Ultimate HD platform claim acknowledged

The new VB8003 Mini-ITX board based on the Trinity platform is getting a lot of good press. Here are a few snippets:

"When you start calling your new product the “ultimate Mini-ITX HD multimedia platform” you better have some meat to back it up, but we’ve a feeling VIA’s new mainboard will be able to deliver." - Slashgear

"Remember when the PlayStation 3 was going to have dual-HDMI ports so that games could pump 1080p video to two displays simultaneously? Ahh, those were good 'ol days. That configuration obviously didn't come to pass, but VIA's looking to deliver dual-HDMI and more in its next integrated Mini-ITX solution, the VB8003, which also packs DVI and VGA ports, as well as an LVDS output, meaning it could control five displays at once (though with only four discrete signals)." - Engadget

"VIA has now expanded its low-power platform to include the fresh and really funky VB8003 aka the first Mini-ITX motherboard to come equipped with a GPU. Yes, you read it right, the board actually features a dedicated GPU, namely the S3 Graphics 435 ULP which supports DirectX 10.1, OpenGL 2.1, and boast the ChromotionHD engine, for smooth 1080p playback." - TCMagazine

VB8003 and Trinity video

VIA shot a video about the VB8003 back in June, during the Computex trade show in VIA's home town of Taipei. At the time, the board was tucked away on the booth. The VIA Trinity platform had been announced but no product had actually been released. Here's the video, which was put on YouTube just three days ago:

New VB8003 has a mean set of features

It's usually VIA's EPIA range of embedded boards that get the press; their name is certainly well known in the embedded world. Yesterday, however, VIA launched a new board in their VB series, which really is beyond par for its display options.

The VIA Trinity platform combines a VIA 64-bit Nano processor, the VX800 media chip (with integrated graphics) and an S3 Graphics processor. Double graphics! In the VB8003 Mini-ITX board, they're using the S3 Graphics 435 ULP graphics processor. S3, a subsiduary of VIA's hasn't had much luck selling their discrete solutions as video cards in that highly competative market, where two is company and three's a crowd. So it's s smart move by VIA to use S3's solid design for the budget market, which also has an excellent thermal envolope, to add extra features to their Mini-ITX solutions. With the combination of the VX800 IGP and the S3 solution, the VB8003 has 2 HDMI ports, VGA, LVDS and DVI as well. Not only that, it supports HD playback and DX10.1.

Although this board is being pimped as a solution for digital multimedia devices in more of an enterprise setting, I can't help but think of the possibilities in the home. It does after all have Blu-ray support, dual Gigabit Ethernet, supports up to 4GB DDR2, two SATA drives and 2 compact flash slots. It would make for a quiet but well featured home theatre PC.

Mini-ITX 2.0, launched in June 2008, was suggested to feature a VIA Mini-ITX board with a a Nano processor, plus NVIDIA graphics, to offer a small but quiet PC for gaming. I remember a system with that setup being shown playing Crysis. That config never made it to mainstream, but the VB8003 offers pretty much the same thing - and probably with less power consumption to boot!

"The VIA VB8003 Mini-ITX board can utilize the integrated graphics of the VIA VX800 MSP in tandem with the dedicated S3 Graphics processor to offer developers the widest possible variety of multi-display configurations, including dual-HDMI, LVDS, DVI and VGA technologies. Powering HD content playback across as many as four uniquely configured displays, with supported resolutions of up to and beyond 1080p, the VIA VB8003 is a HD powerhouse, ideal for a range of next-generation digital interactive devices and digital signage applications." More.