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Hardware What happened to VIA? Tablets, platforms and x86 v ARM

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 10 Aug 2010.

  1. Sifter3000

    Sifter3000 I used to be somebody

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  2. rickysio

    rickysio N900 | HJE900

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    Will there be an Article on how to tase people when they enter your house? :D
     
  3. Archandel

    Archandel What's a Dremel?

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    The "Next Step" obviously, is to build your own Nuclear Powered Exoskeleton Power Armor with a Terminator-a-like sidekick! And then go into space and battle with the Klingons for domination!
     
  4. stonedsurd

    stonedsurd Is a cackling Yuletide Belgian

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    I for one, love what VIA has done with low-power x86 solutions like the Nano. And enthusiasts are definitely warming up to their new direction (take a look at slipperyskip's projects, the massive amount of low-power hardware going into mods, either as controllers and the like or as the basis for the mod itsel)f. Atom rules the roost currently, so if i had a suggestion for VIA, it would be to get their products out there, market more aggressively. Fortune favors the brave.
     
  5. r3loaded

    r3loaded Minimodder

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    I agree, if VIA can raise enough for a strong marketing campaign, they should be able to kick Atom's ass with the Nano (I think only the Samsung NC20 has used a Nano processor so far).
     
  6. frontline

    frontline Punish Your Machine

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    Nice article.
     
  7. flibblesan

    flibblesan Destroyer

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    Page 1, towards the bottom:

    Shouldn't that be "with a x86 license"? ;)
     
  8. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Home automation...
    ...been promised for years, but nobody ever made it cheap.
    For mass market, it needs to be open standard, exchangable and cheap.
    I'd like to control all my appliances from an (android) phone, but not if i have to invest a fortune into every power outlet in the house.
     
  9. julianmartin

    julianmartin resident cyborg.

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    Fascinating article, one of the best I've read from Bit in a long, long time.
     
    Guest-16 likes this.
  10. crazyceo

    crazyceo What's a Dremel?

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    I actually agree. As it stands today you can do all they said at the end of the topic. I'm sure someone can even automatically taser an intruder. Today the cost is huge but I can see ways to bring those costs down.

    I recently wired the house using Cat6 cabling. I picked up 300 metres for £35 on eBay. Once I had floor boards up and laid out the plans, it was a really easy process. Now designing a home monitoring system wouldn't be that hard. The main problem being integration to existing appliances like the heating and hot water boiler, washing machine, jacuzzi etc. We know how useless the internet ready fridge freezers were but would the manufacturers take the risk on other appliances now?

    Nice idea but I'm not sure it can be done....yet!

    Other than that VIA appear to be dominating the far east and with China and India being two of the most densely populated countries, I'm sure this little train that could will be around for a long time.
     
  11. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    No, it should be: "with an x86 license". If you're going to be a pedant, then at least have the courtesy to get it right :thumb: :p

    Quite liked this article; was a really good read. I've quite liked the way VIA has taken their product lines; I've been looking round at very small form-factor machines for some project ideas recently, and VIA products are always towards the top of my list. Plus more mainstream players in the ARM market can never be a bad thing.
     
  12. Cobalt

    Cobalt What's a Dremel?

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    Woo VIA! They do pretty interesting stuff, but like they said lots of it doesn't make it out of China.

    I'd really like to see those small, low power platforms become more available. I'm responsible for all the computers in my extended family and I generally build them myself. A tiny PC running Linux would be lovely 'cause all anyone does is browse the web. The problem is that the small platform options seem to be just as expensive as building a cheap PC out of ordinary components. Getting mini/pico-ITX out of the niche market would be great.
     
  13. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Oh thank you, Sir. Should pass the thanks onto VIA too :)
     
  14. stupido

    stupido What's a Dremel?

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    I also wired my house with Cat6 cabling because I bought it unfinished. Actually I also did every thing else - electricity, central heating, water, ventilation...
    Further more I'm mechatronics engineer specializing embedded systems and software, so I'm familiar with (home) automation stuff.
    Few years (8+) ago I was working for a German company where I got familiar (actually talking to companies like Siemens, Bosch) with home automation market. From that experience I can judge that real automation as you describe will not happen any time soon - the problem is that the big manufacturers of home appliances are always trying to reduce costs but in general automation requires adding some costs; and for home usage automation doesn't really cuts it. I mean what can you automate on a fridge? Or oven? Coffee machine?
    The only things that can somewhat benefit are more complex parts such as central heating burner. It can use for example internet to report defects or ask for maintenance. The same logic can apply for reading the electricity consumption and automatically report to you and your distributor. But in the electricity case for example the immediate questions are: who is going to supply the measuring equipment? Who will be responsible for the correctness of the reading - I mean it will require some certification process + acceptance on the customer side. So who should pay in the end for that?
    So in general those are all concerns that are stopping this kind of automation...
     
  15. javaman

    javaman May irritate Eyes

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    The market is clearly heading towards gpu-cpu combined, I wonder if VIA have any plans to develop on the GPU side, merge with anothert company or just go for a deal with a graphics company producing half the package.
     
  16. TomH

    TomH BELTALOWDA!

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    Via talk a lot about the embedded & mobile markets, which are heavily influenced by Linux development, yet they fail to have any form of decent, open-source GPU support, despite outlining a plan two years ago to remedy this.

    It's such a shame, as they have so much potential for Linux-based applications. They won't be getting any more of my money until they do something about it, however. :lol:
     
  17. WildThing

    WildThing Minimodder

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    +1 Very interesting read.
     
  18. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    I detect much fail. First, it shouldn't have been that hard to outcompete the Intel Atom by now with the Via Nano. Only Intel can make a low-power CPU and then combine it with a chipset that uses ten times the power (on motherboards, at least). A Nano motherboard solution would have been the obvious answer. Anyone seen any?

    Tablets: same story. We have a £400,-- to £600,-- Apple iPad which people (reasonably) think is somewhat expensive, and too closed. Why aren't we inundated with ARM-based Android tablets yet, at a keen £250,-- to £300,-- price point? Oh that's right: Google doesn't support Android on tablets because it feels its baby isn't quite ready for the big time yet. Y'all just keep twiddling your thumbs, guys, while Apple cleans up shop.

    Just because products are moving in China doesn't mean Via shouldn't be working harder on the Western market (it is richer, after all). To respond with a shrug when asked why ASUS does not use Via CPUs for its netbooks is complacency. What Via should be doing is hiring a bright young thing straight from Yanko Design world and make a real innovative, knock-your-socks-off value-for-money Tablet to make Apple's product look staid.
     
  19. Furymouse

    Furymouse Like connect 4 in dagger terms

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    Basically it reminds me of when AMD didn't capitalize on having the Athlon 64's. Complacency. Kinda bugs.

    I do love classic VIA though. I still have my sy kt400 running in the closet :D Hopefully we see more of them going forward.
     
  20. j_jay4

    j_jay4 Minimodder

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    Really appreciate these interview articles, it shows Bit are going further than other tech websites to get the inside scoop and what can be more informative than an interview with the companies directors.
     
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