Zukünfitge Serien

[huha]

Hallo!

Erst einmal vielen Dank, daß Sie sich die Zeit nehmen, unsere Fragen zu beantworten!

Nun zu meiner Frage: Die Mini-ITX-Serie ist ja recht erfolgreich, was ist zukünfitg geplant? AGP-Slot, PCI Express, GUTE Integrierte Grafik für 3D-Spiele, andere Onboardkomponenten (Bluetooth/WLAN) oder MPEG4-Encoder?

Danke für Ihre Antwort!

-huha

 

[Marlo Banganga]

Original geschrieben von huha
Hallo!

Erst einmal vielen Dank, daß Sie sich die Zeit nehmen, unsere Fragen zu beantworten!

Nun zu meiner Frage: Die Mini-ITX-Serie ist ja recht erfolgreich, was ist zukünfitg geplant? AGP-Slot, PCI Express, GUTE Integrierte Grafik für 3D-Spiele, andere Onboardkomponenten (Bluetooth/WLAN) oder MPEG4-Encoder?

Danke für Ihre Antwort!

-huha

Huha,

I will take this in English. As for the future EPIA product, we don't plan to support AGP Slot, PCI Express but there's a plan to support MPEG4 (but this will year end or starting of next year business). WLAN will be supported via CardBus support for Q4 business. Thanks

 

[huha]

So the EPIA series is supposed to become a sort of HTPC rather than a product for high-performance barebones?
If yes, will VIA design some products specifically optimized for a HTPC featuring the EPIA/Mini-ITX series mainboards such as plug-and-play remote controls?

Thanks in advance,

-huha

 

[Marlo Banganga]

Original geschrieben von huha
So the EPIA series is supposed to become a sort of HTPC rather than a product for high-performance barebones?
If yes, will VIA design some products specifically optimized for a HTPC featuring the EPIA/Mini-ITX series mainboards such as plug-and-play remote controls?

Thanks in advance,

-huha

Huha,

Thanks for feedback. Does HTPC mean Home Theather PC? If yes, yes are trying to promote also our EPIA Products to that line of application. As for your second question regarding the plug and play remote controls, we are working with some partners with this applicationn too. Thanks

 

[huha]

Yes, it means Home Theater PC, e.g. a pc serving as a digital video recorder, dvd/divx player, mp3 player, satelite reciever etc.

As for the second, what products are you planning to launch for HTPCs?

Thanks,
-huha

 

[Marlo Banganga]

Original geschrieben von huha
Yes, it means Home Theater PC, e.g. a pc serving as a digital video recorder, dvd/divx player, mp3 player, satelite reciever etc.

As for the second, what products are you planning to launch for HTPCs?

Thanks,
-huha

Huha

Thanks for confirmation abour HTPC. We are promoting our EPIA M10000 motherboard and working with partners or customers who are developing the HTPC product. New products that we can promote in this application too is our upcoming EPIA CL with dual LAN on board. Thanks

 

[huha]

Are you also planning on including a TV tuner onboard? The only disadvantage of the EPIA product line as an HTPC is the lack of PCI slots for powerful TV solutions, so you have to decide whether you choose a graphics card lika a GeForce 4 MX or a TV card for watching TV.
Are there or have there been plans on including a TV tuner on the EPIA series motherboards?

Thanks in advance,

-huha

 

[Marlo Banganga]

Original geschrieben von huha
Are you also planning on including a TV tuner onboard? The only disadvantage of the EPIA product line as an HTPC is the lack of PCI slots for powerful TV solutions, so you have to decide whether you choose a graphics card lika a GeForce 4 MX or a TV card for watching TV.
Are there or have there been plans on including a TV tuner on the EPIA series motherboards?

Thanks in advance,

-huha

Huha,

For standard EPIA series of motherboard, we don't have any plan to integrate TV Tuner but we could support customer if they have project. I agree with you that due to EPIA MB is compact MB, we only have 1 PCI Slot that's why we have release also a 1 to 2 PCI Riser Card is customer need two PCI Slots. For Graphics, we still use our chipset with integrated graphics. Thanks

 

[huha]

Thanks for your answer.

Will the PCI riser card turn 1 PCI slot into 2? What about the speeds of the connected PCI devices? I suppose they have to share the bandwidth provided by one PCI slot, isn't this going to slow them down significally?

As for future product plans, are you also taking into consideration that the EPIA series could be a useful router for broadband internet connections?
The EPIA series is certainbly interesting for router application, but it costs more than an old PC, which can do this job as well.
Are you planning to create reduced EPIA boards (e.g. no sound, TV out, MPEG2 decoder, USB, Firewire - just a very, very plain board with integrated graphics to run a router on) - which price could we expect for a product like this?

I don't know if there are a lot of bad, fully assembled EPIA boards which would otherwise be thrown away, but couldn't one turn off defective components (like when the sound is defective due to a bad sound cjip) and sell those as a "router"-Mainboard?
Wouldn't this increase the yield?

-huha

 

[Marlo Banganga]

Original geschrieben von huha
Thanks for your answer.

Will the PCI riser card turn 1 PCI slot into 2? What about the speeds of the connected PCI devices? I suppose they have to share the bandwidth provided by one PCI slot, isn't this going to slow them down significally?

As for future product plans, are you also taking into consideration that the EPIA series could be a useful router for broadband internet connections?
The EPIA series is certainbly interesting for router application, but it costs more than an old PC, which can do this job as well.
Are you planning to create reduced EPIA boards (e.g. no sound, TV out, MPEG2 decoder, USB, Firewire - just a very, very plain board with integrated graphics to run a router on) - which price could we expect for a product like this?

I don't know if there are a lot of bad, fully assembled EPIA boards which would otherwise be thrown away, but couldn't one turn off defective components (like when the sound is defective due to a bad sound cjip) and sell those as a "router"-Mainboard?
Wouldn't this increase the yield?

-huha

Huha,

Thank you very much for your comment.
Yes the 1 to 2 PCI Riser card will support 2 PCI Slot. As for the speed this was already consider when the Riser Card was developed.
As for customize MB, we can support customer if customer have their project like what you had mentioned about router. With the current EPIA motherboard, we can remove some of the components that customer don't need to meet their projects requirements. Thanks

 

[huha]

What would such a mainboard with the sound unit, the mpeg decoder, tv out, usb and firewire removed cost approximately?

Thanks for taking the time to answer these endless questions

-huha

 

[Marlo Banganga]

Original geschrieben von huha
What would such a mainboard with the sound unit, the mpeg decoder, tv out, usb and firewire removed cost approximately?

Thanks for taking the time to answer these endless questions

-huha

Huha,

Cost, I don't have really an idea about it. Thanks