VIA Launches World's First Mini-ITX Board with Nano X2 E-Series Dual-Core CPU

Posted 07/08/2011 at 6:32am | by Paul Lilly

4

Comments

Print

Without giving anything away, we can say you won't find VIA's EPIA-M900 mini-ITX motherboard in this year's Dream Machine. Where it will end up is in small form factor (SFF) embedded devices like ATMs and home automation systems, to give just two examples. The main draw here, and one VIA is highly touting, is that the EPIA-M900 is the world's first motherboard to sport a 64-bit Nano X2 E-Series dual-core processor (clocked at 1.6GHz).

"The VIA EPIA-M900 brings high performance VIA dual-core computing to embedded devices for the first time," said Epan Wu, head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division. "It will enable the creation of a wealth of innovative next generation digital signage, POS, Kiosk, ATM, home automation, healthcare, and media client system design applications."

VIA's newest mini-ITX board measures 17 x 17 centimeters and combines the 1.6GHz dual-core chip with the VIA VX900 MSP. It supports up to 8GB of DDR3 memory and features the VIA ChromotionHD 2.0 video processor. Other specs include GbE LAN, HDMI, VGA, four USB 2.0 ports, COM port, three audio jacks, PCI-E x16 slot, a standard PCI slot, and several headers for additional USB 2.0 ports, three more COM ports, and more.

Getting back to the dual-core processor, VIA says its Nano chip includes VIA VT virtualization, a technology that allows legacy software and applications to to be used in virtual scenarios without a performance hit. It also supports hardware-based AES encryption on-the-fly.

Image Credit: VIA