backtop

Print 22 comment(s) - last by Cheesew1z69.. on Feb 26 at 11:59 AM
Mainboards are aimed at business and pleasure users

VIA has launched the world's first quad-core mini-ITX mainboards. The new VIA EPIA-M900 and EPIA-M910 boards slip into the line of VIA's small and power efficient x86 platforms. Both boards use the same 1.2 GHz VIA QuadCore E-Series processor, though other processor options are offered on both.
 
"The VIA QuadCore E-Series processor delivers world class performance in the industry's leading power efficient package," said Epan Wu, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. "The high performance of the VIA QuadCore E-Series processor makes it the perfect platform for the creation of next generation digital signage displays and embedded projects."
 
The quad-core processors used on these boards are designed for power efficiency and are 64-bit compatible. The overall TDP of the processors is 27.5 W and the mainboard itself measures 17 cm x 17 cm. The board supports up to 8 GB of DDR3 RAM and has a VIA Chromemotion HD 2.0 video processor.

 
VIA notes that the mainboard is appropriate for all sorts of applications from digital signage to home automation or media computer use.
 
The board has rear panel I/O connections including GbE, HDMI out, VGA out, and a quartet of USB 2.0 ports. There is also a single COM port and three audio jacks. The board has a single PCIe x16 slot onboard for video cards or other add-in cards and a normal PCI slot as well.
 
The main difference between the M900 and the M910 is that the 910 can be optioned with up to 12 COM ports and has a PCIe x4 slot.

Source: VIA


Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
Price?
By Cheesew1z69 on 2/23/2012 10:57:11 AM , Rating: 2
Not bad! Built in Quad would be great for a HTPC!




RE: Price?
By Denithor on 2/23/12, Rating: 0
RE: Price?
By Cheesew1z69 on 2/23/2012 11:14:02 AM , Rating: 2
For purposes of things like POS, KIOSK, this will work just fine.


RE: Price?
By ICBM on 2/23/2012 11:36:00 AM , Rating: 3
Unknown performance? The single and dual core Nanos have been with us for quite a while. I think we have a very good idea about how this will perform. The answer is quite good.


RE: Price?
By HrilL on 2/23/12, Rating: 0
RE: Price?
By StevoLincolnite on 2/23/2012 1:20:00 PM , Rating: 3
Simple solution to that...
Most Netbooks these days have a Mini-PCIE slot.
Mini-ITX has a proper PCI-E slot.

You can get a Broadcom Crystal HD for both which will handle 1080P just fine.
I actually got the Broadcom Crystal HD for my Atom n470+GMA3150 Tablet for like $20 off ebay and it handles 1080P Blu-ray fine.


RE: Price?
By Mitch101 on 2/23/2012 4:09:54 PM , Rating: 2
Hope Via is selling them for $25-$35.00.

Rasperry Pi goes on sale in the next week.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Its not quad core but XBMC is already running on it at 1080P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedd...


RE: Price?
By omnicronx on 2/23/2012 1:27:27 PM , Rating: 3
Which has little to nothing to do with your CPU. You just don't have any hardware decoding for whatever codec you are attempting to play. (HD video will tax any system without one)

Both these boards come with paired with VX900 media system processor which should have no problem with 720P and 1080P video. (supports hardware decoding of VC1, H.264 and WMV9 HD video)


RE: Price?
By RjBass on 2/24/2012 8:52:48 PM , Rating: 2
Or, and AMD Fusion APU with it's built in Radeon HD 6000 series chip. Way better then anything Intel has going Atom wise at the moment.


RE: Price?
By tastyratz on 2/23/2012 12:12:11 PM , Rating: 2
google product search result gave me $250 and $300 bucks so far. Extremetech notes that it has an msrp of $310.

personally I don't feel it's priced for use in anything BUT specialty applications. No thanks...


RE: Price?
By EasyC on 2/23/2012 1:49:25 PM , Rating: 2
Werd. My experience with multiple VIA boards has always been a PITA. I paid 200$ for a nano board, and 140$ for an nVidia ION board shortly thereafter. Guess which was faster?

Regardless, my carputer runs a sandybridge, and my HTPC runs a hexacore. Both cost around 300 to build at the time.

I don't see this taking off except in the ultra low power market.


LOL
By Iketh on 2/24/2012 4:59:55 PM , Rating: 2
One of my overclocking profiles for my 2600K is 2.0ghz for software testing purposes. At idle the system is at 58w at the wall. Under Prime95, it's at 86w.

My 2.0ghz 2600k uses less power than this thing.




RE: LOL
By Cheesew1z69 on 2/26/2012 11:59:48 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
The overall TDP of the processors is 27.5 W
Uh huh...


Can anybody think of a good reason...
By theaerokid on 2/23/12, Rating: -1
RE: Can anybody think of a good reason...
By LordSojar on 2/23/2012 11:12:27 AM , Rating: 2
The scientific community frequently still uses COM based devices. Thus, this would be for that purpose. The consumer market isn't the real aim of these devices.


RE: Can anybody think of a good reason...
By Ramtech on 2/23/2012 11:41:36 AM , Rating: 2
Needs better driver support for Linux and BSD otherwise it will dead in water


By ICBM on 2/23/2012 6:14:20 PM , Rating: 2
Been running the dual core version of the Epia M900 with pfsense for a few months now. Now FreeBSD problems.


RE: Can anybody think of a good reason...
By Cheesew1z69 on 2/23/2012 11:15:48 AM , Rating: 2
POS, Kiosks are just examples. There are many applications that still use COM.


By omnicronx on 2/23/2012 1:30:58 PM , Rating: 2
These are clearly meant for POS or Kiosk machines, thus the COM port.

The firt tag on the VIA site for both these boards indicates as such. ('VIA Digital Signage Solutions', 'VIA Kiosk Solutions', 'VIA Healthcare Solutions')

Someone asks the same question everytime DT posts an article on an embedded board.


By BioHazardous on 2/23/2012 11:17:54 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Also, assuming you won't need a video card, throw in a wireless card and a decent sound card, and you've got no way to put a tuner card in there. And if you want a decent video card, then you're out of luck.


This isn't really aimed at the do whatever you want with a full tower PC type market. You can get a PCI tuner card and still get a video card for the PCIe slot if you really wanted to. You can get USB wireless devices as well as tuners. So if you really wanted to make this non-consumer device work for consumer purposes, you can.

quote:
VIA VX900H media system processor to provide a high-performance, scalable solution for a wide array of advanced digital signage, POS, Kiosk, ATM, home automation, healthcare and media client systems.


RE: Can anybody think of a good reason...
By HrilL on 2/23/2012 12:24:50 PM , Rating: 1
A lot of point of sale devices all use COM ports. Be it the price displays, scales, receipt printers, credit card readers, and many other devices. Having all those COM ports would allow you to upgrade your POS computer or replace a broken one without replacing existing hardware.


By Flunk on 2/23/2012 1:02:14 PM , Rating: 2
Most receipt printers are parallel or USB.


"I'm an Internet expert too. It's all right to wire the industrial zone only, but there are many problems if other regions of the North are wired." -- North Korean Supreme Commander Kim Jong-il









botimage
Copyright 2012 DailyTech LLC. - RSS Feed | Advertise | About Us | Ethics | FAQ | Terms, Conditions & Privacy Information | Kristopher Kubicki