VIA Announces PCI Express Chipset for Vista-Ready Mobility

VIA VN896 with VIA Chrome9 IGP core supporting DirectX® 9.0 and Chromotion™ 3.0 offers rich visual Hi-Def™ experience for notebooks and ultra portable devices

Taipei, Taiwan, 24 January 2007 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced the launch of the VIA VN896 digital media mobile IGP chipset, certified Vista Basic-ready by Microsoft and designed to provide users with unsurpassed visual clarity for notebooks and the new breed of ultra mobile devices.

The VIA VN896 chipset features the VIA Chrome9™ HC integrated graphics processor (IGP) featuring a DirectX® 9.0 3D accelerator for high performance and a 2D accelerator for productivity applications. The 3D graphics engine of the VN896 chipset offers the industry’s only simultaneous usage of single-pass multitexturing and single-cycle trilinear filtering, providing stunning image quality without performance loss.

Also integrated is the latest generation Chromotion™ video display engine, featuring advanced video processing, including acceleration for MPEG-2 decoding, and picture enhancement through adaptive de-interlacing technology and video deblocking, all executed in hardware to offset the processor workload. The VIA VN896 also features versatile LCD panel, CRT and TV-out support, to as high as 1080i high definition, while separate display engines enable two outputs to display at the same time, with different information at different resolutions, pixel depths and refresh rates.

By passing the Microsoft® Windows Vista™ 32bit/64bit Basic logo tests, customers can integrate the VIA VN896 PCI Express chipset into their products with the assuredness of digitally signed drivers and trouble-free installation of Microsoft Windows Vista, including Ultimate, Enterprise, Business, Home Premium and Home Basic editions.

“As computing increasingly goes mobile, the VN896 mobile chipset offers unparalleled visual quality for a rich digital media experience,” commented Chewei Lin, Vice President of Product Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Coupled with its advanced power saving features, it’s an excellent choice for notebooks and even smaller, ultra mobile devices requiring superior performance and extensive peripheral connectivity.”

The VIA VN896’s robust graphics controller implements dynamic CKE and clock grating to minimize DDR SDRAM power consumption and achieve maximum power savings.

Details on the chipset can be found here...