VIA offering an ARM digital signage system

The ALTA DS System offers developers of digital signage systems a small, robust and easily programmable kit. The hardware features include:

• ARM Cortex-A9 System on Chip
• hardware acceleration for video
• HDMI and VGA (optional) ports
• 4 USBs
• one Ethernet
• 4GB eMMC flash memory onboard (expandable to 16GB)
• 1GB DDR3 SD RAM

This is a simple but effective solution for digital signage projects and the less complicated the hardware, the less can go wrong with it. [Source]

The Mini-ITX cluster proves forever popular

Over on Mini-ITX.com, the right border of the popular site shows the most viewed content that day. Fourth on the list is a blast from the past, from February 2004, the build of the 12 node mini-cluster, powered by the VIA EPIA V8000.

The write-up of the project is no Dan Brown novel, so it must be the content that has people visiting so much some nine years later. Or maybe it's just that it looks so darn cool!

"I built a Mini-ITX based massively parallel cluster named PROTEUS. I have 12 nodes using VIA EPIA V8000, 800 MHz motherboards. The little machine is running FreeBSD 4.8, and MPICH 1.2.5.2. Troubles installing and configuring Free BSD and MPICH were few. In fact, there were no major issues with either FreeBSD or MPICH. The construction is simple and inexpensive. The motherboards were stacked using threaded aluminum standoffs and then mounted on aluminum plates. Two stacks of three motherboards were assembled into each rack. Diagonal stiffeners were fabricated from aluminum angle stock to reduce flexing of the rack assembly."

As always, VIA gets an award

Taiwan's well-known golden company of the tech boom once again got an award at Computex and like many, many years prior it was for innovation. The VIA APC Paper embedded computer won the Computex 2013 d&i (design and innovation) award presented by the Taiwan External Trade Council (TAITRA) in cooperation with the International Forum Design Hannover (iF).

Which one is the PC?

"APC Paper was awarded this prestigious honor for its groundbreaking use of new types of materials and form factor which pushes the boundaries of PC design in new directions. With special attention to an organic design, the cardboard encased APC Paper blends seamlessly into any home or office environment." - more.

The cardboard box PC is back

I thought this was old news but apparently it was new news for some people when it was spotted at the recent Computex trade show in Taiwan. It's VIA's APC Paper Rock, first announced in January this year, but not arriving until Q3 2013.

Tom's Hardware has done a short write-up on the upcoming embedded delight.

"VIA has revealed the APC Paper. The APC Paper is basically an APC Rock board in a cardboard and aluminum box, which opens up like a book to show off the APC Rock board. When closed, it measures 204 x 98 x 28 mm."

WonderMedia chips on VIA Pico-ITX board

The VAB-600 Pico-ITX board from VIA doesn't feature a VIA processor - or well not really anyway. Instead it features an ARM Cortex-A9 processor from VIA's subsidiary, WonderMedia. This has been paired up with WonderMedia's Mali-400 graphics. Overall this keeps the power consumption of the system down really low and the costs too, making suitable for an Android or Linux-based setup. 1GB of built in RAM should be ample, along with 4GB of storage.

Rumours surface of a new single-board computer from VIA by July

After the success of the Raspberry Pi-like VIA APC Paper single board computer, its little wonder that VIA will follow up with new models. The Element14 community has this to say:

"What sets VIA’s new board above the Raspberry Pi (even though the Pi is smaller) is not only faster hardware but all the aforementioned connections which gives users more options regarding peripherals that can be connected including Wi-Fi via a USB dongle."

They seem to know quite a bit about this board that hasn't been announced yet!

VIA's new Pico-ITX board comes with everything you need to in-vehicle setup

One of the first things that case modders thought of when VIA brought out the Mini-ITX motherboard was - let's put a PC in a car. Many kits and chassis and designs have come along since. VIA's latest Pico-ITX mainboard is designed for in-car, or in-vehicle use, as the snazzy title to VIA's Press Release attests: VIA Announces Latest VIA Pico-ITX Board to Jump Start In-Vehicle Innovation, VIA VAB-600.

Interestingly, this Pico-ITX board does not feature a VIA CPU; it has an ARM Cortex instead.

"Based on the ultra compact Pico-ITX form factor, measuring 10 cm x 7.2 cm, the VIA VAB-600 combines an 800MHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor with a built-in 2D/3D graphics engine, supporting OpenGL® ES 2.0, to deliver a smooth user experience and superb multimedia performance. Customers can leverage our starter kits which include a VIA VAB-600 Pico-ITX board, VAB-600-A I/O card, VAB-600-C TTL Converter card, 7” touch screen TTL panel, cables and 18W AC adaptor.
Rear I/O includes one Mini HDMI port, two Mini-USB 2.0 ports, one 10/100 Ethernet port and 1 12~24V DC-in jack. 

On-board features include 4GB eMMC Flash memory, 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, one DVO connector for TTL or LVDS display, two COM ports, SPI, one USB 2.0 connector, one Mini Card slot (supports USB 2.0 connectivity for optional WiFi module VNT9271B6050), support for one SIM card slot, touch screen connector, front pin headers for line-in/out and MIC-in, I2C and GPIO pin header, and one battery charger connector with smart battery function."