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.

The VIA Magic Box has arrived

Sporting a flashy and catchy title, VIA is offering another product for digital signage. This time the focus is on software combined with VIA hardware. The VIA Magic Box offers a complete plug, customize and play system for digital signage solutions.

"Currently available with the choice of a VIA ARTiGO A1150 or fanless VIA ARTiGO A1200, VIA Magic Box provides full HD support and playback of the most popular video codecs through video decoding hardware acceleration including WMV9, VC1 and H.264, in ultra compact, low power designs. The VIA Magic View content management software has been optimized to provide a user friendly interface to manage digital signage content, layout and scheduling.

VIA Magic Box has been designed as a scalable solution to meet the needs of a wide range of customers and is available in two versions, VIA Magic Box Standalone version designed for stand alone displays and kiosks which does not require a network connection, and VIA Magic Box Server version for control of multiple clients and displays through secure networking."

Key Features:

• User-friendly interface 
• Easy schedule management 
• Supports system reboot and shut down 
• Supports Sleeping mode/wake up function 
• Client status/history review 
• Monitors hardware function 
• Media library management

VIA and Capital Networks team up for Android digital signage system

VIA has offered digital signage solutions for many years; it must be close to a decade in fact. One of the leaders of the field is Capital Networks, and the two companies have just announced a partnership which will see the development of an Android-based system for digital signage and advertising.

"The recently released VIA ARM DS will leverage Capital Networks Audience for Android software to create a complete Android digital signage solution for an ever widening range of applications in the digital market from kiosks, POS systems, video walls, and menu boards to TVOIP, cloud streaming, and Out of Home Advertising across a broad spectrum of retail, hospitality, education, and entertainment environments." ... read more.

VIA's latest EPIA board offers Quad core & 3D

VIA last week launched a new Pico-ITX board which features two stand-out features that have not been seen before in this form factor:

1) The VIA QuadCore E-Series processor
2) DirectX 11 support, for richer textures as well as 3D stereoscopic display

Here's some more information about the specs of this little powder keg known as the EPIA-P910:

• Compact 10cm x 7.2cm Pico-ITX form factor
• High-performance 64-bit VIA QuadCore E-Series processor
• Latest VIA VX11H media system processor with DirectX11 support
• Flawless 3D and HD video performance up to 1080p
• Supports 2 USB 3.0 and 6 USB 2.0 ports
• HDMI, VGA and one single-channel 24-bit LVDS support
• Supports high-bandwidth DDR3 1333MHz memory, up to 8GB
• Support for two SATA
• HD audio support
• Supports digital I/O

Newegg Update: The APC is now in Stock, at $60

Coming in some 10% more expensive than the original $49 price point, the VIA APC is now in stock on Newegg, making it easily accessible to DIY computing enthusiasts in the US.

Customer reviews thus far are very positive:

The VIA APC is now on sale at Newegg

The premier online portal for sales of computer parts in the US has started selling the VIA APC. Strangely labelled the "Avatar APC 8750 WM8750 Processor (ARMv6) - ARM1176JZF @800Mhz 6.69" x 3.35" Motherboard/CPU Combo" on the store, it is currently listed as 'Out of Stock' and has no price. So VIA have got Newegg to list the product, but there's no stock available. Mmm ...