VIA introduces Pico-ITX mainboard

Innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, VIA Technologies Incorporated, has announced the introduction of VIA EPIA PX mainboard.

This, the company said it the first commercial mainboard based on VIA’s recently unveiled Pico-ITX form factor measuring just 10cm x 7.2cm.

VIA also said that the product is powered by the 1Gega Hertz (GHz) VIA C7 processor and supports up to 1Gega Byte (GB) of DDR2 533 SO-DIMM system memory, the tiny 10-layer VIA EPIA PX mainboard is based around the single-chip VIA VX700 system media processor, which features the Assistant Vice President, VIA Platform Solutions Division, VIA Technologies Inc., Mr. Daniel Wu, said that the latest product affords VIA UniChrome Pro II IGP 3D/2D graphics core, MPEG-2/-4 and WMV9 hardware decoding acceleration and display flexibility, including support for higher display resolutions of up to HDTV for HD DVD playback.

He also said that onboard connectors and input and out (I/O) enable developers to harness the full power of the mainboard, though the VIA PX-O, a dedicated daughterboard with multiple digital media I/O ports, is available on request to assist project developers in early system testing.

Mr. Wu equally said that power efficiency is integral to the platform, with the maximum power (TDP) of the processor and chipset at 9W and 3.5W respectively combined with low power DDR2 memory enabling the VIA EPIA PX to run standard productivity and multimedia applications at under 13W.

According to him, the VIA EPIA PX mainboard sets a new world standard for ultra compact embedded system platforms, providing a full complement of multimedia and connectivity options on a platform smaller than any standard PC mainboard or x86 system-on-module.

“We’re very excited about our new ‘baby’ mainboard, and are working closely with chassis and other infrastructure partners to expedite adoption of the form factor,” he said.

Mr. Wu added that this scale of platform miniaturization has been made possible only by the reduction in size of the core silicon; the 21mm square nanoBGA2 package of the VIA C7 processor and 35mm square VIA VX700 system media processor have a combined area of just 16.7cm2, a board real estate saving of over 50% from previous generation EBGA processors plus twin-chip core logic solutions, and more than that over competing solutions.

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