VIA netbook and notebooks still strong in Asia

This blog has been pretty quiet of late, especially compared to the VIA Embedded News blog and the VIA Misc blog. As liliputing.com points out, VIA processors only showed up in a few netbook models in the US and the situation was much the same here in Australia. But at Computex last week VIA had a flipping row of netbooks and notebooks. Netbook News had a good look at them in this video.

Excellent article about new Nano processor range

According to LinuxFor Devices.com, the new SKUs of the VIA Nano processors have a mobile design purpose:

"Via's new Nano E series processors are, as in the past, available in an L-series ("low-power") for mainstream desktop and mobile PC systems, and in a U-series ("ultra-low-power") for mini-notebooks and small form factor devices. They use the same 21mm x 21mm nanoBGA2 package as the original Nano, and once again are being manufactured -- likely by Fujitsu -- using a 65nm process. "

The five new processors have a very low power draw, in fact, according to VIA, they're 20% faster but 20% more power efficient than previous VIA Nano processors.

800MHz U3400, with 100mW idle power
1.0GHz U3500, with 100mW idle power
1.2GHz U3300, with 100mW idle power
1.3+GHz U3100, with 100mW idle power
1.8GHz L3050, with 500mW idle power

LinuxForDevices article gives a great history of the VIA Nano processor which puts the new models in perspective of older SKUs.

Now you can get 10 inches for $100

A 10 inch netbook featuring a VIA manufactured ARM SoC processor has got itself some attention on several English language tech sites after being showcased on a Chinese website. Toysandgadget.com is where I found out about it - and the name of that website is quite to the point. With such low specs, it's hard to know whether to place this device, from Science and Technology of Shenzen, as a toy or a true gadget. For $100, it's coming close to a consumable device for many income levels.

Toysandgadget.com point out that this is perhaps the first netbook to have been released at that $100 range that has a 10 inch screen instead of 7 inch. 7 inches really is like a toy, but 10 inches is easier to work with.

With China being so close to Australia, it's a wonder these low priced netbooks haven't hit our shelves as yet. They sell cheap set top boxes and DVD players at major grocery stores here - why not cheap netbooks as well?

Two big hitters to use VX900 in upcoming netbooks

A report in Indian media has indicated that both Lenovo and Samsung will release new netbooks featuring the VX900 media processor. Both companies enjoyed sucess with previous VIA-based netbooks, Lenovo with their IdeaPad series and Samsung with the NC20, which was the first netbook to sport a VIA Nano processor. The reports says the netbooks may be available as early as June. - Electronista The companies previous versions VIA-based were available in Australia.

OLPC orders see VIA revenue increase by over 50% from Feb to Mar

Digitimes has reported that VIA's revenue has increased by 57.6% comparing February to March. They point to orders of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) machines as the main reason for the increase, but also site "strong demand from Europe, North America and emerging markets". Orders of the VIA C7-M processor for use in OLPC netbooks are not consistent on a month by month basis as they rely on massive once-off orders from governments in emerging markets rather than a steady stream of consumer sales.

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!