VIA's latest ARTiGO is the world's smallest quad-core system

Now in its fourth iteration, the VIA ARTiGO series of computers are well known for being silent, sleek, compact and versatile. The latest, the VIA ARTiGO A1250 is similar to the other designs, except that it's a quad core system.

"The VIA ARTiGO A1250 is an ultra slim system for those seeking a compact solution without sacrificing computing power. Taking inspiration from the Pico-ITX form factor, the VIA ARTiGO A1250 offers an impressive range of features including a full 64-bit quad core processor, 3D and HD video support, dual independent display support, up to 8GB of DDR3 system memory and a rich I/O set with USB 3.0, in a chassis that is a mere 3cm in height."

The little system makes for a lovely PC for a kid's bedroom, or for commercial applications like in restaurants or hotels.

The VX11H debuts quietly

Blink and you will have missed the new VIA chip on the EPIA M-920 released last month. The new chip features on VIA's latest Mini-ITX board, but it didn't garner its own Press Release. Let's take a look at the new chip.

Oh, wait, that's kind of hard to do since the chip doesn't even have a page to itself on VIA's website.

The VX11H is presumably an upgrade from the VX11, which is a media system processor with DirectX11 capability. The key features of the VX11 are:

• 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: The VIA Chrome 640/645 integrated 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

It's not clear what the difference is between the VX11 and the VX11H.