Introducing VIA Embedded's MagicView

VIA and S3 graphics have had a long collaboration in designing embedded graphics solutions. Their latest partnership, however, has seen the development of an Android based development software solution for digital signage. MagicView is an ...

“advanced digital signage solution developed by VIA Technologies in collaboration with S3 Graphics comprised of a VIA embedded system and content management software called MagicView. In comparison with other digital signage solutions on the current market which require high-performance CPU capability which lead to high costs to build up systems, VIA Magic Box supports hardware decoding acceleration technology and enhanced HD video playback of the most demanding HD video formats, including, WMV9, VC1 and H.264 at screen resolutions of up to 1080p.”

The Canadian company Capital Networks is the first company announced as a development partner using VIA's ALTA DS system and MagicView. [Source]

VIA leverages S3 to release graphics card for embedded market

VIA's acquisition of S3 Graphics eleven years ago has seen many S3 Graphics designs incorporated into integrated graphics solutions in VIA chipsets and digital media processors. Whilst VIA has included the Chrome series in EPIA boards before, they have now launched a new PCI Express graphics card, which they claim is the first low profile discrete card ever designed for the embedded industry.

The features of the card include:

PCIe 2.0 Bus Interface
512MB DDR3
Low profile form factor
Dual-Link DVI and HDMI (with HDCP)
Fully programmable DirectX 10.1 Unified Shader Core
OpenGL 3.1 + OpenGL ES 2.0
GPGPU on OpenCL 1.0
H.264 and VC-1 support for Blu-Ray
Support for resolutions up to 2560x1600
1080p/1080i/720p HD-decode
Steroscopic 3D capable
Dual display support

The embedded industry is increasingly finding that customers want better display output and more complex multi-monitor support. The eH1 card aims to fulfill this need.

8 screens at 1080p

VIA has a booth this week at the Digital Signage Expo in Vegas where they will be showing off an S3 Graphics Chome 5400E setup, of two cards diplaying 1080p playback on eight monitors at once. The configuration can show up to four different video streams at a time. Nice ... Press Release.

S3 announces OpenCL embedded GPU

When S3 Graphics releases a new GPU you can bet your bottom dollar that their biggest support will be parent-company VIA. A lot of S3 products actually wind up being cross-purposed for use in the graphics cores found embedded in VIA chipsets, but the company does still release discrete S3 Graphics branded processors as well.
The S3 Graphics 5400E is being unvieled in China this week at the Electronic Manufacturer Exposition. It's being positioned as a chip which the embedded market can use for medical, scientific and other uses.
The 5400E has a native OpenCL engine, OpenCL being a cross-platform open standard. "Native support of OpenCL with the industry’s best GFLOPS per watt rating including a DirectX® 10.1 / OpenGL 3.1 graphics engine, ChromotionHD video core for HD video decode including Blu-ray, H.264, and VC-1, a video encode engine, and OpenVG 1.1 engine in the 5400E creates the most versatile GPU for embedded applications requiring longevity, customization, performance, features, and low power."
I can't give you a link to the Press Release. I was sent a copy by mail but S3 don't have it on their website yet!

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.