Boot Camp VIA Style

Forget the early morning starts and gruelling workouts, VIA's boot camp involves the APC board, Android and creative ideas.

In January 2013, registered participants in the VIA boot camp will turn up at VIA's headquarters in Taipei Taiwan for two days of one on one mentoring with experts from VIA on their APC board. Participants will be able to develop and prototype their designs and applications for the APC, even having access to a 3D printer while they're there. A couple of months later, in April 2013, the final results will be showcased at an event, also in Taipei.

The program kicks off at the VIA global headquarters in Xindian, New Taipei City over the weekend of January 19th and 20th, 2013. It will allow participants to form teams to take on the challenge of designing and building connected hardware devices using the APC platform. Industry experts will be on hand to assist and mentor teams as they work through their prototype builds. Participants will also have the opportunity to experiment with 3D printers for conceptualizing and prototyping. 

Event Schedule: The APC Boot Camp will kick off the weekend of January 19th and 20th, 2013, followed by regular progress meet-ups and a final showcase event April 14th, 2013.

To register your spot, visit VIA's APC website.

VIA APC finding more traction across the world

The VIA APC is slowly but surely becoming available in more places around the world. With a new distribution deal with Comtronics, Canadians can now get their hands on the board more easily, for a price of $64.99

For information about APC availability through Canada Computers, please visit: http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_706&item_id=053384 

For retailer information within Canada, please contact Comtronics at: http://www.comtronic.ca/cci/home.php?do=ShowProducts&cmd=detail&cid=MB&pid=016589

 For more information about APC please visit: apc.io

VIA Pico-ITX, a boutique item with a niche of its own

Considering the price of the VIA EPIA P-910 Pico-ITX mainboard against the $49 you can spend on a VIA APC or a mid-range cost of a Mini-ITX board, where does the Pico-ITX fit in? TechRepublic thinks there is a niche there that it fulfils:

"If you are truly limited in space for a traditional computer and are looking for a system that can mount behind a desktop monitor or are building Windows-powered kiosks, and in-car PCs, the EPIA-P910 might be worth taking a look at, despite the high price. Because VIA doesn’t have the market penetration that Intel or AMD has with their x86/x64 products, the company tries these interesting form factors as a way to carve out a market for itself with boutique items."

Turn your LCD TV into a smart device with a VIA APC

Tech BU have published a handy guide to turning your LCD TV into a smart device on which you can play Angry Birds, catch up on your YouTube videos and surf the web. If you don't have a PC in your lounge room hooked up to your LCD TV then this is a great, cost effective way to get computer functionality on your main screen real estate in the house.

VIA APC Cycles Into Europe

The 'Bicycle for your mind', the ultra-cheap and compact VIA APC, now has a European distribution partner, making it an easy online order for DIY computer enthusiasts across the continent and the UK.

"We are pleased to announce that APC is now available for order across Europe through RS Components for £39.99. RS Components is the worldwide leading distributor of electronics and maintenance products, and is an ideal partner to provide quick and reliable service to customers looking to purchase an APC." - Source.

The little APC board is virtually a plug and play with Android package, allowing people to experiment and develop applications quickly and affordably, without the tie-down of a traditional desktop OS.

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.