VIA Technologies, a Taiwan-based developer of x86 processor platforms, this morning announced that it has sold all of its shares in S3 Graphics, a provider of graphics visualization technologies used in PCs, game consoles and mobile devices based in California.
The buyer is smartphone manufacturer HTC, which is acquiring all outstanding shares of S3 Graphics for a grand total of $300 million. → Read More
When you absolutely, positively have to have your data onto your hard drive in seconds, look to VIA and their new USB 3.0 thumbdrives. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a normal flash drive. The blue plastic is a dead giveaway but inside is VIA’s new VIA VL750 Flash Controller is backwards compatible with 2.0 ports and offers 100MB/s transfer speeds in 3.0 and 35MB/s in 2.0. → Read More
PayPal haters now have another option to pay for junk online. It’s called payclick (all lowercase = money), and it was developed by Visa. They’re marketing it to teens and their families—“Safe & Secure purchasing for the family.” Basically, instead of using PayPal or directly using your credit card, you set up a payclick account then go to town. → Read More
Via’s cheap Android tablets have been supposedly been found. Via Gallery has a 16-pic spread showing different angles for each. Call us underwhelmed. Also, call us right for predicting this garbage. Anyway, click through for a shot of each product. → Read More
Via first showed off its USB 3.0 host controller at CES 2010 and it just broke cover at Computex. The VL800 series chip can handle four USB 3.0 devices simultaneously while providing data rates up to 5Gbps. Via aims to put this single chip solution into desktops, notebooks, servers, and everything else on God’s green earth. → Read More
2010 was called the year of the tablet and Via might make that come true. The chip maker plans on releasing five tablets by the end of the year. The kicker is that these five models will cost between $100 and $150 — or so says a Bloomberg report. These tablets are said to run Android and will be available in the states in the second half of the 2010.
Via’s upcoming tablets are of course in response to the iPad and is a classic CE move. Instead of producing a quality product, a company, in this case Via, is outing a whole range of low-cost (and likely cheap) alternatives. → Read More
Look at the palm of your hand. Imagine if you will a future that includes computers that size. Brother! Good news! The future is here with the Via ARTiGO A1100! → Read More
VIA just launched their latest little computer, the M’SERV S2100. Designed for the small business and home user, the M’SERV uses a VIA 64-bit processor with support for DDR2 and SATA. → Read More
You know that thing about robots eventually taking over the world? Or computers? Or robots with computers in them and at first you’re like, “Hey cool, I’m friends with a robot and we play Scrabble together because he has a computer in him,” but after a while the robot gets all moody and you start to notice stuff missing from your room and all of a sudden the robot is, like, locking you out of your house and punching you in the upper arm for no reason? Maybe that robot would have one of these VIA Mobile-ITX boards in it. It’s small, is what I’m saying. → Read More
VIA has introduced its updated line of Nano processors, built for netbooks and all-in-one computers. The 3000 series promises a 20% performance boost over existing Nano CPUs while managing to reduce overall power consumption by 20% as well. → Read More
Netbooks are too underpowered, notebooks are too bulky and expensive – “SILENCE!” shouts VIA. All hail the new “NetNote” category, if you please. We’re basically talking netbooks with 10- to 12-inch screens that can handle 1080p HD video without breaking stride. → Read More
Quick Version: The Lenovo IdeaPad S12 represents one of the first netbooks to feature VIA’s Nano platform as a configuration option. You’ll gain some extra horsepower over Intel’s Atom setup while saving about $70 off the total system price, making the Nano a good option for those of you who want to watch 720p video. All that power comes at a price, though: decreased battery life, as the included six-cell battery only manages a little over four hours. → Read More
Yes, yes, yes. Check out this prototype from VIA. It’s a hybrid tablet PC netbook. The screen pops out of the main body and functions as an Android tablet and when docked back into the body — in this case, an HP Mini 1000-series netbook — it runs XP. → Read More
VIA’s “How To Be Mobile” blog takes a look at the Dr. Mobile Freestyle 1300n series of netbooks powered by, of course, the VIA Nano 1.3GHz CPU. The 1300n is an 11.6-inch machine with a 1366×768 resolution, weighs just under three pounds, and is less than an inch thick. → Read More
VIA’s got a new fanless platform aimed especially at car PCs. The IVP-7500 can be tucked away inside single- or double-DIN dashboards “as well as discrete, in-seat and headrest designs.” The board includes a built-in GPS chip that hooks up to an external I-PEX antenna that you can mount on the outside of your car. → Read More
The bane of small form factor PCs and netbooks so far has been the inability to play HD video without blowing a gasket. VIA hopes to change all that with the VX855, a media system processor (MSP) that “offers full hardware acceleration of the widest variety of leading video standards including H.264, MPEG-2/4, DivX and WMV9, allowing smooth playback of high bit-rate 1080p HD video.” The chipset sips 2.3 watts and is 27mm square. → Read More
Quick Version: Much more functional than a NAS hard drive but not as expensive or large as most home server boxes, the VIA ARTiGO A2000 threads the needle between performance and price. And it looks good, to boot. → Read More
Something I never really even considered about the various form factors of PCs I’ve set up in my time are that most of the inputs and outputs are clustered on one side. Of course, that’s because it makes a lot of sense, for a desktop situation where most of your stuff should be plugged in the back, but what about embedded/small form-factor systems where you don’t have space to be running cables around, or the density of I/O ports in one tiny area becomes hazardous? Why, you just shift a bunch of them to the other side, like VIA’s done. → Read More
No surprise here, but VIA’s issued a press release officially announcing that Samsung’s NC20, the 12-inch successor to the NC10 netbook, does indeed have a VIA Nano CPU – a fact that’s been known for quite some time now. Along with the news, we’ve got some official specs for the soon-to-be-released computer, although we still don’t have official pricing or launch dates. → Read More
