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.