VX900: Blu-ray, PCI Express, dual monitors ...

VIA's VX series of Media System Processors has been given a boost this week with the announcement of the VX900 chip, which brings Blu-ray support and a lot of output options to the table. The VX900 is on VIA's chipset list on their website in the Mobile and Ultra Mobile chip section - so it's being targetted at ultra mobile notebooks, netbooks and mobile Internet devices.
While the VX855 supported CRT, LVDS and TTL monitors, the new VX900 supports HDMI as well. Furthermore "DuoView support allows multi-monitor extended desktop support where two independent display engines can display different content at different resolutions, pixel depths and refresh rates."
There is also a lot of upgrade capability with this new chip since it offers a PCI Express 2.0 interface with 1 8 lane and 3 single lane slots. There's also two PCI slots and an 8 channel HD audio codec.
This is a very feature rich, flexible single chip solution. ''The VIA VX900 MSP supports the latest DDR3 system memory at speeds of up to 1066MHz and is compatible with the VIA Nano™, VIA C7® and VIA Eden™ processor families. The VIA VX900 integrates all the features of a traditional North and South bridge solution into a 31mm x 31mm single chip package, offering a reduced overall silicon footprint compared with competing twin-chip core logic implementations."

VIA's Nano shown to best Intel's Atom in Lenovo IdePad S12

Computer Power User has given a fair and balanced review of the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, an ultra mobile notebook that's been around for a while now but is still readily available on New Egg and at other online and retail sales spots in the US. In Australia you can pick them up for as little as $692 from Electronic Bazaar.

The model sporting the VIA processor is cheaper than the Intel one even though, as the test results from Computer Power User show, the Nano is the better performer. However, to be fair, the better processing grunt does result in a hit to the battery life.

Better performance, lower price, reduced batterty vs higher price, better battery, lower performance. You choose!

VIA based tablet for $199

This 7 inch "iLet" - because everyone loves to use the little i in their product names these days - could be a good deal for an e-book reader. It actually runs Android OS, so it could be used for much more than just reading. The specs are on the light side, however, with a 600MHz VIA CPU (probably C7-M), 128MB RAM and 2GB onboard flash. But the price is very nice indeed. So long as the batter life is not on the lite side, it could make for a very nice way to read the paper online. - Source

VIA makes minor gain in desktop PC processor segment

IDC has released the figures for processor sales in 2009. While Intel still well and truely holds top position, AMD and VIA both enjoyed a percentage gain last year. While AMD clawed back small gains in the server/workstation and mobile PC segments, VIA gained 0.1% in the desktop PC segment. Surprisingly, in the same year, mobile PC processor sales for VIA fell by 0.05%. You win some and you loose some! - Source

VIA releases new logo for China market: consumers are goal

TMCNet are reporting that VIA released a new logo specifically for China last week as part of a new marketing strategy to become a consumer brand name in the country rather than just being the chips that no one has heard of inside the devices that have brand names that they know.

"VIA points out that the release of the logo indicates a strategy change. In the future, it will guide the development of the chip industry and the behavior of customers in partnership with terminal makers."

The new logo apparently sports heart shaped curves emanating from chips. Unfortunately I couldn't find a copy of the logo. Google translate wasn't being nice when I tried to find it on the Chinese language website that was TMCNet's source and VIA is such a hard company name to search for because it's also a word, via. Let me know if you find the new logo!

Shuttle Alliance with big plans for notebooks

Just before CES I posted news that Shuttle were going to announce an Alliance of second tier hardware manufacturers, who would work together to increase their overall netbook market share. That alliance has now been announced as the Shuttle New Notebook Ecosystem.

"Shuttle revealed more members of its alliance at CES 2010 including CPU makers AMD and VIA Technologies, keyboard maker Chicony Electronics, power supply maker Lite-On Technology, battery module maker Simplo Technology, Korea-based panel maker LG Display and Japan-based DRAM maker Elpida Memory." - Digitmes.

The group hope to ship 150 000 notebooks in the first quarter. The concept is similar to VIA's Global Mobility Bazaar which sees Chinese manufacturers work together to build netbooks.

Shuttle starting netbook alliance?

I've been on holidays so I am still catching up with news from the past couple of weeks. Digitimes reported on 23 December that Shuttle would announce an alliance for second tier notebooks makers:

"In addition to Intel platforms, the alliance will also be open to adopting platforms from AMD, VIA Technologies and ARM. Since the alliance already has partnerships with several component makers and OEMs, second-tier notebook players will be able to purchase components at costs and with quality competitive with first-tier players, the sources noted. Shuttle also plans for the alliance to offer a complete after-sales service channel."

Their goal is to increase second tier notebook manufacturers' market share to 15% for 2010. But in that news, it was stated that the alliance was to be announced by the end of December and now it's 4th Jan and I can't find any more news about it. Maybe they'll be launching at CES this week?