VIA Announces Ultra Compact, Fanless VIA AMOS-3002 System

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VIA Technologies, a leading innovator of power efficient computing platforms, today announced the VIA AMOS-3002, an ultra compact, fanless system designed around the tiny VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board. Leveraging the digital prowess of the combined 1.0GHz VIA Eden™ X2 dual core processor and the VIA VX900H media system processor (MSP) on the VIA EPIA-P900 board, the VIA AMOS-3002 offers a powerful, rugged and HD-ready industrial-class PC that combines all the benefits of high performance 64-bit computing in an ultra compact system. The highly integrated, all-in-one VIA VX900H boasts ruthless hardware acceleration of the most demanding codecs, including MPEG-2, WMV9 and H.264, in resolutions up to 1080p across the latest display connectivity standards, including native HDMI support, for next generation multimedia-intensive applications.
 
I wonder how this compares to a modern, high-end cell phone SOC.
 
Why on Earth would a "modern" and "HD-ready" PC have:
- COM ports (seriously, WTF? Does Windows 7 even *support* COM ports any more?)
- VGA display output (yes, I see it also has HDMI, but why VGA? And why NOT a DVI port?)
- No optical/digital output? (Aside, again, from the aforementioned HDMI...I assume the HDMI on this one can do audio and video, anyway)
 
Why on Earth would a "modern" and "HD-ready" PC have:
- COM ports (seriously, WTF? Does Windows 7 even *support* COM ports any more?)

For business solutions. Lots of applications outside the home still use serial ports because for adding external controls just because they are a proven protocol. For example RS-232.
 
I don't believe this was really meant to be used as a desktop. A lot of custom built machines interface with COM ports.

"The VIA AMOS-3002 provides embedded customers with a system that delivers all the latest features and digital media standards required for a diversified range of embedded applications including telematics, in-vehicle control, machine to machine controller (M2M), digital signage and kiosks."

Would be neat to see how well this runs Diablo 3 :)
 
Why on Earth would a "modern" and "HD-ready" PC have:
- COM ports (seriously, WTF? Does Windows 7 even *support* COM ports any more?)
- VGA display output (yes, I see it also has HDMI, but why VGA? And why NOT a DVI port?)
- No optical/digital output? (Aside, again, from the aforementioned HDMI...I assume the HDMI on this one can do audio and video, anyway)

COM ports are still used for a ton of things. A lot of modern boards have COM port headers still, just not the ports installed.

VGA can surpass "HD" resolution easily and is still the most universal display output for PCs and systems that use them.

Optical/digial output a lot of people dont use. Seriously, I know barely anyone that uses it.
 
I love VIA, just for trying! But...

Eden X2 processor in the article is 1Ghz. I found a benchmark for a 800Mhz version of it. In the benchmark, an INTEL I5-2400 scores 6138. The Eden X2 scores.... 536 :(

This x86 processor is hardly anything more than a controller chip for the video decoder/display chip. Apparently, VIA hopes to get these things into cars for video displays.
 
Why on Earth would a "modern" and "HD-ready" PC have:
- COM ports (seriously, WTF? Does Windows 7 even *support* COM ports any more?)
- VGA display output (yes, I see it also has HDMI, but why VGA? And why NOT a DVI port?)
- No optical/digital output? (Aside, again, from the aforementioned HDMI...I assume the HDMI on this one can do audio and video, anyway)

Picture looks like it's meant for industrial application, not consumer. Those first two are for compatibility with external hardware. USB is a stopgap compared to what you can do with dedicated custom hardware that links directly to a serial port. VGA is the universal standard for low end systems. You wouldn't know if any of those displays on the floor have HDMI of DVI, but you can be sure they all have VGA.
 
Picture looks like it's meant for industrial application, not consumer. Those first two are for compatibility with external hardware. USB is a stopgap compared to what you can do with dedicated custom hardware that links directly to a serial port. VGA is the universal standard for low end systems. You wouldn't know if any of those displays on the floor have HDMI of DVI, but you can be sure they all have VGA.

You can adapt USB ports to serial ports and you can adapt DVI-I ports to VGA ports. So wouldn't having the former in both cases give you more comparability in any situation?
 
Why on Earth would a "modern" and "HD-ready" PC have:
- COM ports (seriously, WTF? Does Windows 7 even *support* COM ports any more?)
- VGA display output (yes, I see it also has HDMI, but why VGA? And why NOT a DVI port?)
- No optical/digital output? (Aside, again, from the aforementioned HDMI...I assume the HDMI on this one can do audio and video, anyway)

Why WOULDNT it have COM? Its still WIDELY used, just not much on consumer gear. You still see them on all kinds of 'commercial grade' stuff. Tvs and DVRs often have a COM port too. HDMI IS an extended DVI spec basically, there is no need for a seperate plug on board when you can easily and cheaply slap on an adapter. VGA is fine, there is still plenty of gear that only takes VGA input, (my projector for one)
 
You can adapt USB ports to serial ports and you can adapt DVI-I ports to VGA ports. So wouldn't having the former in both cases give you more comparability in any situation?

Yeah, there are USB->Serial adapters and DVI->VGA, but that would add another unnecessary level of complexity and cost to the system. In my old workplace as a tech, custom hardware like machinery and interfaces are routed through the auxillary ports. Our own RFID system that was custom made for the building ran off a COM port (Or was it LPT, can't remember) connected to a Win95 Desktop. I can easily picture this unit replacing that old thing. Same went for the biometric scanner and barcode ID reader. All of them are either COM or LPT.
 
Why on Earth would a "modern" and "HD-ready" PC have:
- COM ports (seriously, WTF? Does Windows 7 even *support* COM ports any more?)
- VGA display output (yes, I see it also has HDMI, but why VGA? And why NOT a DVI port?)
- No optical/digital output? (Aside, again, from the aforementioned HDMI...I assume the HDMI on this one can do audio and video, anyway)

VIA's main market is integrated devices like ATM machines, POS machines, digital signs, and production line computers. Peripherals there will use those ports for years and will keep using them because they are proven and all that the application needs.

And they do make HDMI to DVI adapters.
 
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