Product category:
Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and DSPs
News Release from: VIA Technologies | Subject: EPIA mainboards
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 16 February 2007
EPIA mainboards are five years old
Five years ago this month, VIA Technologies launched the first EPIA mainboards through its VIA Platform Solutions Division based on the Mini-ITX form factor it had invented three months earlier.
Five years ago this month, VIA Technologies launched the first EPIA mainboards through its VIA Platform Solutions Division (VPSD) based on the Mini-ITX form factor it had invented three months earlier - the smallest, most integrated standard PC platform in the world, with global channel availability announced in April 2002 This launch has proved the catalyst for a "big bang" of small form factor innovation among industry players and enthusiasts alike
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 15 Dec 2006 at 8.00am (UK)
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Today, the Mini-ITX has been widely adopted for an enormous variety of small footprint systems requiring low power consumption, from thin clients, kiosks, point-of-sales (POS) and network devices to newer x86 fields such as car PCs, digital signage and ID systems.
With a broad infrastructure of motherboard and chassis makers and system builders evolved around it, the Mini-ITX has become a leading industry standard embedded mainboard.
VIA EPIA mainboards have lowered the barriers to entry for system developers, revivifying garage innovation as smaller companies use the complete, off-the-shelf platforms to rapidly bring their exciting new ideas to market.
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The Mini-ITX platform has also inspired many enthusiasts to create exotic and fun computers out of everyday objects, known as 'case mods' - the focus of one of the two competitions this month.
"VIA's success has been in consistently anticipating market trends, and we realised back then that the PC industry was in desperate need of a breakthrough product to spur innovation on the x86 platform".
"The Mini-ITX mainboard proved to be that breakthrough", said Richard Brown, VP of Corporate Marketing, VIA Technologies.
"VIA's continued innovation to the standards of integration and miniaturisation seen today at both the silicon and platform levels is testament to our engineering excellence, our vision of where the market is heading and our commitment to driving new industry standards".
VIA and partners are announcing a month of celebrations during February, which kicks off with two fun competitions, with prises including the very latest VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard, the EPIA EX15000G; these are followed by a series of informative articles posted on VIA Arena throughout the month.
Today's VIA EPIA mainboards have come a long way from first production, with processor speeds as much as three times that of the original platforms yet more power efficient than ever, richer digital media feature integration, and greater connectivity and storage options.
VIA pioneered the integration of MPEG-2 digital video processing directly into the chipset north bridge hardware, making VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboards complete platforms boasting smooth DVD playback without the need of additional daughtercards.
Now, some chipsets integrate MPEG-4 and WMV9 video decoding acceleration as well as support for advanced memory up to DDR2 and the latest SATA storage technologies.
The VIA C7 processor family has raised the performance bar, featuring a host of new processing, power management and security technologies that have boosted the applicability of VIA EPIA mainboards.
At the same time, VIA has an aggressive roadmap to continue shrinking the platform itself, with the development of the Nano-ITX and the upcoming Pico-ITX form factors.
"We are delighted to celebrate the fifth birthday of our EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard, which has revolutionised small form factor innovation and become a major player in the embedded market", said Daniel Wu, Assistant Vice President, VIA Platform Solutions Division, VIA Technologies: "This birthday is a timely reminder of our progress in reducing the form factor, coming so close to the launch of the upcoming Pico-ITX form factor, which we hope will raise the excitement level and boost innovation as the Mini-ITX has done".
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