Graphics chip manufacturer S3 Graphics today announced its latest graphics architecture, the Chrome 500 Series. Building on the success of the Chrome 400 Series processors, the Chrome 500 adds new audio and visual features and a performance boost of up to 30% while maintaing S3 Graphics' reputation for industry-leading power-efficiency.

The Chrome 500 series graphics processors support the latest Blu-ray™ playback, streaming HD video so users can enjoy the latest movie titles in stunningly high quality as well as access bonus features such as Picture-in-Picture functions. S3 Graphics' latest technology also features 8 channels of high-fidelity audio with the S3 Graphics’ built-in Dolby 7.1 digital surround sound processor.All HD Audio controllers are supported natively in the GPU.

Both the latest DirectX® 10.1, and OpenGL 3.0 graphics engines are fully supported, allowing gamers to take advantage of the Chrome 500 Series' perfomance lead in the latest gaming titles. The Chrome 500 Series architecture also incorporates support for advanced display technologies including HDCP compliant DisplayPort,  HDMI, DVI and  dual-link DVI.
 
The Chrome 530 GT card, the first card to feature the new Chrome 500 architecture, is available through the GStore for a very reasonable $44.95 and features both HDCP compliant DVI and HDMI ports for stunning Hi-Def playback on the latest modern display technologies.

VIA has just announce that its in-house software developers are actively collaborating with developers from the community-based OpenChrome project.

OpenChrome develops free and Open Source drivers that take full advantage of the hardware acceleration of VIA chipsets featuring the VIA UniChrome, UniChrome Pro and Chrome9 integrated graphics processors.

This relationship marks the next step in VIA’s ongoing and increasing cooperation with the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community. Specifically, VIA has just made graphics programming manuals for both the VIA CX700M and VX800 chipsets available on X.Org and checked in its framebuffer driver source to the 2.6.28 mainline kernel. On top of that, VIA developers will initially be assisting OpenChrome with multi-head support and RandR function.

“This is a welcome and significant step forward from VIA; the availability of free platform documentation is an essential component for greater open source community developer involvement, to everyone's benefit,” said Xavier Bachelot, a developer with the OpenChrome project. “We expect that pooling our development resources and working in a public repository on a consolidated codebase in this way will result in a more feature-complete driver, and a simpler and enhanced experience for the users.”

VIA Launches VIPRO Touch-Screen Panel PC

Taipei, Taiwan, November 18 2008 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA VIPRO VP7710 touch screen panel PC, a full featured, entirely fanless panel PC suitable for intelligent display applications in demanding environments. Rugged, stable and flexible, the VIA VIPRO is the first in a series of advanced display technologies from VIA.

VIA VIPRO VP7710 fanless touchscreen panel PC

VIA have announced the VIPRO VP7710, a fanless touchscreen panel PC intended for industrial and commercial applications but likely to prompt at least a little interest from domestic custom installers.  Based on either a 1.6GHz VIA Eden or 1.0GHz C7 processor with up to 1GB of DDR2 RAM, the primary means of input is using the 10.4-inch water and dust resistant touch panel.

VIA Ready with VIPRO Embedded Kiosk PC Panel

VIA has announced with its VIPRO PC Panel VP7710. It is a touchscreen display panel with a PC built-in, that finds application in kiosks, ATMs, ticketing machines, and industrial control panels. The 10.4 inch touchscreen display is durable, dust-resistant and water-resistant. The panel PC comes with options of VIA C7 1.00 GHz or VIA Eden 1.60 GHz processor with 1 GB of DDR2 memory. The machine is can run Windows XP comfortably for the hardware that's installed. It provides essential peripheral and network connectivities. The panel uses a sturdy steel and aluminum body. 

VIA VIPRO VPanel VPC

VIA has been building a few nice built-in PCs recently including the Iceman and this odd panel PC that is supposed to fit into a wall or a kiosk. The 10.4-inch touchscreen PC is rugged and fanless and includes a resistive touchscreen and plenty of ports. This is an embedded system so it’s aimed more at heavy duty applications but I could see this as a home control system in a wall somewhere.

Certified Internet Solutions PC5E review 

The modestly-priced CIS PC5E is a sensible machine well suited to current economic attitudes. Most people think the home PC processor game is a two-horse race. It's AMD's clunky yet somehow competitive filly against Intel's heavily armoured rocket stallion, right? Well, not quite. Look closely a couple of lengths behind and you'll see a plucky Shetland pony, its little legs doing ten to the dozen, somehow keeping pace with the big boys. That's VIA, a company that has always specialised in covering those niches that the bigger boys traditionally skipped over, like x86-based platforms for embedded and low-power systems. And as we'll find out, it's been dodging the trip to the glue factory for some time.

Embedded Technology 2008 started yesterday in Yokohama, Japan. Running until Saturday, the event offers a chance to see exciting small form factor x86 designs for embedded applications, including ultra compact boards and complete embedded systems.

For those with the opportunity to attend the show, VIA is at booth C-28 and is showing off a range of innovative new systems and boards including the VIA VIPRO panel PC, perfect for any HMI interface with its thin and fanless design and its IP65-compliant front panel that repels both dust and water, and the VIA NAS 7800, a specialized segment board targeted at SME Network Attached Storage applications.

Additionally, yesterday saw a press event where VIA and Microsoft talked about enabling greater adoption of x86-based embedded platforms in Japan and highlighted the importance of the Japanese embedded market, stressing that the combination of VIA's x86 technology and Microsoft software offers a proven, mature choice for commercial embedded developers.

For more information on Embedded Technology 2008, please click here.

The latest company to enter the market for UMPCs is Korean company UMID with their F1 UMPC which has support for HSDPA and WiBro (WiMAX) connectivity. The snaps of the shiny black model of the F1 are creating quite the buzz as is its powerful VIA C7-M 1.2 GHz processor. Along with HSDPA and WiMAX the UMID F1 is accompanied with an impressive list of specs including a 7-inch touch screen with a 800×480 resolution, 1GB of RAM, 60GB hard drive, DMB tuner, GPS receiver, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and an FM tuner. It is capable of running Windows XP and comes with a remote control.

The LG KC910 Renoir is the class of cell phone anybody would love to possess. It is equipped with an 8 megapixel digital camera with superfast HSDPA and 3G. The LG Renoir is a gem with its image editing tool, micro SD slot, Bluetooth wireless technology, in- built GPS receiver and the capability to operate on 4 different GSM frequencies. However the best part is the deal which O2 is offering with it: a VIA powered Elonex Webbook free with the LG KC 910 Renoir on a £45 rental and 18 month contract which includes 1200 minutes free connectivity to any network, any time. The 10.2″ Elonex Webbook boasts a 1.6 GHz C7-M processor capable of running Windows XP with 512MB of RAM and 80GB hard drive. Check out MobSpot for this awesome deal.

tkArena is still whipping out videos about upgrading a five year old PC.    

“What comes first, the chicken or the egg—the motherboard or the chipset? Or is it the CPU? When it comes to upgrading, the decision about the motherboard, chipset and CPU all go hand in hand. The chipset choice then decides what motherboard you look at and of course the CPU choice nails down what chipsets you can look at. Where do you begin? Let’s see if we can help in this video, the sixth episode in the Upgrading to the Next Generation PC series..” -tkArena.

There are quite a few new games coming out for PC. Are they on your list to Santa? Might be time for an upgrade then? tkArena’s Upgrading to the Next Generation PC series might be helpful then. In this article they consider the RAM, hard drives and optical drives. 

“Can they be re-used? If not, why? And what should replace them?”

VIA VIPRO VP7710

On November 19, 2008, VIA Technologies, Inc, which is best known for its power efficient x86 processor platforms, announced the VIA VIPRO VP7710 touch screen panel PC. The VP7710 is a small, compact, fanless and very durable panel computer designed for intelligent display applications in demanding environments. VIA says the VIPRO is just the first in a series of advanced display technology products.

VIA unveils touch-screen panel PC

VIPRO device aimed at intelligent display applications

VIA Technologies has joined a number of companies offering systems with a touch-based display for finger-driven user input. Available now, the VIA VIPRO VP7710 touch-screen panel PC is aimed at developers rather than end users, but demonstrates the growing interest in touch-screen technologies across various industries.

 Posiflex delivers high value, low cost POS bundle solution

The new KS6215 terminals come preloaded with WEPOS, a derivative of Windows XP Professional, and equipped with a high-performance VIA Technologies C7 Processor at 1.5GHz with 128KB Cache, SATA HDD and 10/100 base T Ethernet. Developed from the ground up for low-power operation, the VIA C7 processor is manufactured using IBM's state-of-the-art 90nm Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) process, which delivers the greatest performance per watt in the business.

 One Laptop GoGo 2.0

The low-cost PC market (including notebooks and desktops) is expected to reach annual shipment totals of 10 million units in 2008, according to Jerry Shen, president of Asustek (right). The CPUs adopted by these 10 million units includes Intel’s Atom and Celeron M, and VIA Technologies’ C7-M. The Atom will account for seven million units, while the other three million will be shared by Celeron M and C7-M processors, noted Shen.

Get a FREE Elonex Webbook and the LG Renoir on an O2 Pay Monthly Contract

FREE Gift with this deal: Elonex Webbook/Full Specifications/Via 1.6GHz C-7M Processor/Genuine Microsoft Windows XP/

Five Gadgets That Were Killed by the Cellphone

Next: The Notebook.It will take some time, but its easy to imagine the cellphone completely replacing the laptop for mobile use. Sure, we might keep one at home for work, but the cellphone already does most of what our notebooks do. We can listen to music, play movies, and use the internet. One day, those big old, battery-sucking computers will be an amusing relic.

VIA today announced the first in a series of intelligent touch screen panel PCs: The VIA VIPRO VP7710.

Kiosk and vending machines have come a long way in recent years. Take a look at today's modern ticket machines in train and subway systems, airport check-in machines, ATMs and even information machines in museums and exhibitions. You'll find that the humble devices of the past have evolved considerably, incorporating high quality multimedia playback and as well as a more sophisticated means of human-machine interaction: the touch screen panel.

The robust VIA VIPRO VP7710 uses a heavy steel and aluminum base to house a vibrant 10.4" TFT screen that is both water and dust resistant, making it eminently suitable for extended commercial and industrial use.

Check out the video below for a look at the VIA VIPRO in action.

For more information about the VIA VIPRO you can click here.

Via Nano machines Q1 2009?

I got back yesterday night from Electronica 2008 (Munich, Germany) where I had been investigating Embedded computers including SBCs, COMs, PICMG etc. VIA were very much in evidence with several boards on display. What caught my eye though was the VIA Nano processor (announced in May 2008) leaflets, a biggish size board with the processor and a display and the VIA VB8001 Mini-ITX Nano Board.

CPU Test: Dual-core Atom 330 vs. Single-core Atom N270 vs. VIA C7

Comparisons with VIA C7, VIA Nano or Isaiah, Intel Celeron M and Intel Core 2 Due U7600. You can read about these tests in the following entries:[…]Atom 330 is designed specifically for nettops, which are affordable desktops purpose-built primarily for web surfing, email, and basic Internet usage. The dual-core Atom 330 features a 1.6GHz processing core, 1MB of level 2 cache, an 8W TDP and support for DDR2 667MHz.

ARM lays down gauntlet to Intel with Ubuntu deal

As the cellphone and PC converge to form the ‘mobile internet device’, significant new stand-offs are emerging in the semiconductor market, notably Intel Atom versus Qualcomm Snapdragon, and Intel’s x86 processor architecture versus the dominant platform in mobile devices, ARM. As Intel creeps into the handset space, with mobile Atoms planned for next year, ARM is heading up the food chain, working with open source software majors to penetrate the mobile computing base.

Ubuntu desktop experience coming to ARM-based computing devices

Ubuntu desktop experience coming to ARM-based computing devices Microprocesor design company ARM is working with Canonical Ltd, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, to bring the full Ubuntu Desktop operating system to the ARMv7 processor architecture. The addition of the new operating system will enable new netbooks and hybrid computers, targeting energy-efficient ARM technology-based SoCs, to deliver a rich, always-connected, mobile computing experience, without compromising battery life.

Intel’s latest Core i7 chips move into desktop products

AMD holds all of the rest except for the less than 1 percent of Taiwan’s Via Technologies Inc (威盛電子). In servers, Intel has an 85.6 percent market share. Intel on Nov. 12 cut its fourth-quarter sales forecast by about US$1 billion because of significantly weaker demand across its entire product line, stoking concern that the financial crisis is stifling global technology spending.

Yahoo CEO Yang to step down

Yahoo, under fierce financial pressure, has begun a search to replace company co-founder Jerry Yang as chief executive, the company said Monday."Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level," Chairman Roy Bostock said in a statement. "We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo as a key executive and member of the Board."

In Production

Framing Up & Continuity

You are at the shoot, you've been over the script, you know the shots you need to get.  One of the easy ways to make your home or business videos look unique and professionally produced is to "frame-up" your shots and maintain continuity.

Framing up the shot is also a photographic technique employed in stills camera photography and the principles are the same.  View your camera screen in thirds.  Place the focus, or the subject, of your picture in to one of the thirds and this will automatically give you a balanced picture.  It is always a good idea, before you push the record button, to frame up the shot beforehand.  It's never a good idea to press record and then find you actually have no idea as to where or how you're going to start the shot, or where or how you are going to end it.  Frame up the shot .. create the picture ... and then follow the shot through as you envision it.  If it works ... push record.

If you are filming in a more spontaneous environment where you might not have so much control over your subject, still apply the framing up, or thirds, technique.  Your editor will love you!

The 180-Degree Rule

Maintaining continuity is also important as the human brain and eye observe changes in time as an unfoldment or continuous process.  Keeping the camera work and pictures consistent adds to maintaining the feeling of time unfolding.  The 180-degree rule, or line of action action, makes sure your talent or focus is always facing in the right direction !  How it works is you make an imaginery line through your subject and always film from that one side of the line.  This ensures the subject is always moving or looking in the same screen direction .

Here's a good little video giving an overview on the Rule of Thirds.

UMID F1 with WiBro (WiMax)

The UMID F1 is another UMPC running Windows XP with a processor VIA C7-M 1.2 GHz with 1GB of Ram, 60GB of Hard Disk Space, a 7-inch touchscreen with a 800 × 480px resolution, a DMB tuner, a GPS receiver, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 and a FM tuner.The F1 also comes with support for HSDPA and WiBro (WiMAX) connectivity. There has been no prices announced as yet. See more pictures after the break.

is there a long-term future for the netbook?

[…]On the other hand, I'm not really sure the netbook market has a viable long term value. The basic reality is this. An HP netbook with a 1.6ghz Via C-7 and 2gb of memory will set you back around $650, if you can find one. The slightly less mobile friendly Intel Atom at 1.6ghz and 2gb of memory will be setting you back $700 new, or maybe $680 if you shop around. Granted, the Via system only has a screen size around 8 inches, while the Intel has a screen size around 10inches. Lowering the price abit, lets say to just over $400, at $430, you could pick up an Intel Atom powered Asus EeePC with 1gb of ram and a 10 inch screen.

Is Intel abusing its market position, what is going on in the European chip market?

There seems to be fierce competition in the chip market between Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Claims have been made from both AMD and others that Intel is abusing its dominant position in the European market. Back in 2002 Europe’s top antitrust regulator closed an investigation regarding this since VIA Technologies of Taiwan, which together with AMD had complained about Intel’s practices, backed out of the investigation. The Commission said that they didn’t have enough evidence to pursue AMD’s complaint until it brought forward new evidence in 2003.

Intel Atom 330 dual-core benchmarks less impressive than expected

Intel’s Atom 330 is most definitely intended for the nettop, not the netbook, market, we’re told, and so hopes were high that the latest super-efficient chip would offer a pleasing boost of dual-core performance what with battery concerns no longer an issue.  PC Pro brought a Shuttle barebones - I’m guessing the X27D - based on the Atom 330 in from the cold and proceeded to benchmark it against not only the single-core Atom N270 but a 2GHz VIA C7-D system too.  The results were, to be blunt, mildly disappointing.

Atom 330 is benchmarked, fares slightly worse than expected

In specific tests, the 330 ran Office 2003 slower than both a 2GHz VIA C7-D and the single-core Atom; PC Pro actually performed the test several times just to be sure it wasn't a glitch... and it wasn't. The 330 performed better running 2D graphics, outpacing the N270 by 41 percent, and it also outperformed its competitors in encoding and multitasking. Not enough details for you? Hit the read link for the full-on benchmarking experience.

Dual-core Atom benchmarks return interesting data

PC Pro got a chance to put Intel’s dual-core Atom 330 chip through the wringer and found some interesting results. It seems that the 330 indeed outperforms the single-core N270 processor from Intel as well as the C7-D from VIA in all key areas except one: Microsoft Office 2003 performance. In the Office test, surprisingly, the dual-core CPU actually performed worse than both single-core chips. PC Pro posits that this could be a result of Office 2003 not being “particularly processor-intensive” and that they compared an optimized netbook with the single-core chip against a desktop version of the dual-core chip.