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Hardware VIA Announces EPIA LT
Anh Tuan Huynh (Blog) - June 27, 2007 12:03 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 20 comment(s) - last by ubcz.. on Jun 28 at 1:30 PM
Now with dual Ethernet and the ability to drive dual LVDS displays

VIA today announced the latest addition to its EPIA product lineup – the EPIA LT-series. The new EPIA LT-series arrives in 1.5 GHz and 1.0 GHz models; the EPIA LT15000AG and LT10000EAG. New to the EPIA LT-series is the ability to power dual displays using the native LVDS interface. Backing the LVDS interface is the usual VIA UniChrome Pro II AGP integrated graphics core found in the VIA CX700 chipset.

The integrated VIA UniChrome Pro II AGP also has hardware MPEG-2 video decoding capabilities. VIA also equips the EPIA LT-series with a VGA output. Users seeking TV-out functionality can opt for a special order version of the EPIA LT-series based on the VIA CX700M2 chipset. However, the TV-out equipped EPIA LT-series are for project-based customers only.

VIA equips the EPIA LT-series with dual VT6107 10/100 Ethernet as well. Customers seeking increased data throughput can opt for the optional VIA VT6122 Gigabit Ethernet controller in place of one of the 10/100 controllers. Other notable features of the EPIA LT-series include two SATA, one IDE, integrated VIA VT1708A high definition audio, one PCI slot, one DDR2-533 DIMM slot and up to four serial ports.

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itx add nauseum...
By codeThug on 6/27/2007 12:42:22 AM , Rating: 1
micro, nano pico, femto...

When is this crap ever going to hit main stream and be affordable? Announcement after announcement, but who is buying these things?




RE: itx add nauseum...
By peternelson on 6/27/2007 3:03:09 AM , Rating: 2
Mini-ITX is an established form factor.

(If I recall the Dreamcast mainboard was that size).

You want to know who buys them and what they can do?

Try projects at www.mini-itx.com

These can fit places a regular motherboard cannot.

VIA processors may be slower but still function. Their hardware random number generator and encryption circuitry outperforms rivals, but sadly is rarely used by owners.


RE: itx add nauseum...
By djtodd on 6/27/2007 8:45:50 AM , Rating: 2
These are pretty much the defacto boards used in car pc's as well.

I have used several of them for this purpose and they are perfect for the job. They are a good bit slower than a intel or amd counterpart, but you don't need a powerhouse for car pc use most of the time. They also have extremely low power requirements, which is one of the major selling points for car pc use. I'm talking <15 watts under full load for the entire board in some cases.


Serial ports ???
By bobdeer1965 on 6/27/2007 3:25:42 AM , Rating: 2
Looking at the picture I am guessing they mean USB ports???




RE: Serial ports ???
By Anh Huynh on 6/27/2007 3:35:56 AM , Rating: 2
One physical port, three headers on the motherboard.


Unfortunately
By mindless1 on 6/28/2007 2:00:57 AM , Rating: 2
Unfortunately, it's coming from Via, who has a long track record of making terrible mistakes from southbridge PCI to overstating capabilities to crazy pricing on combos that should cost LESS, not more.

Unless it costs less than 1/3rd of a normal platform, they're fooling themselves if they think there's going to be good market saturation except for limited niches.




RE: Unfortunately
By TomZ on 6/28/2007 8:42:01 AM , Rating: 2
Actually, from what I understand, VIA has done pretty well in the market for mini-ITX boards. They may have had some problems in the general PC motherboard mass market, but mini-ITX seems to be a good niche for them.


epia.. epia...
By tyildirim on 6/27/2007 12:42:25 AM , Rating: 2
umm.. ok I like small form factor boards with several features on board but when will we see a real life application or where is my 200$ asus eee....




H264
By Aikouka on 6/27/2007 8:22:17 AM , Rating: 2
With the rising use of H264 in media, VIA would have a pretty decent product overall if they'd add decoding support for it.




Beware of speed and software support
By ubcz on 6/28/2007 1:30:07 PM , Rating: 2
I built a small desktop using a VIA ITX form factor and have been using it for about a year running Windows XP. Some software verifies processor type during installation and doesn't recognize VIA, therefore the only option has been to abort the installation. Despite a 1 GHz clock, most applications seem to run rather slow.

I do like it for it's small size and low noise output.




wow!
By Gul Westfale on 6/27/07, Rating: -1
RE: wow!
By Dactyl on 6/27/2007 1:54:05 AM , Rating: 4
The U.S. Military still does almost everything with serial ports.

I don't know if certain industries (ATM machines?) tend to have a lot of special legacy hardware that uses serial ports.


RE: wow!
By Gul Westfale on 6/27/2007 11:23:45 PM , Rating: 2
the US military generally does not buy their hardware from newegg. they get custom stuff. this Via board is obviously aimed at home users... and thus the "wow 4 serial ports" comment above.


RE: wow!
By FNG on 6/28/2007 1:01:58 AM , Rating: 2
Umm... maybe in the 60's. Raytheon, General Dynamics and their ilk are doing quite a bit with COTS parts and Linux because it is affordable. Many of the combat systems employed today are SPARC, and increasingly Intel, based systems with some EM shielding and some NBC resistant, green, matte paint.


RE: wow!
By TomZ on 6/27/2007 7:50:30 AM , Rating: 3
Serial ports are also used a lot in industrial applications. Four ports could be a blessing for some uses, and serial ports are super cheap to incorporate on the mainboard, so why not?


RE: wow!
By sprockkets on 6/27/2007 11:41:12 AM , Rating: 2
POS machines use that in mass


RE: wow!
By Samus on 6/27/2007 1:53:50 PM , Rating: 2
I just built an HTPC and used both its serial ports for iR blasters (which is hard these days, most mobo's only have 1, if any, serial ports)

I wish I had more. That's a nice touch.


RE: wow!
By lumbergeek on 6/27/2007 1:40:05 PM , Rating: 2
Yup - despite the "legacy" aspect, RS-232 can be used in a discriminate manner for real-time applications without appreciable latency.


RE: wow!
By Daven on 6/27/2007 12:19:50 PM , Rating: 1
I think they meant 4 USB ports.


RE: wow!
By TomZ on 6/27/2007 12:51:58 PM , Rating: 2
No, 4 serial ports is correct.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/mothe...

It also looks like it has 4+2 USB ports, according to that web page.


"If you look at the last five years, if you look at what major innovations have occurred in computing technology, every single one of them came from AMD. Not a single innovation came from Intel." -- AMD CEO Hector Ruiz in 2007









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