Layer upon layer

"Layer upon layer" ... what was that annoying ad that played insesintly during the 1990's? Australian readers will know what I mean. Some bird with a fake Swedish accent advertising pastry or something? "Layer upon layer" ... Look at the different layers of the new VIA AMOS-2000 (top) and the AMOS-1000 (below). Layer upon layer you can build what you need with the VIA AMOS!

Wyse's thin client software options

I've already mentioned how the new Wyse C-class thin clients have a VIA C7 processor and only consume 7 watts of power, now let's hear a little bit about the software options for running them:
"Used in conjunction with Wyse's Collaborative Processing Architecture, the thin clients can work with VMware View 3.1 and Wyse's TCX virtualization software solutions on VMware, Citrix, and Microsoft virtual environments. The Wyse C class also supports Wyse WSM zero-client provisioning software."-GCN.com

VIA AMOS series offer huge expansion capabilities

One of these VIA AMOS chassis designs was seen on display at VIA's booth at Computex earlier in the year. I think it was the AMOS-2000 version which supports the Nano-ITX platform. There wasn't much info about it at the time but now VIA have put out a Press Release which includes information about a VIA AMOS-1000 and AMOS-2000 which are for the VIA Nano-ITX and VIA Mini-ITX platforms respectively. The chassis fit a VIA EPIA board (of the respective platform) and one 2.5" SATA hard drive and a power board. You can also fit optional component boards into the base chassis, to add wireless, COM, DVI and USB. Then on top of that you can also stack additional chassis to add more features. The extra chassis can be the same size or an ultra-slime version. With them you can add features like an optical drive, up to 3TB of storage, Compact Flash, MiniPCI port and up to two PCI or PCI Express cards for more networking or high end graphics. Really, it doesn't matter what your application or device is for, so long as a VIA EPIA Nano-ITX or Mini-ITX board can form the basis, the AMOS-1000 and AMOS-2000 chassis' versatility will allow embedded developers to build just what they need.

WonderMedia and Windows 7 provide photo frame of the future

Do you have a digital photo frame on a shelf somewhere in the house? Most people have them somewhere prominant in the lounge room and they plug them in before guests arrive so that they silently shuffle through happy snaps in the background, starting conversations and bringing forth memories. Of course they only show what you have put on them already, or what's on the USB stick sticking out the side. Windows 7 has a new feature called "Play To" which, so far as I understand, means that your Windows 7 PC or notebook can be told to show it's photos and/or videos to a wirelessly connected device in range. The WonderMedia SmartFrame is the first digital photo frame to have this support, having been awarded the Windows 7 Logo. And there's more:
"That gives the SmartFrame more than just a fancy sticker to mess up its clean bezel with, though; it means that it’s perfectly placed to use Windows 7’s “Play To” feature which allows PC users to funnel content to different displays with a simple click. The SmartFrame can show onboard video, photos and audio, or stream it from a DLNA compatible local network source; however it will also play internet-based content such as video, games, email and newsfeeds."-Slashgear

WonderMedia SmartFrame gets first Windows 7 logo

Why is a site about VIA embedded news mentioning a WonderMedia digital photo frame? WonderMedia is a wholly owned subsiduary of VIA's and they therefore use VIA chips in their (mainly) embedded designs. They don't actually usually use the mainstream VIA processors we normally report on here, but ARM processors and the PRIZM platform. According to the Press Release, PRIZM "a leading-edge SoC technology that integrates a high performance ARM processor, programmable DSP core, and video decoding and processing hardware together with essential memory, networking and peripheral controllers."
The WonderMedia SmartFrame deserves the "smart" in its name. It gives access to show "not only to photos stored on local hard drives or online, but also email, games, video, news, documents and a whole host of web services." Cool!

Wyse hitting all the tick boxes with new thin client design

Let's see, they're about $350, the size of a paperback, sturdy, consume 7 watts under load, dual monitor support, 1080p HD playback - this is what VIA has been aiming for all these years. Low cost, low power consumption but all the bells and whistles of a current PC.
Now for some maths:
“What that means is that companies that replace PCs with this client reduce their energy footprint by 90 percent in for the data center and clients and save $53 per client per year,” McNaught says. “This device, before its lifetime is over, has completely paid for itself in energy savings alone.”-ChannelInsider.

Wyse release two 7 watt thin clients

The new Fujitsu thin clients have been in the news recently because of their low power consumption. Wyse might now come up trumps with two new models featuring VIA's Eden processors and the most recent VX855 single chip solution. The VX855 draws just 3.5 watts under load, whilst still providing the option for dual monitor support. Overall, the C3OLE and C9OLE thin clients only require seven watts of power under load. That's crazy! Imagine that a light bulb consumes 60 watts and all it's doing is, well being bright! The two models run either Windows Embedded CE 6.0 or Windows XP Embedded.

The units don't look like a thin client does traditionally. In stead of the classic "I'm a book PC" chasis, they look more like a router, with sturdy little legs. More on WindowsForDevice.com.

VIA behind Fujitsu's "most frugal thin client"

The VIA Eden processor is popular in the thin client space because of the extremely low power draw and when it's coupled with the new(ish) VX800, it's even less power hungry than older designs. VIA has been paying attention to the power draw of its chips as well as its processors.
"It feels that the combination of pressures on the IT department to reduce costs, as well as the increasing focus on power consumption figures (or green IT), and new technologies such as cloud computing, are playing a major part in the increasing takeup of thin clients in corporate infrastructures."-Techworld.

Good news for Linux users

VIA have moved away from their traditional support for the OpenChrome driver project to release their own 2D driver for the Chrome 9 series.
"The new xf86-video-via driver includes the kernel DRM source-code with the package too. VIA is actually shipping with six separate copies of the DRM source-code. There is separate Direct Rendering Manager code to support the CN700/CX700M/VX700 and CN896/VX800/VX820 ASICs. Additionally, there is separate DRM folders for the Linux 2.6.24, 2.6.27, and 2.6.28 kernels."-Phoronix.
Let's hope they also work at getting it put into the mainline kernel.

EPIA N700-10EW in vehicles?

This short article about the EPIA N700-10EW suggests that the embedded market might use the fanless Nano-ITX board for infotainment devices in vehicles. I hadn't read that before, nor thought of it myself but it makes perfect sense. With the ability to withstand temperature extremes from -20 to 70, even leaving the device running on a hot summers day in a car in Australia would be ok.

"No pricing information yet, the new platform is expected to reach embedded market soon targeted for industrial and vehicle infotainment usag"

PadLock really makes a difference

Continuing on in a series of blogs about the VIA ARTiGO A2000, Fea-nux has been experimenting with VIA PadLock, which is built in security in VIA processors. This includes hardware support for AES encryption. With PadLock enabled, OpenSSL was 45x faster and Apache was almost twice as fast. There is both practical advice and results in this blog!
"Once the padlock_aes module is loaded, it can be used by programs such as OpenSSL. First, run openssl engine, and you should see output such as (padlock) VIA PadLock: RNG ACE2 PHE(8192) PMM that indicates that the VIA PadLock engine support has been compiled in. To see the difference with and without hardware encryption, for example, try running openssl speed -evp aes256."

Nice NAS with the ARTiGO A2000

Electronic design have published a detailed article about two different NAS solutions, one of them being the VIA ARTiGO A2000. The A2000 comes as a barebone system, designed to be compact and not comsume much power. This Lab Bench Online article gives details about how to set up the A2000 with FreeNAS using an image file handily distributed with their supplier of the A2000, Logic Supply.
"Things got more interesting once the WinSystems CompactFlash card arrived. Adding it was easy but first I loaded it with FreeNAS. This is a free, open source, FreeBSD-based NAS server platform complete with an extensive web-based interface. It can run a host of file services from Samba (for Windows support) to NFS to SSH. The UPNP support can work with DLNA clients. It has SMART drive support as well as firewall support. Check out the website for all of the features and screen shots of the interface."

Guilt free computer

These days, most households have enough media files on their PCs that they really need a separate PC just for storage. Having a media server or home server is also convenient because then everyone in the house can have access to the files. Movies can be streamed to the PC in the lounge room. Family photos can be viewed by anyone. MP3s can be streamed to the PC in the office. But leaving a PC on all day and night makes the environmentally concious consumer curl over in a knot. The blogger fea-nux found a solution in the VIA ARTiGO A2000.
"The past 8 months, it’s been working great as a home server. It has a very compact size, and Gigabit Ethernet is supported. "
"However, if you want a mail/web/ldap/sql server, along with a file server (NFS and Samba), the A2000 is nice because it doesn’t take up much power, so you can leave it on without feeling much guilt."

RED Box marketing device

Have you ever been on a train that has a screen set up high that shows ads on it? What about in the public toilets at a shopping centre? Or maybe in the doctor's waiting room? It's those types of applications and others that are similar, that the Rich Entertainment Device (RED) Box from Satellite Music Australia, is designed for. A device like that needs to be rock solid reliable so it can just run for hours on end with no intervention. To acheive this they have chosen the VIA EPIA EX mini-ITX board, which is small enough to fit in the design, robust enough to handle the running conditions, and well featured enough to handle the multimedia demands that are required.

"Satellite Music Australia's RED box is an excellent example of how VIA is helping to facilitate a growing number of innovative embedded products that help shape the way we do business and live our lives," said Daniel Wu, Vice President of VIA Embedded, VIA Technologies, Inc. "The VIA EPIA EX board has a high-end feature set that has been designed from the ground up to for quality multimedia delivery".

"SMA prides itself on delivering a very robust, reliable and dynamic service. Our RED Box is the engine for us in delivery this service. It provides a unique and reliable platform for our clientele," said Jonathan Champion, General Manager – Group Business. - Press Release.

Gamble away or have fun with AEWIN

"GA-1000, the entry level all-in-one gaming board, is suitable for use in slot machines, amusement gaming machines, lottery machines, fruit machine, slave unit of roulette machine, and server-base gaming machines." That's the word from Embedded-computing.com. The new AEWIN GA-1000 has a choice of a 500MHz or 1GHZ VIA Eden processor or a VIA Nano at 1.6GHz. That's quite a bit of difference in processing power between models. The Nano version is recommended for applications with dual displays.

70-20 - can handle anything

Even sites usually focused on gizmos and gadgets are impressed with the temperature range that the new EPIA N700-10EW can handle:

"VIA guarantees that this new breed of motherboards are able to maintain absolute stability within a wide temperature range from -20°C to 70°C despite taking on a fanless form factor."-Ubergizmo.

A close look at the new EPIA N700-10EW

Windowsfordevices.com really like to get down to the nitty gritty details about embedded products. In this article they really give the new VIA EPIA N700-10EW the once over, taking a good look at the design, I/O ports and options, as well as notes on how it differs from other VIA boards.

"Where the Epia N700 was available with a choice of Via processors -- either the 1.5GHz C7, or the 500MHz Eden ULV -- the N700-10EW is apparently offered with just one, an Eden ULV clocked at 1.0GHz. The latter CPU has a maximum TDP of five Watts, which, combined with the VX800's five-Watt TDP max, lets the Epia N700 use as little as 10 Watts, according to Via. Maximum memory capacity of the board, meanwhile, remains 2GB of 533/667MHz DDR2 RAM."

EPIA N700-10EW: Can be served hot or cold

Is it just more or are the temperature extremes that this little VIA board can withstand more impressive than other embedded boards?
"Guaranteed to maintain absolute stability at temperatures ranging from -20oc to 70oc, the VIA EPIA N700-10EW can be employed in environments that traditionally inhibit x86 computing."
Yep, it's another VIA EPIA board, a Nano-ITX platform variety, with a VIA Eden processor, the VX800 system media processor, one of VIA's latest, and it even has completely solid state capacitors.
"All VIA EPIA N700-10EW boards are rigorously tested for compatibility and reliability prior to shipping and are bundled with special wide temperature-verified system memory modules to ensure complete system stability." More in the official Press Release.

VIA Eden and C7 chosen for military apps

This article on COTS Journal highlights the growing use of rugged embedded computers by the military.

"The list of military programs using PC/104 in the airborne, marine, handheld and vehicular arenas continues to lengthen. Military system developers select PC/104—and its wider community of form-factors including PC/104-Plus, PCI-104 and EPIC—because of its compact size as well as the ruggedness inherent in its stacking architecture."

One example given is that of the Poseidon EPIC form-factor which uses either a VIA Eden ULV or VIA C7 processor, obviously chosen for their reliability and dpendability in tough conditions.

"For military applications that depend on remote terminals, protocol conversion or data logging in power-shy environments, the ideal SBC would combine a low-power CPU with lots of onboard communications formats."

Avalue release slim-line 22-inch panel PCs

This very clean design is new from Avalue. With a VIA Eden ULV processor running at 1GHz and the CX700M chipset, it's ideally suited to embedded applications. VIA's embedded platforms like the Eden and CX700M combo are so small, the 22 inch screen dwarfs the specs hidden in the back. But the quality of the screen output is great with 700:1 contrast ratio and 300-nit brightness rating.

Here are some more details on those specs:

Processor:
PC-22W01 -- Via Eden clocked at 1GHz
Memory:
PC-22W01 -- Up to 1GB of DDR2 memory
Display:
22-inch touchscreen
1680 x 1050 resolution
700:1 contrast ratio
5ms response time
Storage -- 2.5-inch hard disk drive or CompactFlash
Networking -- 2 x gigabit Ethernet
Other I/O:
2 x USB
1 x VGA
Audio line output
1 x RS232
Expansion:
Mini PCI slot
Type I/II CompactFlash slot
Operating temperature -- 32 to 104 deg. F (0 to 40 deg. C)
Dimensions -- 20.07 x 13.85 x 2.16 inches (510 x 352 x 55mm)
Weight -- 10.5 pounds (4.79kg)
More info at Windows For Devices.com

Strong as a pitch fork

A trident is a long three pronged weapon. The word puts an image in my head of a determined looking old man, impossibly muscly for his advanced years, lunging out of the water, with not a salad fork, but a trident held valiantly above his head. Trident, a UK company that's an off-shoot of the multi-national distributor, Avnet, chose the word well in naming the company, which specialises in embedded hardware and devices. Embedded often means - stick me somewhere dirty, hot and out of sight. Like the new AMOS-3000.

"It is constructed in five pieces: the top cover, bottom plate, front and rear I/O panels and the DOM module, and is offered with desk, wall and VESA mounting options."

Versatile and built with solid materials worthy of the Trident name.

"The VIA AMOS-3000 is a based on the EPIA P700 Pico-ITX form factor board powered by either a 1GHz VIA C7 processor or an Ultra Low Voltage 500MHz VIA Eden processor."

So, solid, but also cool running and with no moving parts. More at TMCnet.com.

New ETX board from AAEON

VIA's processors may soon find themselves responsible for entertaining folks, with the announcment of some new boards from AAEON, designed for high end entertainment devices.
"According to the specifications of the new board, customers will be provided with a 4.5 x 3.7-inch ETX COM format that boasts a 1.6GHz VIA Eden or a 2.0GHz VIA C7 processor, combined with VIA's fully integrated CX700M media system processor, or chipset. Dubbed EXT-CX700M, the board has been designed to support up to 1GB of DDR2 memory." - Softpedia.com.

New headphone and sound technology

VIA and DTS have teamed up to create the ability for a headset that has full surround sound.
"The DTS Surround Sensation Ultra PC with Head Tracker system can create a 5.1 surround sound experience with stereo headphones, tracking head movement at 30fps and across a 60-degree field and adjusting the sound accordingly. If, say, you move your head to the left, sound from the “phantom” center speaker of the virtual 5.1 setup will be louder in the right earpiece, mimicking how a true surround system would work." - Slashgear.