at a time when software architectures are now optimized to for multi-thread computing,” commented Richard Brown, VP International Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Improvements in semi-conductor fabrication means we can now double the number of processor cores while maintaining the same low energy consumption levels that our customers are used to.” VIA Nano X2 processors are targeting a range of PC products that include desktop, all-in-one and mobile notebook designs while extending the reach of VIA’s processor portfolio into multitasking and performance-oriented segments. VIA Nano X2 processors offer end-users the most optimized, power-efficient computing experience on the market today. VIA Nano X2 Processor VIA Nano X2 processors are built using the advanced 64-bit, superscalar ‘Isaiah’ architecture that powers previous single-core VIA Nano processors, adopted worldwide for a growing number of market-leading mini-note, small form factor desktop, and energy-efficient server designs. Featuring two out-of-order x86 cores, VIA Nano X2 processors deliver up to double the performance on multi-thread optimized applications and also come with SSE4, native 64-bit support, VT CPU virtualization technology, and VIA PadLock™ hardware security features. VIA Nano X2 processors are also pin-to-pin compatible with previous VIA Nano, VIA C7, VIA C7-M and VIA Eden processors, facilitating easy upgrades of existing designs. Product Highlights

  • Advanced multi-core processing
  • Power-efficient out-of-order x86 architecture
  • Full support for 64-bit operating systems
  • High-performance superscalar processing
  • Most efficient speculative floating point algorithm
  • Full processor virtualization support
  • Advanced power and thermal management
  • VIA PadLock™ hardware security features
  • Pin-to-pin compatibility with other VIA processors

VIA Nano X2 processors are also compatible with all VIA media system processors and digital media chipsets including the latest VIA VX900 and VIA VN1000. VIA Nano X2 Availability VIA Nano X2 processors samples are currently available for OEMs and motherboard vendors, with systems featuring the processors expected to arrive in Q1 2011.

VIA Small Form Factor Solutions in Multi-Core [VIAMKT YouTube channel, Oct 19, 2011]

VIA Embedded discusses the role multi core processors will play in the future embedded market and how VIA is strongly positioned to fulfill the industries needs of tomorrow through our comprehensive platform solutions. Discussed are the Eden X2 platform providing the lowest power consumption with dual core in embedded, and VIA Quadcore & VIA Nano X2 platform providing competitive performance to the other solution in embedded.

VIA Nano™ X2 E-Series Dual Core Processors Debut at Embedded System Conference [VIA Technologies press release, April 29, 2011]

VIA Nano X2 E-Series processors deliver highly-optimized power-efficient dual core solution for advanced 64-bit x86 embedded system design applications Taipei, Taiwan, 29 April, 2011 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced that it will unveil its new family of low power dual core VIA Nano X2 Series processors at the Embedded System Conference, held at the McEnery Convention Center, San Jose from 2 – 5 May. The VIA booth is located at No 2032. VIA Nano X2 E-Series processors combine a highly optimized, power-efficient dual-core architecture with advanced performance for the most demanding 86-bit x86 embedded system design applications. Available in two models running at speeds of 1.2+ GHz and 1.6+ GHz, VIA Nano X2 E-Series Processors also come with a component longevity guarantee of 7 years. “The VIA Nano X2 E-Series demonstrates how VIA continues to lead the way in bringing highly optimized, power-efficient 64-bit x86 processors to the embedded market,” said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “With their advanced performance, these processors provide developers with exciting new embedded system design options.” VIA Nano X2 E-Series Leveraging the latest 40nm manufacturing process, VIA Nano X2 E-Series processors combine two 64-bit, superscalar VIA Nano cores on one die, offering enhanced multi-tasking and superb multimedia performance on a low power budget. VIA Nano X2 E-Series processors bring additional features that include VIA VT virtualization, a technology that allows legacy software and applications to be used in virtual scenarios without impacting on performance. The unique VIA AES Security Engine offers hardware-based data encryption on the fly, an essential tool in content protection and system security. VIA Nano X2 E-Series processors are natively 64-bit compatible, facilitating an essential transition for the future of the embedded industry as 64-bit operating systems such as Windows® Embedded Standard 7 allow for vastly improved data throughput per clock cycle. This makes it easier to manipulate large data sets and improves overall performance. VIA Nano X2 E-Series processors are also fully compatible with Windows CE and Linux operating systems. VIA Nano X2 E-Series processors are based on the latest 40nm manufacturing process using a VIA NanoBGA2 package of 21mm x 21mm with a die size of 11mm x 6mm. They are also fully pin-to-pin compatible with VIA Eden, VIA C7 and VIA Nano E-Series, and VIA Eden X2 processors. Product Highlights

  • Industry-leading power-efficient architecture
  • 7 year longevity guarantee
  • Advanced multi-core processing
  • Native support for 64-bit operating systems
  • High-performance superscalar processing
  • Out-of-order x86 architecture
  • Most efficient speculative floating point algorithm
  • Full processor virtualization support
  • Advanced power and thermal management
  • VIA AES hardware security features
  • Pin-to-pin compatibility with VIA processors range

VIA Nano X2 E-Series Processors are sampling now to project customers. Systems and boards featuring VIA Nano X2 E-Series processors will be available in Q2 2011.

… The VIA EPIA-M900 and VIA EPIA-M910 are the first two Mini-ITX boards to feature the 1.2GHz VIA QuadCore E-Series processor, offering enhanced multi-tasking and superb multimedia performance on the lowest quad core power budget for next generation embedded products. The VIA QuadCore E-Series processor features a highly optimized, energy efficient multi-core architecture, which is natively 64-bit compatible and comes with a host of additional performance features including Adaptive Overclocking. To meet the low power demands of the embedded market, the VIA QuadCore E-Series processor offers industry-leading energy efficiency, with the VIA QuadCore E-Series 1.2+ GHz processor delivering a thermal design power (TDP) of only 27.5W. The distributed power of the VIA QuadCore E-Series processor makes it ideal for handling the most demanding HD video formats for immersive multi-display applications and environments. “The VIA QuadCore E-Series processor delivers world class performance in the industry’s leading power efficient package,” said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The high performance of the VIA QuadCore E-Series processor makes it the perfect platform for the creation of next generation digital signage displays and embedded projects.” … From: VIA Announces World’s First Quad Core Mini-ITX Boards [VIA Technologies press release, Feb 23, 2012] VIA_QuadCore_E-Series_Processor_Angle_medium.jpg

VIA Announces New VIA QuadCore Processor [VIA Technologies press release, May 12, 2011]

World’s lowest power quad core x86 processor sets the new baseline standard for the next generation of mainstream PCs and notebooks Taipei, Taiwan, 12 May, 2011 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the launch of the VIA QuadCore processor, the lowest power quad core processor on the market today. Featuring a highly optimized, energy-efficient multi-core architecture, the VIA QuadCore processor delivers awesome multi-threaded performance across the board for multi-tasking, multimedia playback, productivity and internet browsing in a low power envelope. The distributed performance of the VIA QuadCore also makes it ideal for making the most of multi-display environments. With a TDP (Thermal Design Power) of only 27.5 watts, the 1.2+ GHz VIA QuadCore processor is 21% more energy efficient than the nearest competitor and ideal for a wide range of desktop PC, notebook, small form factor PC, all-in-one PC, and mini-server system design applications. “As a result of the rapid proliferation of high definition multimedia content and increasingly demanding multithreaded applications, a four core processor is the new baseline for today’s mainstream PC user,” said Epan Wu, Head of Processor Platforms, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA QuadCore processor meets that need with the industry’s most power efficient architecture.” VIA QuadCore Processor VIA QuadCore processors combine four ‘Isaiah’ cores on two dies, offering enhanced multi-tasking and superb multimedia performance on a low power budget. Initially available at a speed of 1.2+GHz, VIA QuadCore processors are natively 64-bit compatible and come with a host of additional performance features including Adaptive Overclocking, 4MB L2 cache, and the 1333MHz V4 Bus. TDP is 27.5 watts. Other advanced features include VIA VT virtualization, a technology that allows legacy software and applications to be used in virtual scenarios without impacting on performance, and VIA PadLock with the Advanced Cryptography Engine which delivers the world’s fastest AES encryption. This hardware-based security feature offers data encryption on the fly, an essential tool in content protection and system security. VIA QuadCore processors are manufactured using the latest 40nm process, and feature a VIA NanoBGA2 package of 21mm x 21mm with a die size of 11mm x 6mm. They are also fully pin-to-pin compatible with VIA Eden, VIA C7 and VIA Nano E-Series, and VIA Eden X2 processors. Product Highlights

  • Power-efficient architecture
  • High-performance superscalar processing
  • Out-of-order x86 architecture
  • Efficient floating point unit (2 clock SP multiplies)
  • Advanced multi-core processing
  • Native support for 64-bit operating systems
  • Hardware virtualization support
  • Advanced power and thermal management
  • AES hardware security features
  • Secure Hash Algorithm: SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512
  • Pin-to-pin compatibility with VIA processor range

VIA QuadCore processors will be on display at the VIA booth at Computex (Taipei International Convention Center, Room 201D) from May 31st to June 4th, and will begin volume shipments in Q3 2011. To go to the product page for the VIA QuadCore processor, please click here.

Next look at

the preceding technology level with the Isaiah core and the companion MSPs

when they were first born “At the same power we moved the performance up with this architecture … tried to double the performance at the same power”: Glenn Henry Introduces the VIA Isaiah Architecture [VIAMKT YouTube channel, Jan 8, 2008]

Glenn Henry, president of VIA subsidiary Centaur Technology Inc. discusses the brand new VIA Isaiah Architecture for the next generation of x86 processors with the best performance per watt for the mobile internet.

and some more details are in the VIA’s New Isaiah / CN Processor [frgmstr YouTube channel, Jan 23, 2008] video:

Glenn Henry, president of Centaur technology talks about the performance of the new CN processor and compares it to Intel’s Silverthorn [Atom Z5xx with 45 nm technology released in April 2008].

See also: – the description of the he first silicon version of the new VIA Isaiah Architecture: The VIA Isaiah Architecture [Centaur Technology, Inc., January 2008] – VIA Unveils Next-Generation Isaiah x86 Processor Architecture [VIA Technologies press release, Jan 24, 2008 ]

New architecture provides substantial increases in performance and functionality with leading power efficiency to enable next generation “Small is Beautiful” computing devices Austin, Texas, US, 24 January 2008 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of x86 silicon and platform technologies, today announced details of the VIA Isaiah Architecture, a new x86 processor architecture that will deliver significant boosts to the functionality and performance of desktop, mobile and ultra mobile PCs while minimizing power requirements, saving on battery life and enabling ultra compact system designs. Designed from the ground up by the company’s US-based processor design subsidiary, Centaur Technology Inc., the VIA Isaiah Architecture combines all the latest advances in x86 processor technology, including a 64-bit superscalar speculative out-of-order microarchitecture, high-performance multimedia computation, and a new virtual machine architecture. The first generation of Isaiah-based products will be pin-compatible with the VIA C7 processor family, enabling a smooth transition for system builders and providing them with an easy upgrade path for current designs. The first processors implementing the VIA Isaiah Architecture will use proven 65 nanometer technology for greater power efficiency, which, combined with new enhanced power and thermal management capabilities, will ensure the best performance per watt on the market and help drive the rapidly emerging categories of green, silent and small form factor desktop PCs and home media centers, and ultra thin and light notebooks and mini-notes. “Today is an exciting day for everyone at Centaur,” commented Glenn Henry, President, Centaur Technology Inc. “With a team of less than one hundred first-class engineers, we have created from scratch the world’s most power-efficient x86 processor architecture with state of the art features, outstanding performance, and flexible scalability for the future.” “The introduction of the new VIA Isaiah Architecture is an extremely significant milestone in VIA’s processor business,” commented Wenchi Chen, President and CEO, VIA Technologies, Inc. “In achieving these new levels of functionality and performance, it provides the ideal complement to our industry-leading family of low power VIA C7 processors and will enable us to further extend our growing presence in the global x86 processor market.” Optimized for a World of “Small is Beautiful” Devices With its unique blend of high performance and low power consumption, the VIA Isaiah Architecture has been specifically optimized to meet the rapidly growing demand for smaller, more functional, and more stylish mobile and desktop computing and personal electronics devices that will allow people to fully enjoy the rich media content and interactivity of the broadband Internet lifestyle. These devices range from easily portable slim and light notebooks and pocket-sized Ultra Mobile PCs and Ultra Mobile Devices with rich multimedia and wireless broadband capabilities to Small Form Factor Green PCs and Digital Entertainment Centers that combine space saving designs with minimal energy consumption. VIA Isaiah Architecture Highlights The VIA Isaiah Architecture has been specifically designed to deliver all the performance and features necessary for running the most demanding computing, entertainment, and connectivity applications on today’s and tomorrow’s Internet, including high-definition video, 3D games, imaging, and virtual worlds, within a very low power and thermal envelope that makes it ideal for small form factor mobile devices such as Mini-Notebooks and Ultra Mobile Devices. Its key highlights include the following: – 64-bit Superscalar Speculative Out-Of-Order MicroArchitecture The VIA Isaiah Architecture comprises a host of advanced architectural features, including a superscalar and out of order architecture, macro-fusion and micro-fusion functionality, and sophisticated branch prediction, that significantly improve processor efficiency and performance. In addition, it also features a full and unrestricted 64-bit instruction set with plenty of headroom to support 64-bit operating systems and applications as they become available, and a new virtual machine architecture for running systems more securely and efficiently in virtual environments. – High-Performance Computation and Media Processing As well as support for clock speeds of up to 2GHz in initial products and a high-speed, low power Front Side Bus scalable from 800MHz up to 1333MHz, the VIA Isaiah Architecture also has a highly-efficient cache subsystem with two 64KB L1 caches and 1MB exclusive L2 cache with 16-way associativity for more effective memory optimization. For further enhanced multimedia performance, the VIA Isaiah Architecture also integrates the world’s fastest x86 processor Floating Point Unit (FPU) with the ability to execute four floating point adds and four multiplies per clock and also featuring a new algorithm that minimizes latency. Support for new SSE instructions and a 128-bit wide integer data path further boost multimedia performance. – Advanced Power and Thermal Management To minimize energy consumption and reduce heat, the VIA Isaiah Architecture utilizes new low power circuit techniques and in addition to aggressive management of active power includes support for the new “C6” power state, in which power is turned off to the caches. Extensive Adaptive PowerSaver™ Technology features further reduce power consumption and improve thermal management, including the unique TwinTurbo™ dual-PLL implementation, which acts like automatic transmission in permitting smooth transitions between activity states within one clock cycle, ensuring always-on service and minimize latency, as well as new mechanisms for managing the die temperature. – Scalable Upgrade to VIA C7™ Processor The VIA Isaiah Architecture is pin-to-pin compatible with the current VIA C7 processor family, enabling OEMs and motherboard makers to transition to the new architecture smoothly, and to fulfill a wider range of market segments with a single board or system design. – VIA PadLock™ Hardware Security Features– To enhance the confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity of electronic data, the VIA Isaiah Architecture incorporates industry-leading on-die hardware cryptographic acceleration features within the VIA PadLock Security Engine, including the world’s best random number generator (RNG), an AES Encryption Engine, SHA-1 and SHA-256 hashing for secure message digests for data integrity, and a new specialized “secure execution mode” that includes features such as a secure on-chip memory area and encrypted instruction fetching. VIA Isaiah Architecture Product Availability Processors implementing the VIA Isaiah Architecture are expected to start shipping in the first half of 2008 and will be manufactured using an advanced, low power 65 nanometer process.

VIA_Isaiah_Architecture_die_plot_original_ VIA Isaiah Architecture die plot

VIA Launches VIA Nano Processor Family [VIA Technologies press release, May 29, 2008]

Power efficient processors based on ‘Isaiah’ architecture designed for optimized performance for mainstream PC markets and new device types Beijing, China, 29th May 2008 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the new VIA Nano processor family based on the VIA Isaiah Architecture. Building on the market-leading energy efficiency of the VIA C7 processor family, the VIA Nano processor family offers as much as four times the performance within the same power range to extend VIA’s performance per watt leadership, while pin compatibility with VIA C7 processors will ensure a smooth transition for OEMs and motherboard vendors, and provides them with an easy upgrade path for current system or board designs. The first 64-bit, superscalar, speculative out-of-order processors in VIA’s x86 platform portfolio, VIA Nano processors have been specifically designed to revitalize traditional desktop and notebook PC markets, delivering truly optimized performance for the most demanding computing, entertainment and connectivity applications, including Blu-ray Disc™ HD video playback and the latest PC games, such as Crysis™. The VIA Nano processor family leverages Fujitsu’s advanced 65 nanometer process technology for enhanced power efficiency, and augments that with aggressive power and thermal management features within the compact 21mm x 21mm nanoBGA2 package for an idle power as low as 100mW (0.1W), extending the reach of power efficient green and silent PCs, thin and light notebooks and mini-notes around the world. “VIA Nano processors represent the next generation of x86 technology, providing the fundamental building blocks for a new genre of optimized computing solutions,” said Wenchi Chen, President and CEO, VIA Technologies, Inc. “‘Small is Beautiful’ is more than a design strategy; it’s our vision of where the PC market is heading and our new processors will help the market realize that dream.” VIA’s ‘nano’ association also extends to VIA’s signature silicon and platform design characteristics of power efficiency and form factor size reduction, as demonstrated by VIA’s ultra compact Nano-ITX boards and the nanoBGA2 processor packaging used for the current VIA C7 processor family and the first generation of VIA Nano processors. About the VIA Nano Processor Family Initially to be launched in two skus, the VIA Nano L-series processors for mainstream desktop and mobile PC systems and the ultra low voltage U-series for small form factor desktop and ultra mobile devices such as mini-notes:

Product & Model Name Clock Speed VIA V4 Bus Maximum Power (TDP Max)
VIA Nano L2100 processor 1.8GHz 800MHz 25W
VIA Nano L2200 processor 1.6GHz 800MHz 17W
VIA Nano U2400 processor 1.3+GHz 800MHz 8W
VIA Nano U2500 processor 1.2GHz 800MHz 6.8W
VIA Nano U2300 processor 1.0GHz 800MHz 5W

The VIA Nano processor family boasts the highly efficient VIA V4 bus interface and brings a host of technology firsts to VIA’s processor platform line-up, including:

  • 64-bit Superscalar Speculative Out-Of-Order MicroArchitecture: Supports a full 64-bit instruction set and provides for macro-fusion and micro-fusion functionality, and sophisticated branch prediction for greater processor efficiency and performance.
  • High-Performance Computation and Media Processing: The high-speed, low power VIA V4 Front Side Bus starting at 800MHz, plus a high floating point unit, support for new SSE instructions, and two 64KB L1 caches and 1MB exclusive L2 cache with 16-way associativity gives a big boost to multimedia performance.
  • Advanced Power and Thermal Management: Aggressive management of active power includes support for the new “C6” power state, Adaptive PowerSaver™ Technology, new circuit techniques and mechanisms for managing the die temperature, reducing power draw and improving thermal management.
  • Scalable Upgrade to VIA C7™ Processor: Pin-to-pin compatibility with current VIA C7 processors enables a smooth transition for OEMs and mainboard vendors, enabling them to offer a wider range of products for different markets with a single board or system design.
  • Greener Technology: In addition to full compliance with RoHS and WEEE regulations, product manufacturing will be halogen-free and lead-free at launch, helping to promote a cleaner environment and more sustainable computing.
  • Enhanced VIA PadLock™ Security Engine: Industry-leading on-die hardware cryptographic acceleration and security features, including dual quantum random number generators, an AES Encryption Engine, NX-bit, and SHA-1 and SHA-256 hashing.For more detailed information about the VIA Nano processor family, please read the introductory white paper here:http://www.via.com.tw/en/downloads/whitepapers/processors/WP080529VIA_Nano.pdfVIA Nano Processor AvailabilityVIA Nano processors are available now for OEMs and motherboard vendors, while systems featuring VIA Nano processors are expected to market in Q3 2008.For further information on the VIA Nano processor family, please visit the VIA website at: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/nano/

The VIA Isaiah Architecture [VIA Technologies, May 29, 2008]

… Initial production versions of the 1.0 GHz VIA Nano ULV processor will have a maximum Thermal Design Power (TDP) of just 5 watts (and an idle power of just 100mW), scaling up to 25 watts for the 1.8 GHz VIA Nano processor (500mW idle power). …

VIA Introduces New VIA Nano 3000 Series Processors [VIA Technologies press release, Nov 3, 2009]

VIA’s fastest and most power efficient processors yet deliver richest mobile and all-in-one desktop computing experience Taipei, Taiwan, 3 November 2009 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today introduced its new VIA Nano 3000 Series processors, bringing enhanced digital media performance and lower power consumption to Windows 7 thin and light notebook and all-in-one desktop PC markets. Based on the 64-bit superscalar ‘Isaiah’ architecture, VIA Nano 3000 Series processors deliver the most compelling thin and light notebook computing experience with their rich HD entertainment capabilities, including support for flawless playback of high bit-rate 1080p HD video, as well as low power consumption resulting in longer battery life. With a host of advanced features including 64-bit support, advanced CPU virtualization technology, SSE4 for enhanced multimedia processing, and the industry-leading encryption and security capabilities integrated in the VIA PadLock™ Security Engine, VIA Nano 3000 Series processors also provide a secure, high-performance solution for emerging cloud-based computing environments. “With the VIA Nano 3000 Series, we are launching our fastest and most power-efficient processors yet,” commented Richard Brown, VP International Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Coupled with our market-leading digital media chipsets, they enable the richest experience across a broad range of mobile and all-in-one system designs.” VIA Nano 3000 Series VIA Nano 3000 Series processors are built on the successful 64-bit, superscalar architecture that powers the VIA Nano 1000 Series and 2000 Series processors, which have been adopted by leading OEMs worldwide for a growing number of market-leading mini-note, small form factor desktop, and energy-efficient server designs. Available at speeds from 1.0GHz to 2.0GHz, VIA Nano 3000 Series processors deliver up to 20% higher performance using up to 20% less power than current VIA Nano processors and boast a number of new features including support for the SSE4 multimedia instruction set and VIA VT virtualization technology. Fully compatible with all Microsoft operating systems, including the new Windows 7, as well as all popular Linux distributions, the VIA Nano 3000 Series processors use the NanoBGA2 package, making them pin-to-pin compatible with VIA Nano 1000 Series, VIA Nano 2000 Series, VIA C7, VIA C7-M and VIA Eden processors for easy upgrades of existing designs. VIA Nano 3000 Series Availability VIA Nano 3000 Series processor samples are currently available for OEMs and motherboard vendors, and will enter mass production in Q1 2010. VIA Nano 3000 processors will be available in the following product skus:

Product Name Speed VIA V4 FSB Idle Power
L3100 2.0GHz 800MHz 500mW
L3050 1.8GHz 800MHz 500mW
U3200 1.4GHz 800MHz 100mW
U3100 1.3+GHz 800MHz 100mW
U3300 1.2GHz 800MHz 100mW
U3500 1.0GHz 800MHz 100mW

For further information on the VIA Nano processor family, please visit the VIA website at: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/nano/

VN1000_blkdiagramVIA VN1000/VT8261 Chipset Block Diagram

VIA Brings Enhanced Windows 7 Desktop to Life with World’s Most Power Efficient DX10.1 Chipset [VIA Technologies press release, Dec 10, 2009]

VIA VN1000 boasts Blu-ray playback, DX10.1 graphics and DDR3 memory support and coupled with VIA Nano 3000 Series processors offers the ultimate multimedia experience on next generation all-in-one PCs Taipei, Taiwan, 10 December 2009 – VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA VN1000 digital media chipset for next generation desktop and all-in-one PCs, offering a world-class HD multimedia entertainment platform compatible with the advanced desktop features of Microsoft Windows 7. The VIA VN1000 is the most power efficient DX10.1 digital media chipset available today, making it the perfect solution for next generation small form factor and all-in-one Windows 7 PCs that focus on entertainment, multimedia and touch screen capabilities. The DirectX 10.1 hardware environment provided by the VIA Chrome 520 IGP means Windows 7 users can enjoy a more fluid and visually enhanced desktop experience as well as the latest gaming titles. The VIA VN1000 digital media chipset features the ChromotionHD 2.0 video processor to guarantee smooth playback of the latest Blu-ray titles with superb hardware acceleration of the most demanding H.264, WM9 and VC1 codecs over the latest display technologies, including Display Port and HDMI. “The VIA VN1000 leverages our optimized VIA Nano 3000 Series processors, creating the most balanced, power-efficient, multimedia-focused desktop platform on the market today,” said Richard Brown, VP International Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Supporting the latest system memory, graphics and entertainment standards, the VIA VN1000 takes the VIA processor platform to new heights of power-efficient visual sophistication.” At the core of the VIA VN1000 lies a DirectX 10.1 graphics engine, a necessary requirement for users who want to enjoy the enhanced features of the Windows 7 desktop environment. The DirectX 10.1 engine means that Windows 7 can employ Microsoft’s advanced Windows Desktop Driver Model 1.1, bringing significant gains in system memory efficiency, overall desktop responsiveness and an improved visual experience compared to WDDM 1.0. VIA VN1000 Product Highlights Paired with the new VIA VT8261 south bridge, the VIA VN1000 represents the most power-efficient DX10.1 compliant digital media chipset on the market, consuming up to 12 watts for both north and south bridges, making it a perfect choice for Windows 7 based mini desktop and all-in-one desktop PCs designs. Offering a feature-rich specification with significant emphasis on graphics and HD video playback, the VIA VN1000 features the VIA Chrome 520 IGP, combining a DirectX 10.1 graphics engine, with support for Shader Model 4, OpenGL 3.0 graphics and OpenCL 1.0 for next-generation GPGPU applications. The high-performance ChromotionHD 2.0 video processor offers advanced filtering and cutting edge post-processing to perform ultra smooth decoding of MPEG-4/AVC, H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV-HD, and AVS video for Blu-ray content. The home theatre experience also encompasses support for the latest connectivity standards, including dual channel support for Display Port, HDMI, DVP, VGA and LVDS/TMDS. The VIA VN1000 supports DDR3 system memory at speeds of up to 1066MHz, one x8 lane and four x1 lane PCI Express II expansion slots, up to five PCI slots and a VIA Vinyl HD 8 channel audio codec. An IDE controller, support for up to four S-ATA II drives, SD/MMS/MMC card reader support and 12 USB 2.0 ports are supplemented with support for PS/2, SPI, GPIO and LPC technologies. The VIA VN1000 Digital Media IGP Chipset is fully compatible with all VIA Nano, VIA C7, VIA C7-M and VIA Eden processors and supports all Microsoft Windows platforms and popular Linux distributions. For more details regarding the VIA VN1000 digital media chipset, please visit: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/v-series/vn1000/index.jsp To learn more about the new VIA VT8261 south bridge, please visit: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/southbridge/vt8261/index.jsp

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/nano/ VIA Nano™ Processor [VIA Technologies, Nov 3, 2009]

… Here are some benchmarks comparing VIA Nano, VIA Nano 3000 and Intel Atom. Atom N270 1.6 GHz

…

VIA Nano DC Platform [VIA product page, Nov 2, 2010] DC = Dual Core, when it came out in January 2011 was renamed into Nano X2

Brings Blu-ray playback, DirectX 10.1 graphics and DDR3 memory support to next-generation small form factor and all-in-one desktop PCs The VIA Nano DC platform is a forthcoming processor platform from VIA – combining the latest dual core VIA Nano DC processor and the VN1000 digital media chipset to create a feature-rich, low power, high performance processor platform highly suited for today’s small form factor, all-in-one, and traditional desktop PCs. The VIA Nano DC Platform is the first truly low power processor platform that offers excellent multitasking performance, great HD media support and a casual 3D gaming experience way beyond that of competing solutions.

VIA Nano DC Processor Twice the cores, twice the performance, same energy efficiency… The VIA Nano DC processor is the first dual-core processor from VIA and will take advantage of the very latest 40nm fabrication technology to deliver up to twice the performance of VIA Nano 3000 series processors within the same rigid thermal envelope. The VIA Nano DC offers improved application multitasking by doubling the core count, bring a 100% increase in many of today’s applications that are that are now multi-thread optimized. Product Highlights

  • Advanced multi-core processing
  • Power-efficient out-of-order x86 architecture
  • Full support for 64-bit operating systems
  • High-performance superscalar processing
  • Most efficient speculative floating point algorithm
  • Full processor virtualization support
  • Advanced power and thermal management
  • Leading-edge VIA PadLock™ hardware security features
  • Pin-to-pin compatibility provides natural upgrade path from other VIA processors

VIA VN1000 Digital Media Chipset The IGP that casual 3D gamers have been waiting for... As well as delivering a rich suite of network connectivity, storage, HD audio and peripheral support that you would expect from any VIA digital media chipset, the VN1000 offers one crucial element that has eluded mainstream desktop PC users since the inception of the PC itself – true 3D gaming performance. The Chrome 520 Graphics Core The VIA Chrome 520 integrated graphics processor (IGP) is an industry leading, fully programmable DirectX 10.1 graphics engine that makes light of competing IGP solutions, offering playable frame rates for both new and classic 3D games. The VIA Chrome 520 has 32 stream processors and 4 sampling units, supports Shader Model 4, OpenGL 3.0 and OpenCL 1.0 for next-generation GPU applications. The VIA VN1000 has a 128-bit 2D graphics enginewith GDI/GDI+ acceleration, hardware 2D rotation, true color hardware cursor with 256-level blending. Here are some benchmarks that demonstrate the 3D gaming superiority of the VIA Nano DC platform. With full support for Windows Desktop Driver Model 1.1 in Windows 7, the VIA VN1000 offers a visually superior experience compared to competing IGP platforms. ChromotionHD 2.0 – Effortless HD Video The VIA VN1000 chipset also offers an excellent media playback experience with the ChromotionHD 2.0 video engine, which offers hardware accelerated video playback of the latest video codecs including full Blu-ray support at true HD screen resolutions and HDTV resolution playback of MPEG-2, WMV-HD, VC-1 and H.264 content.

The VIA Nano DC platform will be featured in a variety of desktop systems from Q1 2011. More images related to the VIA Nano DC Platform can be found here. Media Previews Read what the leading PC hardware websites are saying about the VIA Nano DC processor platform: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/chrome-520-nano-dc-vn1000,review-32034.html

Preview: VIA VN1000 And Nano DC Platform: An IGP With Game? [Tom’s Hardware, Oct 29, 2010]

… With a pre-production CPU clocked at 1.80 GHz, the Nano DC (dual-core) platform that arrived in our lab is more a testament to the company’s ingenuity than a representation of production-ready hardware. Yet, VIA is confident in the CPU’s performance as it waits on its manufacturer to supply a die-shrunk version. Moreover, it wanted us to see what it’s doing with IGP graphics. Today’s article isn’t just proof-of-concept for a CPU, but an entire platform with a DX10.1 integrated GPU expected to lay waste to low-energy competitors. … VIA’s chipset might be ready for production, but its new CPU still needs some manufacturing tweaks. Rather than make us wait for the 40 nm part that’ll be included when this platform ships, the company previewed us with a functional 65 nm version of the CPU to show off its finished VN1000 northbridge. … Conclusion We have to admit that we were a little curious about VIA’s re-asserted interest in entry-level gaming from an IGP. After all, it had been a while since we’d tested anything from S3. But our skepticism proved justified when we threw a few of the games in our benchmark suite at it. As the IGP stands right now, many modern games won’t hit playable frame rates, even dialed down to the lowest possible quality/detail settings. Could the Chrome IGP be a viable solution in the most entry-level games? Perhaps. There remains driver work to be done before any sort of 3D is ready for prime time, though. The greater problem (and this is something even Intel will face with its upcoming Sandy Bridge design) is that games evolve at a rate that IGP technology simply can’t match, so that even this latest attempt comes up short. Putting this in historical perspective, the Chrome 520 IGP is probably more powerful than a TNT2, so entry-level gaming could simply be a matter of using older games. Of course, gaming is not what low-energy platforms are designed to do, and the Nano DC does low-energy tasks like media playback and light-duty office work very well. It even outpaces Intel’s Atom clock-for-clock, even when the Atom is complemented by Nvidia’s Next-Generation ION platform. Thus, what we have in the Nano DC is a high-performance, low-power platform that, like all low-power platforms, can’t really compete with mainstream desktop parts, as much as VIA would probably like it to. Nevertheless, it’s much more likely that the even-more-miserly production version of this platform will make a strong showing in media-oriented PCs and netbooks in the coming months. Perhaps the real question for VIA is: when, exactly, might this platform be ready for prime time? The company announced its VN1000 chipset nearly one year ago. It’s still waiting for a process shrink. And then it needs to announce design wins. This would have been a killer little platform back when it was announced (before ION 2 and before Core i3). A year later, we’re still impressed with that the solution can do. Now we just need to button it up, polish the software, and make this platform available.

Finally check

VIA Technologies’ latest embedded product direction which will define its future in the upcoming IoT (Internet of Things) “explosion” of the market:

First a market analyst opinion about the future of VIA Technologies legacy standard for the boards: An xITX Standards Question Answered [VDC Research: Embedded Microprocessor, Board & Systems Market Blog, Aug 13, 2010]

An important question with any standard computer architecture is what comes next? Any standard or family of standards that hopes to remain relevant must continually reinvent itself through new iterations. This can happen in various forms – reducing the board size, adding higher speed interconnects/switch fabrics, reducing power, etc. At the same time some standard families offer multiple paths forward in the form of multiple new standards and not all of these are always well adopted. In these instances where there are multiple iterations there are always question marks about whether all of them will gain enough market traction to be relevant and which ones will be the successful ones.

In the case of Mini-ITX, the extremely successful embedded motherboard form factor first created by VIA Technologies, VIA has done a very good job of providing a future road map for the standard and keeping it relevant by turning out a family of xITX standards. Since Mini-ITX VIA has added Nano-ITX, Pico-ITX, and Mobile-ITX – all smaller versions of Mini-ITX to address the constant need for ever smaller form factors in embedded applications.

However, a big question mark around these smaller xITX form factors was which would become the most successful? Our latest research on the embedded motherboards market seems to provide some insight.

Our numbers indicate that Pico-ITX is gaining the most traction throughout the market and will likely become the next most successful member of the xITX family after Mini-ITX. By 2012 total market dollar volume shipments of Pico-ITX are projected to be nearly double those of the slightly older Nano-ITX standard.

It appears that both Pico-ITX and Nano-ITX will have a place in the embedded motherboards market and both are important in offering customers a range of choices through the xITX family of form factors, but Pico-ITX is becoming more widely adopted in both suppliers’ product portfolios and by customers.

The competitiveness of VIA Technologies” own industry standard Pico-ITX form factor against that of 3d party ones (COM Express, QSeven and ETX) was well proven when just recently came the news that VIA Announces First Embedded ARM Based Pico-ITX Board, VIA VAB-800 [VIA Technologies press release, July 24, 2012]

Ultra low power ruggedized design ideal for a broad range of industrial and in-vehicle applications

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient computing platforms, today announced the VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX embedded ARM board. Featuring a choice of an 800MHz or a 1GHz Freescale ARM Cortex-A8 processor, the VIA VAB-800 combines a wide operating temperature range with extremely low power consumption to meet the demands of high-end industrial and in-vehicle fanless embedded applications.
Based on the industry standard 10 cm x 7.2 cm Pico-ITX form factor created by VIA, the VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board combines a rich I/O set with superb multimedia performance, supporting playback of the most demanding video formats in resolutions up to 1080p. Leveraging VIA’s hardware design expertise, the VIA VAB-800 delivers the highest I/O integration on the Pico-ITX form factor for an ultra compact yet highly flexible platform for the latest embedded devices.
The extremely ruggedized VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX supports a wide operating temperature range from -20 to 70 degrees Celsius in an ultra low TDP envelope of only 5W and is backed with a minimum seven years longevity support.
Customers can take advantage of VIA’s worldwide embedded software development expertise to quickly create customized designs for a fast time to market approach and is available as a hardware starter kit with board support packages (BSPs) for the Android, Ubuntu and Windows Embedded Compact 7 operating systems.
“The VIA VAB-800 extends our industry leading range of Pico-ITX embedded platforms,” said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “As a leader in hardware and software support, VIA can tailor our new ARM based offerings for customers to create systems through starter kits, customization support or offering complete systems for different applications.”

VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX Based on the ultra compact Pico-ITX form factor, measuring 10 cm x 7.2 cm, the VIA VAB-800 combines the choice of an 800MHz or a 1GHz Freescale ARM Cortex-A8 processor with two independent, fully integrated GPUs for a power efficient platform with a max TDP of a mere 5W. The two integrated GPUs provide support for dual independent displays along with 3D/2D graphics acceleration to deliver full HD playback support for the most demanding video formats in resolutions up to 1080p.

Rear I/O includes one Mini HDMI and one VGA display port, two USB ports and one 10/100 Ethernet port. On-board features include up to 64GB eMMC Flash memory, 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, support for one SATA port, two single channel LVDS display ports, two COM ports, CAN Bus, front pin headers for line-in/out and MIC-in, a further two USB 2.0 ports, an SDIO pin header and eight GPIOs.
For more information about the VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX, please visit: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/boards/1930/1/VAB-800.html
For images related to this release, please visit: http://www.viagallery.com/Products/via-vab-800-pico-itx-board.aspx
Availability
Sample units of the VIA VAB-800 Pico-ITX board are available at the time of this release.

Embedded Computers / Compact: choosing an ARM or x86 processor in a SOC [SiliconNews (Spain), Oct 23, 2012] a raw translation by Google:

Cliff Moon, Senior Director of Product Marketing, VIA Technologies, reflects on the choices and challenges facing embedded systems designers. Embedded system designers are often caught by the CPU design choices they made ​​years ago, since switching costs can be astronomical. The development often involves hardware interface chips plate designs and specific processors. It is possible that the software switching costs are even higher still, since acquiring needed CPU architectures and development tools require custom software. However, some industry trends have opened CPU platforms , and system designers are increasingly able to mix and match CPU providers, or even modify the instruction set of the CPU, to optimize the products in a wider range of applications. As usual, the semiconductor integration technology trends drives, as more functions are included in fewer chips system. While many high-volume markets may end up by having a system on a chip (SOC), most embedded designs have unique requirements to which it responds best, an integrated processor connected to general purpose hardware components specific system design.To enjoy more flexibility in these low volume products, many system designers have turned to computer technology in a Module (COM) that allows a design with a single carrier plate to serve a variety products and facilitate rapid adoption of new technologies by CPU daughter cards based on standards. The trend towards higher levels of integration has advanced peripherals standardized regarding technology high-speed interconnect, allowing COM latest standards including multichannel PCI Express, SATA, Gigabit Ethernet, USB, HDMI and DisplayPort. COM interfaces have broad support from the industry and share technical characteristics for interconnection of packet-based high level, with a hardware abstraction layer above the layer bus architecture physical and link the past. Whether the data is processed with ARM or x86, as COM interfaces are connected to a standard data transferand are compatible with a variety of types of CPU. Most COM standards still include support for E / S for general use and allow some type PC functionality. Future trends point to greater uniformity If these trends continue in the sector in terms of semiconductor integration and abstraction of hardware / software, Where will we end up? Obviously integration possibilities end when the content of silicon is in a single chip.However, history has shown that every market integration peripherals and interfaces need slightly different. Only the highest-volume markets will have their own SOC, leaving most of the designs as currently integrated with a general purpose CPU and application specific hardware. While there may be some attempt by the industry to create a common package and pinout for suppliers of silicon integrated CPU, COM approach offers technical advantages and should have a greater adoption. Even if the silicon content of COM device is reduced to a single chip, the same semiconductor chip can be used for several different COM pinouts (similar to the multiple types of connectors on COM Express). In embedded applications reduced production, it is likely that greater flexibility to reuse designs providing a replaceable module remains the main factor that overcomes most of the advantages provided by a CPU soldered to the motherboard. Since the CPU will continue to be easily replaceable, the costs of change should continue to decline as standard interfaces have greater adoption and continue software abstraction. To avoid uniformity, CPU manufacturers will face increased pressure to develop new essential functions, while trying to beat the competitors in performance and power consumption. For designers of embedded systems, the prospects are excellent, as competition in the CPU sector will drive growth and provide opportunities to create entirely new types of products.

More on that: Computer-on-Modules: new standards allow more CPU options By J. Scott Gardner, Advantage Engineering LLC [Boards & Solutions Magazine, November 2011]

With the broad adoption of new standards, such as COM Express Rev. 2.0, embedded system designers have now been decoupled from the CPU-specific legacy interfaces.
… look no further than Kontron’s announcement of broad support for ARM processors. As the market leader in COM Express, Kontron has primarily supported CPUs from its strategic partner Intel. However, the industry trends have opened an opportunity for this company to supply COM boards incorporating ARM-based CPUs from Texas Instruments. The company has also announced broader support for COM Express boards with AMD CPUs. It will compete with dozens of other COM board suppliers offering standards-based support for CPUs from all three x86 CPU vendors. Many of these COM board suppliers already deliver ARM-based products using the Qseven COM standard to take advantage of a legacy-free architecture for mobile applications. While Intel still covers the widest range of features and performance, the growth of these COM standards allows system designers to tailor each product to incorporate the CPU module that delivers the best optimization of performance, power and cost. Intel will need to accelerate innovation to keep up with these new competitive threats.

With standards-based modules and competitive pressure from AMD, VIA and ARM, Intel has less ability to restrict features to higher-priced CPUs. In the past, an Intel-based embedded systems company would need to move up to a higher-priced Intel CPU (and chipset) to access features like faster memory, 64-bit processing, virtualization, advanced power management, hardware encryption, etc. Most of these features are designed into the CPU and then turned off to allow price separation. As long as most embedded systems companies remain based on Intel, the pricing strategy affects everyone equally. However, the industry trends are opening up every COM Express and Qseven socket to competition, and other CPU vendors may offer high-end features without charging the same premium as Intel. While VIA Technologies has supplied x86 CPUs to embedded markets for over a decade, its Nano architecture should be well-positioned to take advantage of the industry trends that reduce CPU switching costs and allow VIA to compete for COM Express and Qseven sockets. For VIA, the technical advantage stems from the ability to deliver high-performance features that are only available in high-end Intel CPUs.

As an example, Intel uses the Atom architecture to address price-sensitive embedded markets, while reserving Intel Core and Xeon processor families for higher-priced applications. However, the available Atom CPUs are currently limited to only 800 MHz memory, so VIA Nano-based systems have 33% more memory bandwidth using 1066 MHz memory. The Atom comparison is further strained by the difference in the microarchitecture, since Atom dual-issue, in-order architecture puts it at a disadvantage against VIA Nano 3-issue, out of-order design. While Intel has kept VIA Nano at bay by using dual-core and hyper-threading, the newest VIA CPUs offer both dual- and quad-core versions. VIA has published a white paper with SPEC CPU2000 results that show up to a 40% performance difference at the same thermal design power of 13 watts(http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/nanoX2/whitepaper.jsp). To find an Intel based COM Express module that gets better performance than modules based on VIA Nano X2 or VIA QuadCore processors, a system designer would need to move up to Intel Core. However, the power consumption increases dramatically over Atom, unless the number of cores, clock rate and memory speed are constrained – reducing the performance advantage over the VIA-based module.
Hardware encryption has become one of the high-end features that Intel reserves for its premium CPUs. Intel supports encryptionthrough AES NI (new instructions), but the Intel embedded product list appears to only offer this feature for Core i5 and higher. From its earliest CPUs, VIA has promoted hardware encryption as a must-have feature and even had its Padlock implementation validated by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Hopefully, Intel support for hardware encryption will encourage more system designers to improve security features, since software-based techniques have been less secure and consumed too much power. Competitive pressure from VIA may help make hardware encryption a standard feature that Intel enables for all of its CPUs.

VIA System-on-Modules [VIA microsite, June 8, 2012] (SOM which actually is another name for the Computer-on-module concept)

Many products in the VIA Embedded portfolio employ a modular design strategy that allows our customers the freedom to easily customize and modify existing designs creating new and exciting devices in much faster design cycles, using fewer resources.

Features:

  • COTS designs that can be tailored to specific requirements and applications
  • Full breadth of CPU performance range including multi-core readiness
  • Availability of starter kits, embedded APIs, tools, technical documentation and SDKs
  • Optimized to address SWaP-C (Space, Weight, Power, and Cost) requirements
  • Comprehensive supports of RTOS and GPOS

…

To understand COM Express go to Computer-on-Modules Industrial Group – Welcome to COM-IG! where you find the below illustration for the evolution of standards by this group:image >> nanoETXexpress now automatically redirects to COM Express microsite of PICMG >> COM Express Extension redirects to the same COM Express microsite of PICMG >> ETX Industrial Group to its own home page Note that the leading companies of that standardization were two large embedded companies (much larger that VIA Technologies) from Germany (Kontron) and Taiwan (Advantech), according to Advantech and Kontron unite to transform ETX®-IG into the COM-IG and unveil the COM Express Extension [joint press release, June 5, 2007]. VIA is still not a member of that effort.

COM Express® defines standardized footprints and pin-outs for Computer-on-Modules. With the new Revision 2.0, PICMG® added the compact footprint (95x95mm) to the basic footprint (125x95mm) and extended the pin-outs being future-proof. New Digital Display Interfaces (DDI) and super-fast USB 3.0 are now integrated. The new Pin-out Type 10 in COM Express® Revision 2.0 supports perfectly modules in the ultra footprint (85×55 mm).

Kontron as one of the largest suppliers of embedded computing products has a well defined strategic view introduced in From Modules up to Application Ready Platforms [Boards & Solutions Magazine, November 2011] as:

The automotive industry set the example: vehicle manufacturers no longer have a large number of small suppliers for individual parts, but a small group of suppliers organized in partnerships. These deliver complete functional units and cover a large and growing spectrum of the supply chain. A similar concentration is taking place in outsourcing in the embedded computer industry, a trend that is happening at Kontron too.
According to the customer’s needs, the company offers services in the extended supply chain, i.e. from the module to the customerspecific carrier board right up to the application-ready system, including the necessary hardware-related software. Why are companies choosing to purchase larger and increasingly more valuable functional units from external sources? The answer is to be found in the growing pressure in the market to specialize.
OEMs have to focus on their core competence in order to stay competitive in their specific markets. For example: designing GUIs for HMIs. Neither the hardware running in the background, nor the operating system, reflects the core competence of the OEM. A userfriendly, function-safe operating and display concept are the USP of a company and the key to their economic success. Consequently this is where OEMs need to concentrate their development resources.
Rising end-user demands present a further reason for outsourcing the development of computer hardware, as the latest hardware is required to deliver powerful computing performance, improved energy efficiency, and all this housed in a space-saving form factor. On top of this there are high expectations in quality and price which are essential factors for success.
Companies not specialized in computing technology find it almost impossible to fulfil these demands within justifiable technical and commercial reason. In order to stay competitive, the move for OEMs to efficiently outsource the upstream supply chain processes is more or less inevitable.

…

Read also from that Magazine issue: – Taking the concept behind COM Express to high levels of ruggedization – The benefits of COM-based single board computers

Recent discussions have debated the advantages of COMs, such as COM Express, versus stackable SBCs, such as PC/104. Here’s how to get the benefits of both at the same time.

Before we proceed further we should understand VIA Technologies’ view on that from Embedded Building Blocks – A Modular Approach [VIA Technologies presentation by Cliff Moon, Oct 11, 2011] (excerpts):

SFF (Small Form Factor) Market Trend ~ Modularized Designimage

Caveats for Stackable Computerimage

What is Computer-on-Module image

When to use

Stackable Computer

COM Express
  • Applications demand different Standard I/O
  • Fast Time to Market
  • Modest QTY for Configuration-to-Order Service
  • No board designers in house
  • Existed design migration
  • Cost-effective for EAUs for 1K to 5K
  • For applications with unique I/Os (not popular I/O module)
  • Near-perfect I/O optimization
  • Board designer in house
  • Consistent I/O and CPU upgradability(more than time to market)
  • Protect the IP of the carrier board

Which approach is better?

  • Stackable Computer are optimized for flexibility and I/O expandability
  • COMs are optimized for cost, short height, CPU upgradeability, and minimal cabling
  • COMs and Stackables will both continue – Very little overlap – distinct choices – ‘Capitalizing’ versus ‘Expensing’ a design (own/rent) – Business cost analysis becomes part of decision

image image See also head of VIA Embedded interviewed about Why VIA Embedded for COM Express Module [Embedded News TV, April 15, 2012] VIA introduced the externally defined COM form factors very cautiosly and very gradually:

1. COM Express

For background see: COM Express [Wikipedia] First for the COM Express Basic Form Factor:

VIA Moves into COM Express™ Embedded Module Market [VIA Technologies press release, April 14, 2008] which introduced the VIA C7 / VIA Eden based COME7N80 COM Express module:

VIA to introduce first COM Express™ modules with VIA processor platform, enabling cost effective, flexible customization and faster time to market

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of embedded silicon and platform technologies, today announced the extension of embedded board portfolio to include COM Express™ modules that will be the first to harness the power and thermal advantages of VIA’s processor platforms.
Measuring 95mm x 125 mm, COM Express is an industry standard embedded form factor developed by the PICMG (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group) to provide greater connectivity and data transfer bandwidth than the original COM (Computer-on-Module) standard. The COM Express specification integrates core CPU, chipset and memory on the module, providing support for extensive connectivity options, including USB, audio, graphics, and Ethernet, through board-to-board connectors to an I/O baseboard.
Leveraging VIA’s signature low heat, power-efficient platform silicon, the new fanless VIA COM Express modules will be powered by VIA Eden™ or VIA C7® processors ranging from 500MHz right up to 2GHz. Support for a comprehensive feature set of I/O implementations through VIA’s versatile digital media IGP chipsets, while the option of onboard system memory provides vibration resistance for in-vehicle or heavy plant environments.

VIA COM Express modules are targeted at industrial PC and large OEM customers focused on dynamic application segments, including gaming, healthcare and industrial automation. Customers can take advantage of a proprietary multi-I/O baseboard for evaluation purposes, or can utilize VIA’s extensive technical support in developing a custom baseboard.

“With over six years of experience in small form factor board design and development, our entry into the embedded module market is a natural evolution for us,” said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Flexible and modular solutions are an essential expansion of VIA’s embedded platform range, strengthening our commitment to all sectors of the embedded industry.”
The first samples of the VIA COM Express modules are available now for industrial PC and larger OEMs only; for more details, please send an email to the VIA Embedded team at: embedded@via.com.tw

The first Nano CPU COM Express module: VIA_COME8X801 The First Nano CPU COM Express module VIA Nano E-Series Processor Powers COM Express™ Module [VIA Technologies press release, Aug 4, 2010] which was the first Nano E-Series based COM Express module, still available in the portfolio

VIA expands COM Express module range with the VIA COME8X80, brings optimized 64-bit performance to COM Express with the VIA Nano E-Series processor

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of embedded silicon and platform technologies, today announced the addition of the VIA COME8X80 module to its COM Express™ portfolio; the world’s first COM Express type product to take advantage of the high performance, 64-bit VIA Nano E-Series processor.
“The VIA COME8X80 module harnesses the power of VIA Nano platform to offer a uniquely integrated and performance-optimized COM Express product,” said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA COME8X80 also demonstrates our long-term commitment to bringing our leading processor technologies to the COM Express form factor.”
The VIA COME8X80 is targeted at IPC and larger OEM customers in a range of embedded segments including gaming, healthcare and industrial automation. Customers can also take advantage of a specially developed mutli-I/O baseboard for evaluation purposes, as well as VIA’s technical assistance in developing custom baseboard designs.

VIA COME8X80: Optimized Performance and Assured Longevity The VIA COME8X80 is available with a choice of either 1.3+GHz or 800MHz VIA Nano E-Series processors, combining native 64-bit and virtualization support with a high-performance superscalar architecture in a uniquely low power thermal envelope. The VIA COME8X80 also integrates the unified VIA VX800 media system processor, bringing VIA Chrome9 integrated graphics, support for VGA and dual channel LVDS displays, video acceleration for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9 and VC1 video formats, plus a VMR capable HD video processor. All VIA components have a guaranteed longevity of seven years. Product Highlights:

  • High performance, 64-bit VIA Nano E-Series processor
  • 18/24-bit dual channel LVDS plus VGA support
  • 3 PCI, and one x4 plus two x1 PCIe slots
  • Up to 2GB of DDR2 SO-DIMM memory
  • 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
  • Up to six USB 2.0 ports
  • Up to two SATA devices plus 1 IDE
The VIA COME8X80 is available to OEM and ODM customers now. For more details including a technical data sheet, please go to: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/ProductDetail.jsp?productLine=1&id=1271&tabs=1
An image kit related to this product announcement is available here: http://www.viagallery.com/index.php?option=com_flickr4j&Task=sets&Set=72157624643775464&Page=1
About the COM Express Form Factor
Measuring 95mm x 125 mm, COM Express is an industry standard embedded form factor developed by the PICMG (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group) to provide greater connectivity and data transfer bandwidth than the original COM (Computer-on-Module) standard. The COM Express specification integrates core CPU, chipset and memory on the module, providing support for extensive connectivity options, including USB, audio, video, and Ethernet, through board-to-board connectors to an I/O baseboard.
VIA also offers the VIA C7 / VIA Eden based COME7N80 COM Express module [which is End Of Life already]. For more details please visit: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/ProductDetail.jsp?productLine=1&id=1270&tabs=1

With Nano X2 E-Series came other COM Express additions: – in the COM Express Basic Form Factor: VIA Announces Latest Computer-on-Module (COM) Express Module, the VIA COMe-8X90 [VIA Technologies press release, Feb 24, 2012]

Join VIA at Embedded World 2012 for the first glimpse of the VIA COMe-8X90 module

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the latest VIA COMe-8X90 module, featuring a 1.2GHz VIA Nano™ X2 E-Series dual core processor and the VIA VX900H media system processor (MSP). The ruggedized VIA COMe-8X90 module targets industrial PC and large OEM customers focused on dynamic application segments, including medical, advanced gaming, industrial automation and digital signage.
Measuring 95mm x 125mm, COM Express is an industry standard embedded form factor developed and maintained by the PICMG (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group). COM Express modules integrate core CPU, chipset and memory on the module, providing support for extensive connectivity options, including USB, audio, video, and Ethernet, through board-to-board connectors to an I/O carrier board. The modular approach allows for short time-to market, application-specific customization, simplified development, high stability and long life cycles.
Along with the VIA COMe-8X90 module, VIA offers a comprehensive starter kit, including a multi-I/O carrier board reference design, board support packages (BSPs), display, system monitoring tools/SDKs, and design guide, enabling industrial PC and OEM customers to rapidly customize their solutions.

“Embedded modules are ideal for creating highly tailored solutions with a short time to market approach,” said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA COMe-8X90 module provides customers with an easily customizable platform with power efficient processing and rich I/O options, allowing them to quickly create optimized products for their target markets.”

The VIA COMe-8X90 module will be on display at the VIA Embedded booth in Hall 1 of the Embedded World 2012 Exhibition and Conference, which is being held in Nuremberg, Germany from February 28th to March 1st, 2012. In addition, VIA will be presenting the latest embedded Android and x86 multi-core solutions for next generation embedded applications.

VIA COMe-8X90 Module Available in the industry standard COM Express form factor of 95mm x 125mm, the VIA COMe-8X90 module includes a 1.2GHz VIA Nano X2 E-Series dual core processor and a VIA VX900H MSP, which features the VIA ChromotionHD 2.0 video engine, boasting hardware acceleration of the most demanding video formats, including MPEG-4, H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV and Blu-ray support, for incredibly smooth playback of multimedia titles at resolutions up to 1080p. The VIA COMe-8X90 module offers support for the latest connectivity standards including 18/24-bit single-channel LVDS, VGA, Display Port and HDMI.

Onboard I/O includes two SATA II ports, one GigaLAN port, one USB client port, four USB 2.0 ports, SDIO, expansion buses for one PCIe X4 and one PCIe x1 and the VIA Labs VL800 USB 3.0 host controller which offers support for four USB 3.0 ports. System memory support includes two slots for up to 8GB of SODIMM DDR3 RAM.
For more information about the VIA COMe-8X90 module please visit: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/boards/productDetail.jsp?productLine=1&id=1571&tabs=1
For images related to this release please visit: http://www.viagallery.com/index.php?option=com_flickr4j&Task=sets&Set=72157629433520789&Page=1

– in the COM Express Compact Form Factor: VIA Announces Two New System-on-Module Solutions to the Growing VIA Modular Solutions Portfolio [VIA Technologies press release, March 22, 2012]

VIA COMe-8X92 and QSM-8Q90 modules allow for rapid development and application-specific customization

Measuring 95mm x 95mm, the VIA COMe-8X92 is based on the industry standard Computer-on-Module (COM) Express Compact form factor, developed and maintained by the PICMG (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group). The VIA COMe-8X92 module combines a 1.2GHz VIA Nano™ X2 E-Series dual core processor and the VIA VX900H media system processor (MSP) providing a ruggedized solution targeted at industrial PC and large OEM customers focused on dynamic application segments, including medical, advanced gaming, industrial automation and digital signage.
…
“The modular approach offers Embedded customers the ideal platform for creating highly tailored solutions with a short time to market approach,” said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA COMe-8X92 and VIA QSM-8Q90 modules further extend the VIA modular solution portfolio offering VIA customers a wider range of options to quickly create optimized products for their target markets.”

VIA COMe-8X92 Module Available in the industry standard COM Express Compact form factor of 95mm x 95mm, the VIA COMe-8X92 module pairs a 1.2GHz VIA Nano X2 E-Series dual core processor and the VIA VX900H MSP, which features the VIA ChromotionHD 2.0 video engine, boasting hardware acceleration of the most demanding video formats, including MPEG-4, H.264, MPEG-2, VC-1, WMV and Blu-ray support, for incredibly smooth playback of multimedia titles at resolutions up to 1080p. The VIA COMe-8X92 module offers support for the latest connectivity standards including 18/24-bit single-channel LVDS, VGA, Display Port and HDMI.

Onboard I/O includes two SATA II ports, one GigaLAN port, one USB client port (shared with one of four USB 2.0 ports), four USB 2.0 ports, SDIO, expansion buses for one PCIe X4 and one PCIe x1 and the VIA Labs VL800 USB 3.0 host controller which offers support for four USB 3.0 ports. System memory support includes one slot for up to 4GB of SODIMM DDR3 RAM.
For more information about the VIA COMe-8X92 module please visit: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/boards/productDetail.jsp?productLine=1&id=1790&tabs=1
For images related to the VIA COMe-8X92 please visit: http://www.viagallery.com/index.php?option=com_flickr4j&Task=sets&Set=72157629588824145&Page=1
…

– in the COM Express Mini Form Factor: VIA Announces Latest Computer-on-Module Solution, the VIA COMe-8X91 [VIA Technologies press release, May 3, 2012] VIA_COMe-8X91_Angle

Credit-card sized COM module allows for rapid development of ultra-small customized embedded solutions

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the latest addition in the growing VIA Modular Solutions portfolio, the VIA COMe-8X91. The modular design approach allows for short time-to market, application-specific customization, simplified development, high stability and long life cycles for customers to rapidly develop new and exciting devices.
Measuring 84mm x 55mm, the VIA COMe-8X91 is based on the industry standard Computer-on-Module (COM) Express Mini form factor with type 10 pin-outs. The VIA COMe-8X91 module combines an 800MHz VIA Eden™ X2 dual core processor and the VIA VX900 media system processor (MSP) providing a ruggedized, ultra compact solution targeted at industrial PC and large OEM customers focused on dynamic application segments, including medical, advanced gaming, test and measurement, industrial (machine vision system) and military applications.
In addition, with the VIA COMe-8X91 module, VIA offers a comprehensive starter kit, including a multi-I/O carrier board reference design, board support packages (BSPs), display, system monitoring tools/SDKs, and design guide, enabling industrial PC and OEM customers to rapidly customize their solutions.
“The COM Express Mini form factor provides embedded customers the ideal platform for creating highly tailored solutions where real estate is at a premium,” said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA COMe-8X91 delivers an extremely ruggedized, power efficient solution for the creation of ultra compact embedded devices with a short time to market approach.”

VIA COMe-8X91 Module Available in the industry standard COM Express Mini form factor of 84mm x 55mm, the VIA COMe-8X91 module pairs an 800MHz VIA Eden X2 dual core processor and the VIA VX900 MSP for a low power, high performance platform. The VIA COMe-8X91 module offers support for the latest connectivity standards including 18/24-bit single-channel LVDS and either one displayport or one HDMI port (without HDCP).

Onboard I/O includes two SATA II ports, one GigaLAN port, eight USB 2.0 ports shared with one USB client port, one HD audio digital interface and two serial ports. System memory includes 1GB of onboard DDR3.
For more information about the VIA COMe-8X91 module please visit: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/boards/productDetail.jsp?productLine=1&id=1710&tabs=1
For images related to the VIA COMe-8X91 please visit: http://www.viagallery.com/Products/via-come-8×91-module.aspx

2. QSeven

Note: QSeven is a new standard that has been released in the past two years. The Q Seven specification is hosted by the independent Q Seven Consortium of which VIA Technologies is a supporting member. It is freely available at the consortium’s web site. Q Seven is a computer-on-module small form factor board that can be used much like an integrated circuit component. It is smaller than other computer-on-module standards such as COM Express, ETX or XTX and is limited to very low power consuming CPUs. The idea here is that processor boards and IO boards would slide into a backplane via edge connectors. This is a smaller footprint than the traditional 3U cPCI.

Seco Q7 OMAP4 dual-core module [Charbax YouTube channel, Jan 6, 2011]

This is the first OMAP4430 dual-core module for the embedded form factor market for the industrial environment for the mobile and automotive markets. Thanks to Seco’s pression on the q7 consortium, people can now swap the x86 module for an ARM architecture, it works for Windows, Android and Linux OS. Find more information at http://www.seco.it/

SECO QSeven products: An interview with Gianluca Venere at Embedded World 2012 [SECOEmbedded YouTube channel, March 30, 2012]

Gianluca Venere presents the newest Qseven products. QSeven has been launched 3 years ago as the first cross platform and modular solution that uses the same carrier board for two different architectures. New Qseven products include: Carma DevKit, the new Freescale i.MX6 processor Qseven module and module based on TI OMAP4 and for the x86 world, the new module based on AMD Qseven G series APUs. http://www.seco.com/en/itemlist/qseven/

QSeven® Series [VIA Technologies sub microsite]

With advantages of its compact size, integrated thermal solution and low cost connectors, VIA QSeven is the ideal for building block for various low power and mobile application. VIA QSeven series is a small form factor standard that is designed for low-power and mobility applications. It supports up to 12W of maximum delivered power and provides legacy free interfaces for embedded applications along with a comprehensive set of graphical interfaces such as DisplayPort, HDMI and dual channel LVDS.

See also: QSeven [Wikipedia] Image of the VIA QSM-8Q90 module on carrier board with QSeven Logo: VIA_QSM_8Q90_Module_on_Carrier_Board_with_QSeven_Logo VIA_QSM_8Q90_Module_with_QSeven_Logo Image of the VIA QSM-8Q90 module with QSeven Logo. VIA Announces Two New System-on-Module Solutions to the Growing VIA Modular Solutions Portfolio [VIA Technologies press release, March 22, 2012]

VIA COMe-8X92 and QSM-8Q90 modules allow for rapid development and application-specific customization

…
The VIA QSM-8Q90 module measures just 70mm x 70mm and is based on the new embedded QSeven™ form factor developed to meet the demands of various low-power and mobile applications. Featuring a VIA 1.0GHz VIA Nano E-Series processor and the VIA VX900 MSP, the VIA QSM-8Q90 module is the ideal building block for power constrained handheld application segments, including medical, advanced gaming, military and test and measurement equipment.
…
“The modular approach offers Embedded customers the ideal platform for creating highly tailored solutions with a short time to market approach,” said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA COMe-8X92 and VIA QSM-8Q90 modules further extend the VIA modular solution portfolio offering VIA customers a wider range of options to quickly create optimized products for their target markets.”

VIA QSM-8Q90 Module Based on the new QSeven embedded form factor of 70mm x 70mm, the VIA QSM-8Q90 module is available with a 1.0GHz VIA Nano E-Series processor and also integrates the unified VIA VX900 media system processor, featuring the VIA ChromotionHD 2.0 video engine which boasts hardware acceleration of the most demanding video formats for incredibly smooth playback. On board system memory includes 1GB of DDR3 RAM as well as support for two 1-lane PCIe expansion and an18/24-bit LVDS connector with resolutions up to 1366 x 768.

For more information about the VIA QSM-8Q90 module, please visit: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/boards/productDetail.jsp?productLine=1&id=1572&tabs=1
For images of the VIA QSM-8Q90 module, please visit: http://www.viagallery.com/index.php?option=com_flickr4j&Task=sets&Set=72157629616539713&Page=1

3. ETX

From ETX-8X90:

Measuring 114mm x 95mm, ETX (Embedded Technology eXtended) is a highly integrated and compact industry standard computer-on-module form factor used in design application much like an integrated circuit component. The ETX specification integrates core CPU, chipset and memory on the module, providing support for extensive connectivity options, including USB, audio, video, and Ethernet, through board-to-board connectors to an I/O baseboard. Targeted at industrial PC and large OEM customers focused on dynamic application segments, including medical, test and measurement, industrial automation and transportation, customers can take advantage of a proprietary start-up kit including a multi-I/O baseboard reference, or can utilize VIA’s extensive technical support in developing a custom baseboard.

IA Announces First ETX® Module, VIA ETX-8X90 [VIA Technologies press release, March 22, 2012]

Industry leading performance and VxWorks RTOS support for embedded applications VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient computing platforms, today announced the VIA ETX-8X90 module which features a 1.2GHz VIA Nano™ X2 E-Series dual core processor and the VIA VX900 media system processor (MSP), providing industry leading performance in a power efficient design. The VIA ETX-8X90 module provides a highly integrated and compact platform for embedded applications in medical, test and measurement, industrial automation and transportation. The modular design approach allows for short time-to market, application-specific customization, simplified development, high stability and long life cycles enabling customers to rapidly develop new and innovative devices. Customers can take advantage of a proprietary start-up kit including a multi-I/O baseboard reference, or can utilize extensive technical support from VIA in developing a custom baseboard. In addition to support for the embedded industry leading VxWorks RTOS, the VIA ETX-8X90 runs a wide range of Windows and Linux based operating systems. “We continue to broaden the range of our Computer-on-Module portfolio with the addition of the ETX legacy form factor,” said Epan Wu Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA ETX-8X90 module provides industry leading processing performance in the shape of the VIA Nano X2 E processor allowing existing ETX customers to quickly scale to today’s requirements.” About the VIA ETX-8X90 Module Measuring 114mm x 95mm, the VIA ETX-8X90 module is based on the industry standard ETX (Embedded Technology eXtended) legacy form factor and combines a 1.2GHz VIA Nano X2 E-Series dual core processor with the VIA VX900 MSP, providing hardware acceleration of the most demanding video formats including VC1, WMV9, MPEG-2 and H.264.

The VIA ETX-8X90 offers support for up to 4GB of DDR3 memory as well as the latest display connectivity standards including 18/24-bit dual-channel LVDS, one VGA port with resolutions up to 2560 x 1600, four USB 2.0 and two mini USB ports, two PCI and one ISA bus, one SATA port, one IDE and two COM ports as well as one 10/100 Ethernet on module.
For more information on the VIA ETX-8X90, please visit: http://www.viaembedded.com/en/products/systemonmodules/1970/1/ETX-8X90.html
For images related to this release, please visit: http://www.viagallery.com/Products/via-etx-8×90-module.aspx

For background see: ETX (form factor) [Wikipedia] And finally an Embedded World Report: SGet receives mixed reactions [EmbeddedNews.co.uk, April 18, 2012] is showing how further standardization for ARM-based embedded solutions is proceeding:

As reported in the past three issue of Micro Technology Europe, the new European standards body was formally introduced and dominated the front page of the first show daily. Called the Standardisation Group for Embedded Technologies (SGet), reaction to it was a little mixed. Some felt that they had to be on board, while others were being more cautious and there were those who were not interested at all. In the last of those categories fell Taiwanese board make Aaeon. “We are not involved with SGet yet,” said Volkmar Kaufmann, sales team manager at Aaeon. “In the embedded market there are hundreds of standards, so are they standards really?” On top of that, he said, customers wanted customisation and this meant that the standards were not really standards but more of a reference. “So one reason we haven’t joined is we are talking with our customers to find the best solution and that may be based on a standard or it may not be,” he said. “They will want connectors in different positions and so on. There are so many different requirements from customers who demand their own solutions. They don’t care what the standard is, they just want it to do what they want. They just want the performance.” But Dirk Finstel, chief technology officer for Kontron, one of the founders of SGet, defended the organisation: “It always takes three to four years to make something an official standard,” he said. “Our customers ask why this takes so long. The embedded board vendors are trying to drive technology in the market and with the new body we can do that with less bureaucracy.” Howard Lin, European managing director for Advantech, one of the first companies to join the group, acknowledged that there were a lot of standards already in the market, but said that was a reflection of the speed in which technology was developing. “Yes, there are many standards today, but these follow the new technology,” said Lin. “Some of the older standard can’t follow the changing technology, se we need new standards. The pace is increasing and we need to increase the pace of standards.” He said Advantech decided to join the group because “we are a global leader and so we should work with other vendors to define the standards”. Q Seven will be one of the first form factors to go through the SGet standardisation process and this will be followed by ULP-Com, a form factor for Arm and SoC modules announced by Kontron at the show. Adlink has already shown support for the form factor as have Fortec and Greenbase. ULP-Com uses a 314-pin connector and is 413mm high. There are two planned module footprints of 82 by 50mm and 82 by 80mm. Finstel said he expected it to take two to three months for the standard to be ratified by SGet. “Only a few people will work on the specification to drive it rather than with Picmgwhere you have a lot of people all with their own interests,” he said. “We expect ULP-Com to be ratified by the end of April.” Another founder, Congatec, was also ready to defend the decision. The company’s Christian Eder said: “Why do we need a new consortium when there is Picmg, Vita and what not? With Picmg, things take forever with lots of politics involved and interests. We are trying to freshen that up.” He said ten to 15 companies had signed upby the start of the show and expected that to grow as the show progressed. As to the silicon vendors, he said he wanted them to be involved but did not want them having such an influence that standards would be based on particular products. “It is very important to have the silicon vendors in there,” he said. “They provide the technology. But we don’t want standards that are fixed to one chip vendor. We want it open.” He said that chip vendors, like connector companies, would be on board but would not have voting rights. “Otherwise, they could block directives,” he said. Bernhard Andretzky, product marketing manager for one of the group’s founding companies MSC, said: “We see potential for the new organisation to create the standards that will be successful in the future.” Though not one of the founders, Adlink has become involved with SGet following its joint work with Kontron on the ULP-Com specification. “We were looking for the right form factor for Arm designs,” said Henk van Bremen, Adlink’s product director. “They say you can do Arm and x86 on Q Seven, but it doesn’t really work because of the lack of pins. You can’t do all the native Arm interfaces. The new form factor is going to SGet, which is why we are interested in this and have joined.” As for Via Technologies, assistant vice president Epan Wu said: “We have someone looking at the SGet consortium. We are not one of the original ones but we are looking at it and we do want to comply with industry standards and be involved with what is going on.” And Taylor Chow, managing director of Portwell, said: “We are seriously thinking of joining SGet. We need SGet because of the problems with Q Seven for Arm.”

From more information see: – http://www.sget.org/ and its Facebook site – A New COM Standard and a New Organization to Oversee It [VDC Research: Embedded Microprocessor, Board & Systems Market Blog, Sept 11, 2012] Kontron Low Power Embedded Solutions – EW 2012 [ARMflix YouTube channel, Feb 29, 2012]

Norbert Hauser of Kontron tell us about their ultra low power embedded solutions and support of various operating systems.

Kontron ULP-COM: the new ARM Computer-on-Modules Standard [KontronVideos YouTube channel, Sept 25, 2012]

The Ultra Low Power Computer-on-Modules with no moving parts are a perfect solution for small, mobile and fan less ARM applications. The form factor has a size of 82x50mm and, with the MXM 3.0 connector, a design less than 7 mm height with Memory and Flash Storage onboard is given.