Optimized for the consumer electronics market, the VIA EPIA SP is the first VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard to feature the advanced VIA CN400 Digital Media chipset, boasting hardware-based MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 acceleration, offering exceptional playback and streaming of all the most popular digital video formats while balancing overall system power consumption. Highly compressed MPEG-4 video is an attractive alternative to less compressed video formats because it allows low bit rate video streaming and quicker download times for online distribution of digital content.

The onboard 1.3GHz VIA C3™ processor incorporates the VIA PadLock Hardware Security Suite consisting of a powerful AES encryption engine and two random number generators that carry out resource intensive calculations associated with online security operations such as user authentication and DRM, enabling security operations to continue in the background with no impact on digital video playback performance.

"With the forthcoming VIA EPIA SP mainboard, we are demonstrating another significant milestone in balanced system innovation on the Mini-ITX platform," said Steven S. Lee, Head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc. "The additional MPEG-4 and AES encryption functionality provides our customers with a significant competitive edge for compact x86 consumer electronics devices."

Integrating the S3 Graphics UniChrome™ Pro IGP graphics core, the VIA CN400 chipset on the VIA EPIA SP supports dual MPEG-2 streams or simultaneous MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 decoding, enabling users to enjoy a standard or HDTV signal while receiving digital content via a broadband internet connection. The Chromotion Video Display Engine within UniChrome Pro also features advanced video rendering functions, such as Video De-blocking and Adaptive De-interlacing, which add to the user's Hi-Def™ visual experience.

The VIA EPIA SP connects to the latest displays with support for all HDTV formats in addition to standard NTSC or PAL TV displays for full viewing flexibility. Additionally, the onboard VIA VT8237 South Bridge offers a comprehensive range of integrated connectivity, multimedia and storage options, including USB 2.0, Firewire, native Serial-ATA and V-RAID, with support for RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID+1 arrays, as well as support for 6-channel surround sound through onboard VIA Vinyl Audio.

The VIA EPIA SP Mini-ITX mainboard will be on display at Computex 2004 in the VIA booth, Hall 2, F181.

By: DocMemory
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