News Release
VIA and AUVT Set to Make a Splash at the AUVSI &
ONR 6th International Underwater Vehicle Competition
The VIA EPIA M10000 mainboard to act as the PC brains
inside the AUVT submarine, aiming to propel Virginia
Tech to victory at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems
Center in San Diego, Aug. 7~10
Taipei, Taiwan, 16th July 2003 - VIA Technologies,
Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip
technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced
their sponsorship of Virginia Tech's Autonomous Underwater
Vehicle Team (AUVT). AUVT is developing a submersible
vehicle based on the VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX mainboard
that can navigate and propel itself autonomously, with
the aim of winning this year's competition sponsored
by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International
and the Office of Naval Research. The AUVT submarine
is self-propelled and able to autonomously navigate
a course based on visual cues, and drop a marker on
a target for extra points.
"We're proud to sponsor the AUVT submarine. It's
a perfect example of the exciting new applications we
see VIA platforms such as the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX moving
into," said Richard Brown, Associate Vice President
of International Marketing for VIA Technologies, Inc.
"Our silicon design values are well suited to the
needs of the robotics field and we're delighted to see
our platforms being adopted for such innovative applications."
"Our submarine needs to process on-the-fly complex
visual algorithms to identify the status and direction
of navigational cues and targets," declared Justin
Hayes, Team Leader for AUVT. "The VIA EPIA M10000
gives us a powerful enough environment to do that while
being small enough to fit the submarine's design and
draw very little power from the limited battery resources."
Autonomous vehicles are sophisticated mobile robots
that traverse land, sea and air under the guidance of
their own internal artificial intelligence. Typically
they require robust, low power computing platforms to
act as the complex software control environments that
run the mechanical movement instructions, sensors, positioning,
and navigation equipment that enable their independent
operation.
To learn more about the AUVT Team please read a personal
interview with Justin Hayes at:
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=317
The AUVSI & ONR 6th International Underwater Vehicle
Competition takes place at the Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Center in San Diego August 7-10. For more information
please visit: http://www.auvsi.org/competitions/water.cfm
About Virginia Tech's AUVT
The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team was founded
in January of 2001. The focus of the team is to provide
a forum in which students can develop as engineers through
the use of a design based competition, which requires
a multidisciplinary approach. AUVT has grown into a
team of nearly 50 students of several backgrounds, including
Aerospace, Ocean, Electrical, Computer, Mechanical,
and Industrial Engineers, Computer Scientists, and Business
and Marketing students all interact to fully design
and compete in a collegiate competition sponsored by
the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Association
for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).
For more information please visit: http://www.fbox.vt.edu/eng/aero/AUVT/index.html
About the VIA Robotics Initiative
The VIA Robotics initiative is the first phase of
VIA's efforts to promote PC architecture and VIA platforms
for the robotics industry. By highlighting some of the
ongoing projects using existing VIA EPIA-Series mainboards
VIA intends to validate design strategies that are highly
applicable for today's robot markets while laying the
groundwork for platform advances that will continue
to progress the future development of robot-specific
technologies and products.
As part of a greater effort in 2003 for VIA to participate
in the robotics community, the VIA Robotics initiative
plays an important role for defining the longer-term
direction of VIA's "Total Connectivity" message.
Robot and PC industry watchers can expect to see a series
of projects and announcements throughout the remainder
of this year.
For more details about the VIA Robotics initiative
please click here
About the New VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX Mainboard
The new VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX mainboard is the
second-generation 17cm x 17cm platform optimized for
today's killer digital video, audio and more complex
processor intensive applications. In addition to its
integrated 1GHz VIA C3 processor, the board features
the VIA Apollo CLE266 chipset with embedded MPEG2 decoder
and a new integrated 2D/3D graphics core to ensure smooth
DVD playback and a rich overall entertainment experience.
With the sizable memory bandwidth of DDR266 SDRAM and
the high data transfer speeds of ATA/133, the VIA EPIA
M10000 ensures the high performance levels required
of today's most popular digital media and productivity
applications. The user's digital media experience is
further enhanced by support for 5.1 surround sound,
courtesy of the onboard VIA Vinyl Six-TRAC Audio.
The latest in high-bandwidth connectivity is supported
with IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0 connections provided, as
well as S-Video and RCA TV-Out (NTSC & PAL) and
10/100 Ethernet for seamless broadband connectivity.
The VIA EPIA M-Series also offers support for a growing
number of LVDS embedded LCD panels, has a PCI slot for
expandability options, and is compatible with a full
range of Mini-ITX chassis as well as FlexATX and MicroATX
enclosures. It is also compatible with Microsoft®
Windows® 2K/ME/XP and a variety of Linux-based operating
systems.
The VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX mainboard is available
in volume now from VIA's global distribution partners
listed here: http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=242,
including leading US online stores www.mwave.com,
www.newegg.com,
and www.outpost.com,
at an estimated retail price of US$199. For more information
on the full range of VIA EPIA M-Series Mini-ITX mainboards
please visit:
www.viavpsd.com/product/epia_m_spec.jsp?motherboardId=81
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