Via And NVidia Launch Mini-ITX 2.0

As was previously announced, Via and Nvidia officially came out and formally presented their partnership to produce the most affordable Vista-capaable platform. PC Perspective ran a story with in-depth information on the expected performance of the upcoming platform. They even posted a picture of a sample board, with an 8600GT strapped on to the PCI Express slot. Digitimes also ran a story on the announcement, highlighting the two's support of Mini-ITX 2.0. Intel's entry to the Mini-ITX niche has been observed as "limiting", having a very basic graphics subsystem and no provisions for upgrades. Seeting up an official spec for Mini-ITX 2.0 is seen by analysts as Via's play to keep its dominance over it's Mini-ITX turf while attracting more of the mainstream market.

Mini-ITX 2.0 seeks to up the ante by allowing consumers more mainstream expansion choices while maintaining the 17 x 17 cm form factor. In more detail, 2.0 will require the following feature set on boards:

• Processor: High-performance, power efficient x86 processor, such as the VIA Nano processor;
• Memory: Support for minimum 2GB DDR2 SDRAM;
• Graphics: DirectX 9.0 integrated (IGP); DirectX 10 through an add-in card;
• Display: 1 VGA port for LCD display; 1 HDMI port on add-in card;
• HD Audio: 3 Audio jacks for up to 6-channel surround sound;
• Broadband Connectivity: 1 Gigabit Enthernet port;
• Storage: 2 Serial ATA II slots + 1 IDE (PATA) slot;
• Peripheral Connectivity: Minimum 4 USB2.0 ports;
• Expansion: 1 PCI Express 16-lane slot;
• Size: 17cm x 17cm;
• O/S Support: Microsoft Windows Vista; Microsoft Windows Vista Premium (through an add-in graphics card); Microsoft Windows XP, and major Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Suse Linux and gOS;

When compared to the current Mini-ITX offerings of Intel, these specifications are a boon for anyone seeking a low-cost solution for multimedia and gaming on the Vista platform. Clearly this strategy can open up a niche for Via in the mainstream market, opposite Intel's pushing the Atom platform (and their other Mini-ITX offerings) in the low-power niche that Via traditionally dominated. Now, only the market will say who's strategy will eventually pay off. Who gains more is will eventually be dictated by the consumers. I'm hedging my bets on Via gaining a bit on the mainstream market.

Via Lines Up Its Nano (Isaiah) Processors

Via made the headlines as it announced its line up of Nano processors. These were codenamed 'Isaiah' during its development. The web is awash with news from different sources, all chiming in their perspective of the future of the Nano processor. Infoworld, PC Pro, PC Perspective, PC Magazine, IT Pro and Trusted Reviews and CRN.com all did stories on it.

The Nano line will include two sets, the L-series on the high-power end and the U-series for low-power segment. The L-series will still have a lower power consumption than mainstream Intel and AMD chips, churning at 25 watts. The following variants are planned for the Nano:

• L2100 (Clock Speed: 1.8 GHz, TDP: 25 watts)
• L2200 (Clock Speed: 1.6 GHz, TDP: 17 watts)
• U2400 (Clock Speed: 1.3-plus" GHz, TDP: 8 watts)
• U2500 (Clock Speed: 1.2 GHz, TDP: 6.8 watts)
• U2300 (Clock Speed: 1.0 GHz, TDP: 5 watts)

As previously mentioned, Via is eyeing to market the chips to the UMPC and notebook crowd. Recent pronouncements that NVidia is working with Via for a chipset solution that will work natively with Via's Nano strengthens Via's claims that it will produce a platform that will be the cheapest Vista-capable solution in the market. A desktop version is not far off it seems. Via and NVidia are expected to announce the details of their venture by next week.

Isaiah, Where Art Thou?

A lot of news recently about Via's other products(most recently, its latest Pico-ITX board), but nary one about Isaiah-based products. Most of articles about the Isaiah have to do with conjecture at this point. No product announcements of any sort. That's opposed to Intel's Atom, with a few final products already announced and waiting to be launched. One of them, MSI's Wind was already launched in some countries, AFAIK. No announcements have been made of any Isaiah-powered product that will launch in the next few weeks.

When will they launch an updated Zonbu Mini Desktop with Isaiah in it? Any products that will compete with say the likes of the MSI Wind? Or at least a Via Artigo powered by the Isaiah chip? I'm waiting, still.

Via Isaiah, Intel Atom Benchmarked

Engadget linked to a translated German site showing that the Via Isaiah edged out Intel's Atom in benchmarks they performed. Now, these results may seem slanted towards making Isaiah look good, but bear in mind that these tests performed were limited to ALU and FPU benchmarks. One CPU is bound to get an edge over the other depending on how the internal instructions of the chips handle math and so forth. I guess every geek out there who has staked an interest in these low-power processors is waiting for a more conclusive set of benchmarking, but that'll come in time. These chips aren't as widely available as we'd like, after all. Most of the samples (for both) have been sent to manufacturers, OEM's and ODM's. As the market churns out UMPCs, mobile phones and sub-notebooks using these 2 processors, more extensive benchmarks can be performed. I eagerly await for that to come.

Here's a screenshot of the result from the benchmarking they performed:

NVIDIA-Via Join Forces to Fend Off Intel and AMD

NVIDIA has released more details about the much-touted tie-up with Via in this article from CNET.com. The deal would pit a combo of NVIDIA's soon to be released IGP and Via's Isaiah with the existing discreet graphics products of AMD and Intel. This comes at a crucial time for NVIDIA. Analysts are starting to question the long-term viability of their products in the face of increasing consolidation on the part of AMD and Intel to include graphics into their individual product offerings.

To stress the cost benefits of this future platform, NVIDIA is drawing direct cost comparisons with Intel's existing IGP solutions for multimedia-enabled machines. They say their solution would perform better compared to a similarly-priced option from Intel. Here's a copy of the comparison they presented to analysts at a recent event:


This development is an interesting historical point in the evolution of the role IGP solutions will play in the ever-heightening green consciousness of consumers. It also emphasizes the need for cheaper but better hardware to deal with the demand of current household computing needs. To be more specific, today's computer must be able to play multimedia content and be cheap enough to be adopted in the home. NVIDIA and Via are in effect creating a product platform that will appeal to both green computing advocates and cost-conscious consumers. This post in Ubergizmo also opines that this increases NVIDIA's chances of fending off moves by Intel and AMD to consolidate graphics into their own platforms, thus ensuring they will still be relevant to the PC for the foreseeable future.

I think I'll put off upgrading until this is released. This is even better than I had hoped for. The low-power features of Via's Isaiah combined with NVIDIA chipset. Having both in a single board will surely perform well on the graphics end and still save on power consumption. This will turn out as the perfect solution for my needs. I'm thinking a Zonbu based off this platform would be even better.