VIA Unveils New NanoBGA VIA Eden-N Processor, World's
Smallest & Lowest Power Native x86 Processor with
Industry's Most Advanced Embedded Security Features
VIA PadLock™ Security Suite paves the way towards
pervasive security for connected PCs and smart digital
devices
MICROPROCESSOR FORUM, San Jose, CA, 14 October 2003
- VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading innovator and developer
of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions,
today unveiled the new VIA Eden-N processor at the 16th
annual Microprocessor Forum conference in San Jose.
Based on a new streamlined Nehemiah core architecture,
the VIA Eden-N processor delivers enhanced digital media
performance features and the industry's most advanced
embedded hardware security technologies in a tiny nanoBGA
package measuring just 15mm x 15mm to provide the world's
smallest, lowest power, and most secure native x86 processor.
"With the launch of the new VIA Eden-N processor,
we are continuing to enhance our leadership in developing
innovative low power processor solutions that address
the growing security needs of corporate, government,
and home users," commented Glenn Henry, President,
Centaur Technology. "With its fast, efficient,
and cost effective hardware encryption capabilities,
the VIA Eden-N processor is paving the way towards pervasive
security for all manner of PCs and smart digital devices
by enabling robust protection for sensitive corporate
and personal data at the system level and across fixed
and wireless networks."
World's Smallest & Lowest Power Native x86 Processor
Combining the streamlined Nehemiah core architecture
with a new nanoBGA package that measures only 15mm x
15mm, the VIA Eden-N processor is approximately the
size of a penny and less than half the size of the Intel®
Pentium® M processor, and with its enhanced thermal
characteristics achieves a Thermal Design Power of only
6 watts at 800MHz and 7 watts at 1GHz.
The processor's ultra low power consumption is of paramount
importance for small and quiet connected devices because
it means that they can run without any cooling fans,
significantly enhancing reliability during 24/7 operation.
Its small size dramatically reduces motherboard real
estate requirements, facilitating the development of
smaller, more highly integrated footprints such as the
forthcoming 12cm x 12cm VIA Nano-ITX mainboard form
factor.
World's Most Advanced Native x86 Processor Hardware
Security Features
To address the growing need among corporate, government,
and home users to protect sensitive data on their PCs
and over networks, the VIA Eden-N processor adds advanced
new on-die security features to the existing PadLock
Security Suite on the Nehemiah core, including the new
PadLock Advanced Cryptography Engine (ACE) and two hardware
based RNGs. PadLock ACE provides world-class performance
for the US government approved Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES), performing cryptographic functions for securing
e-mails, personal files, online transactions, and networks,
including the latest high-bandwidth 802.11g wireless
networks. PadLock ACE encrypts at rates of up to 12.5
Gigabits per second (Gbps) with a 1GHz VIA Eden-N processor,
more than eight times faster than the best software
AES implementation from a power hungry 3GHz Intel®
Pentium® 4 processor based system that encrypts
at a rate of a mere 1.5 Gbps.
"The AES accelerator core in the VIA Eden-N processor
provides developers with an easy-to-use and substantially
faster substitute for current software AES implementations,"
said Benjamin Jun, Vice President of Cryptography Research,
Inc. "Its high performance and simple programming
model should increase deployment of network and disk
encryption for embedded and PC security applications."
Unlike software RNGs or existing multi-chip solutions,
the PadLock RNGs utilize electrical noise on the CPU
to generate market-leading quantities of high quality
entropy for use in the creation of security keys. The
entropy is stored in a collection buffer where it can
be accessed directly via a dedicated x86 instruction
set without the use of vulnerable software drivers.
"With the PadLock Security Suite, VIA is providing
the essential security building blocks for free,"
said Richard Brown, Associate Vice President of Marketing,
VIA Technologies, Inc. "The PadLock Security Suite
enables developers to create stronger, more powerful
security systems that are independent of the operating
system and can be tailored to meet the real security
needs of corporate, government and individual customers."
Security applications that leverage the capabilities
of the PadLock Security Suite can be deployed quickly
and easily across a broad range of devices including
PCs, thin clients, set top boxes, home digital entertainment
centers, point of sale terminals, and intelligent network
routers in a wide variety of wired and wireless networking
environments. Potential usage scenarios include Virtual
Private Networks (VPNs), Corporate Peer to Peer Networks
with restricted access for sensitive projects, and Home
Wireless Networks. VIA is working closely with its hardware
and software infrastructure partners to bring these
innovative new security solutions to market.
"Our developers have written device drivers for
numerous PCI cryptographic devices, which were expensive,
slow, buggy, and over-complicated," commented Theo
de Raadt, OpenBSD Project Leader. "There's just
no way to describe how happy we were to find such an
inexpensive, blazingly fast, and correctly operating
device as the VIA Eden-N processor's Padlock ACE....
and best of all, it was almost trivial to add support.
We hope this new functionality becomes very widespread
in the near future."
VIA at Microprocessor Forum 2003
VIA is staging various live demonstrations of the
VIA Eden-N processor and its PadLock Security Suite
at the Microprocessor Forum in the Empire Room on Tuesday
and Wednesday, 14th and 15th October, including a comparison
between a 3GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 processor based
system using a software AES algorithm and a new 1GHz
VIA Nehemiah processor core based system using Padlock
ACE. Another data security demonstration will show how
PadLock ACE ensures secure communication between a server
and client, where each system is encrypting and decrypting
data flow between them in real time.
VIA will also showcase a broad array of smart digital
devices from third party developers based on VIA's low
power processor platforms in the Empire Room, as well
as at the VIA stand at the Expo on Tuesday night, October
14th, that clearly illustrate how VIA is extending the
reach of x86 architecture into exciting new markets,
including the Moxi Media Center, Mirra Personal Server,
the Meshbox X2 wireless mesh router from distributor
Ultramesh.com, the Travla C147 1U Server from Casetronics
that houses two VIA EPIA Mini-ITX systems, and thin-clients
from leading thin-client manufacturers, Wyse and Maxspeed,
among others.
About the VIA Eden-N Processor
The VIA Eden-N processor is based on the new Nehemiah
core featuring the PadLock Security Suite integrated
directly on to the processor die, including the new
PadLock Advanced Cryptography Engine (ACE) and two hardware
based RNGs. This produces market leading encryption
rates of 12.5Gbs with minimal load on the processor,
enabling compact, low power designs that can natively
assist security applications.
Available at speeds of 533MHz, 800MHz, and 1GHz, the
VIA Eden-N processor features the tiny nanoBGA processor
package, making it the world's smallest native x86 processor.
The nanoBGA package measures just 15mm x 15mm, and is
expanding the reach of the x86 architecture to consumer
electronics and commercial devices that require compatibility
with PC hardware and software. With Thermal Design Power
(TDP) values of 4W, 6W and 7W respectively, the VIA
Eden-N processor also boasts the world's lowest power
consumption from a native x86 processor.
The VIA Eden-N processor comes packed with advanced
performance features such as StepAhead™ Advanced
Branch Prediction, sixteen pipeline stages, support
for SSE multimedia instructions, a full-speed Floating
Point Unit (FPU) and an efficiency-enhanced 64KB Full-Speed
Exclusive L2 cache with 16-way associativity for memory
optimization. For enhanced digital media applications
such as high quality DVD and audio playback, the VIA
Eden-N processor can be coupled with the highly acclaimed
VIA CLE266 chipset, featuring an integrated hardware
MPEG-2 decoder, DDR266 SDRAM support, VIA Vinyl™
Audio integrated 5.1 surround sound, high-speed USB2.0
ports, and 10/100 Fast Ethernet.
For more information on the VIA Eden-N processor, please
visit the VIA Eden Platform website at: http://www.via.com.tw/en/Products/eden_n.jsp
VIA Eden-N Processor Availability
The VIA Eden-N processor is sampling now and is expected
to start appearing in secure networking, entertainment
and communication devices in Q1, 2004. For sales information
please contact your local VIA sales office or send an
email to mkt@via.com.tw.
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