VIA Intros 1080p-Capable P710-HD Module

While most of the world keys in on Intel, AMD and ARM, VIA is quietly slinking around the corner waiting to steal away some of that precious market share. After debuting a potent solution for 1080p-capable netbooks and bringing its IVP-7500 into motor vehicles, the company is now flaunting its P710-HD module, which does its best to turn the VIA EPIA-P710 Pico-ITXe board into a multimedia playback powerhouse.

Indeed, the P710-HD is the first expansion module ever created for EPIA-P710, boasting the 4300E embedded graphics processor from S3 Graphics. Said device is also the first Pico-I/O module for stackable Pico-ITXe boards, enabling high definition playback and advanced graphics in an "extremely low power, compact form factor." The module supports multiple displays including dual DVI and HDMI, and just in case you were curious about VIA's definition of "high definition," we're clearly told that it enables playback of resolutions up to and beyond 1080p."

The module supports connectors based on the SUMIT specification, and as with ARM's latest introductions, thus too will be shown at this week's Embedded Systems Conference in California. Have a look at the extended details below.

• The VIA P710-HD module is based on the S3 Graphics 4300E embedded graphics processor and includes 256MB of dedicated GDDR 2 on-board memory, supporting separately configurable dual DVI, HDMI and S-Video ports at resolutions up to 2560 x 1600 with 2-channel LVDS and an analog VGA header also available.
• The S3 Graphics 4300E is designed to offer extreme power efficiency with a total graphics subsystem TDP of less than 8 watts. The S3 Graphics 4300E embedded graphics processor boasts a highly programmable video core, fully compatible with Blu-ray Disk™ technology with codec support including WMV9 HD, MPEG-2 HD, VC-1, H.264 and AVS, all within a ruthlessly low power envelope.
• The S3 Graphics 4300E is a fully DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 2.1 compliant part supporting dual DVI, HDMI, S-Video and LVDS transmitters across PCI Express 2.0. The integrated HDTV Hi-Def encoder technology supports all eighteen DTV ATSC and DVB standards, including 1080p.

VIA EPIA-P710 Pico-ITXe Board Specifications
Model Name	VIA EPIA-P710-10
Processor	1.0GHz VIA C7® processor
Chipset	VIA VX800 advanced all-in-one system processor
System Memory	1 DDRII 667/533 SODIMM socket Up to 2GB memory size
VGA	Integrated VIA Chrome9 HC3 DX9 Graphics with MPEG-2/4, WMV9 and VC1 video decoding Accelerator
Onboard IDE	1 UltraDMA 133/100 Pin Connectors with 2.0mm 44-pin
Onboard Serial ATA	1 SATA Connector 1 SATA Power Connector (5V)
Onboard LAN	1 VIA VT6122 Gigabit LAN Controller (A Connector board is required)
Onboard Audio	VIA VT1708B High Definition Audio Codec
Onboard I/O Connectors	2 x SUMIT QMS Connectors (3 USB, LPC, 2 PCIex1, PCIex4, SMBus and SPI) 1 x GigaLAN Pin Header 1 x Audio Pin Connector for Line-out, Line-in, MIC-in 1 x Front Panel Pin Header 1 x CRT Pin Header 1 x Single-Channel LVDS pin Connector (Powered with Selectable 5V/3V) 1 x CPU Fan Connector 1 x PS/2 KB/MS Pin Header 1 x +12V DC-In 2-Pin Jack with Lock
BIOS	Award BIOS 4/8Mbit flash ROM
System Monitoring & Management	Keyboard-Power-on, Timer-Power-on System power management, AC power failure recovery Wake-On-LAN
Operating System	WinCE, XP, XPe, Linux
Operating Temperature	0°C ~ 50°C
Operating Humidity	0% ~ 95% (relative humidity; non-condensing)
Form Factor	Pico-ITX (12-layers) 10 cm x 7.2 cm