Via Moves into Netbook Market
By Usman Aziz | March 22nd, 2009Netbooks or small form-factor laptops have moved in significantly into mobile market over the last few years, offering a greater combination of mobility and enough performance for online experience. Especially, after the release of Intel Atom line of processors last year, the netbook market has jumped sales due to its high portability, and low prices.
Computer manufacturing giants have been moving into this market, to take their share from the ever-expanding scenario. Few months ago, Nvidia, a Graphics processors manufacturing gaint displayed their Ion Platform, which was a great success. Recently, Via has introduced reference design for its 1080p capable netbooks.
The product is basically a motherboard which combines Via’s 1.66GHz C7-M ULV processor with 800 MHz system Bus and a High Definition 1080p capable Display Engine connected to the VX855 chipset. The whole system is named as ‘Surfboard C855’, designed for a 10-12 inch screen package.
Unlike Nvidia’s Ion Platform, all the chips used in this system are made by Via (Nvidia’s Ion Platform currently uses Intel Atom Processors). However, it shares the ability to play High Definition 1080p content, which is yet not supported by Intel. Platform supports H.264, MPEG-2/4, VC-1 and WMV9 decoding, and support for Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS and 3G connectivity.
Surfboard C855 can drive internal displays at up to 1366 x 768 and external displays at up to 1920 x 1440 along with 8-channel HD sound with true 720p and 1080p HD Media Experience.
VIA Surfboard C855 Reference Design Specifications:
A Demonstration of the HD Playback: