VIA, one of the worldwide leading chip makers, announced today that it would be demonstrating the first VIA Nano processor-based Mini-ITX board, at the Embedded Systems Conference, Boston, Massachusetts. The company's new board comes to showcase how its Nano processor can be used to build a small-sized, low-power computer system that delivers the latest in computing technology.

 

“We are delighted to bring the first VIA Nano processor based product to our customers,” said Daniel Wu, Vice President, VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. “The VIA Nano processor offers the perfect balance of performance, features and power efficiency for truly optimized computing.”

 

The new motherboard is dubbed VB8001, and combines the company's latest Nano processor with its CN896 chipset, to deliver an optimum computing performance in a small form factor. The on-board Nano processor runs at 1.6GHz, and pairs with an impressive 4GB of DDR2 memory, which can be installed on the two DDR2-ready memory DIMMs. In addition, the board also comes with a PCI-Express X16 graphics slot to support a discrete graphics card.

 

The onboard CN896 Northbridge comes with the company's Chrome 9 integrated graphics solution, which can deliver support for DirectX 9 3D graphics, while the VIA Vinyl 5.1 provides a high-definition audio codec.

 

The board also boasts three SATA ports, three USB connectors for six additional USB 2.0 ports, Serial port, S/PDIF out connector and even two fan pin connectors for CPU and system fan. The board's backpanel will provide users with two PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA, Serial, RJ45 and three audio jacks.

 

The new VIA VB8001 board measures only 17 cm by 17cm, making it ideal for a low-cost, low-power desktop nettop that can be upgraded with a discrete graphics card for an enhanced graphics performance. Unfortunately, no systems vendor has yet publicly expressed its intentions of adopting the new board.