VIA Announces General Software Firmbase® 1.2 Support
for the VIA Eden-N Processor
Firmware enabling operating environment supports developers
designing the new generation of smart connected devices
based on the new VIA Eden-N processor
Taipei, Taiwan, 17 November 2003 - VIA Technologies,
Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip
technologies and PC platform solutions, and General
Software today announced Firmbase® 1.2 support for
the recently announced VIA Eden-N Processor, providing
a complete solution for the development of small, connected
embedded devices.
"General Software is pleased to be providing Firmbase
support for VIA's exciting new processor, as we see
the demand for functionality and secure device management
in ever decreasing form factors driving many of our
customer designs, and the tiny VIA Eden-N fits that
bill perfectly," said Matthew Schiltz, President
and CEO of General Software. "Extending our world
class operating system support to VIA's processor platforms
assists developers everywhere in designing the smart
digital systems of tomorrow, and further strengthens
the collaboration between our two companies."
The combination of the VIA Eden-N processor, the world's
smallest and lowest power native x86 processor with
advanced security features, and General Software's Firmbase
product provides a complete solution for the development
of small, connected devices, by providing designers
with failsafe connection to applications running on
the VIA Eden-N processor, using System Management Mode.
Moreover, the Firmbase SDK gives developers the unique
capability to write firmware applications for remote
update, booting and management of their connected devices
that will run independent of the state of any foreground
operating system.
"General Software's unique Firmbase product provides
an excellent complement to our latest embedded processor,
and will enable a new class of secure management applications
for next generation networked devices," said Richard
Brown, Associate Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies,
Inc. "With this operating environment, embedded
OEMs and ODMs can now create more powerful remote management
applications that are both secure and independent of
the operating system."
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, measuring just 15mm x 15mm, making it the world's
smallest native x86 processor that 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 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
About Firmbase
Firmbase is an operating environment that runs in
System Management Mode, or SMM. Firmbase uses patented
technology to run 32-bit firmware applications concurrently
with the foreground operating system. It provides a
multi-threaded API to 32-bit applications running transparently
to the other software in the system, including the BIOS
and operating system. These programs -- called Firmware
Applications -- are developed using standard, 32-bit
Windows Portable Executable (PE) development tools.
For more information on Firmbase please visit the General
Software website at: www.gensw.com/pages/prod/firmbase/firmbase.htm.
About General Software
General Software, Inc. provides superior enabling
firmware and world-class support for OEM manufacturers
of telecommunications, data communications, consumer
electronics, dedicated servers, and other specialized
computing devices. General Software's well-architected
and reliable firmware products reduce risk, speed development,
and address the embedded OEM's product lifecycle needs.
For more information about General Software and its
embedded firmware, visit www.gensw.com,
e-mail sales@gensw.com,
or contact Tanya Topoleski at 800-850-5755 or 425-576-8300
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