News Release

VIA CEO Wenchi Chen Heralds the Age of Personal Electronics

Fusion of advanced technologies and intelligent design to spearhead this unprecedented drive of x86 into consumer markets

VIA Technology Forum, Taipei, Taiwan, 3 June 2003 – Wenchi Chen, President and CEO of VIA Technologies, Inc, today outlined the key strategy for the long-term growth of the industry during the opening keynote presentation of the VIA Technology Forum, taking place Thursday 3 June 2004 in Taipei, Taiwan.

“The convergence of connectivity, content and computing through digitization has given rise to a whole new market paradigm for the IT, CE, telecoms and media industries, that of Personal Electronics, giving our industry an unprecedented opportunity to make x86 the heart of our digital life,” said Wenchi Chen. “If we want to succeed in this space, we must move beyond our reliance on the commoditized PC and embrace the values that made consumer electronics so successful in the analog era, while continuing to develop the technologies that will enhance the user experience.”

Representing an almost unlimited number of market categories and applications, Personal Electronics is defined as any device that allows the easy management and sharing of digital media content such as songs, movies and photos, combining the digital intelligence and rich connectivity and multimedia capabilities of the Personal Computer with the ease of use and aesthetic design values of traditional Consumer Electronics products.

Chen noted that in delivering the highest quality audio and video performance through standards such as HDTV and multi-channel 24bit/192kHz surround sound, the x86 architecture is the ideal foundation on which to build this new world of Personal Electronics. Whether listening to music, recording a TV program or videoconferencing using Voice over IP telephony, x86-based devices maximize the enjoyment of media consumption through the integration of advanced digital intelligence while enabling compact, attractive, and silent running designs that effortlessly blend into their environment.

Moreover, x86 is the only platform that can handle the growing liquidity of digital media, i.e., the proliferation of media content formats and forms of delivery. Whether by network or Internet connection, the more traditional CDs and DVDs, or the fast-emerging generation of compact portable storage, x86 provides seamless connectivity to the installed PC infrastructure, key to the totally connected Digital Lifestyle.

“Consumer preferences haven’t changed in today’s digital age – they still want their electronic devices to fulfill their entertainment, information and communication needs simply and stylishly,” noted Chen. “Unlike with proprietary consumer electronics platforms, however, in x86 we have the technology and interoperability to truly liberate the individual user, so that they can choose what media they wish to consume, in what format, where and how.”

Key to the Personal Electronics revolution is the provision of suitably smart, stylish, capable devices, for which VIA is targeting its technologies to enable customers to design them. VIA’s highly integrated, low power x86 platforms, the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX and new VIA EPIA Nano-ITX mainboards, are clear examples of VIA technologies that are inspiring developers to build for this new Personal Electronics market, ranging from home entertainment centers and smart cosmetics devices to personal robots.

Even at the silicon level, VIA has integrated increasing hardware functionality into its rich product portfolio, from the world’s most advanced hardware security features and industry-leading levels of power efficiency into the processors, to powerful media and connectivity capabilities into a range of chipsets, providing a highly versatile and compatible platform that can form the basis of a wide range of smart, connected digital devices.

“With our low power processor platforms and digital media chipsets, VIA has been working with partners throughout the world to drive innovation in the Personal Electronics space,” continued Chen. “At this year’s Computex and VTF, we are delighted to have the opportunity to showcase the amazing capabilities of some of these new generation devices, such as the extremely successful Moxi™ Digital Media Center from Digeo, which takes home entertainment to the next level with its highly intuitive user interface and high definition DVR capabilities.”

To highlight the benefits of the “Distributed Performance” philosophy adopted by VIA for its Digital Lifestyle Platforms, Chen gave a live demonstration of a wireless streaming media client based on the new VIA CN400 digital media chipset featuring MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 acceleration, and the new VIA Velocity™ VT6055 802.11g wireless chip. In this digital home emulation, a low bit-rate secure AES-encrypted video stream was transmitted across and 802.11g wireless network from a media server to the client and then simultaneously decrypted and displayed on a projector and a standard TV – all at CPU utilization rates of less than 10%.

“This provides an ideal example of the unrivaled flexibility of our x86 platforms and their ability to combine advanced security with the ability to handle rich digital media content without stressing the system,” said Chen. “These capabilities open up an infinite number of possible Personal Electronics design applications, such as video on demand, and right now we are only just beginning to explore them.”

Digital Brilliance

‘Digital Brilliance’, the theme for the VIA Technology Forum 2004, defined as illuminating the imagination with the fusion of advanced technologies and intelligent design, sums up how VIA’s industry partners are applying these technologies in inspired and exciting new ways that are more application-oriented than ever before.

One example of this, mesh networking, was demonstrated during the VIA keynote session by LocustWorld, the pioneers in the commercial application of mesh networking worldwide. Richard Lander, CEO of LocustWorld, explained how mesh nodes based on the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX platform have successfully created invisible blankets of WiFi coverage in both remote and urban areas simply and cheaply, enabling rapid roll-out of broadband Internet connectivity and even telecommunications (through VoIP) in areas not served by traditional cable services.

Chen also detailed the latest additions to the company’s range of High-Definition Computing solutions, including the new VIA K8T800 Pro chipset featuring support for the latest AMD Athlon™ 64 processor, and the VIA PT890 chipset, the only core logic solution in the world to support PCI Express and AGP8X interconnects, as well as DDRI and DDRII SDRAM.

"VIA silicon and platform solutions provide the highest performance and most flexible building blocks for both the High Definition Computing and Digital Lifestyle segments, and will help drive the x86 platform to fulfill the enormous potential of Personal Electronics," concluded Chen.

About the VIA Technology Forum 2004

Based on the central theme of Digital Brilliance, VTF2004 takes a look beyond today’s world of Total Connectivity and demonstrate how the fusion of advanced technologies and intelligent design is leading to the emergence of exciting new products and markets for the IT, CE and Telecommunications industries.

The Specialist Technology Tracks are High Definition Computing, focusing on advanced technologies that inspire creativity and raise the performance bar for the most intensive gaming and digital media applications, including PCI Express, DDR2 memory and the latest in graphics, and storage, and Digital Lifestyle, examining the latest trends and developments in the proliferation of digital intelligence in the home, office and mobile markets, ranging from innovative digital media platforms and embedded applications to mobile systems and wireless networking.

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