While checking through my email this morning, I came across what may eventually prove to be a blockbuster announcement. VIA Technologies has announced that they are planning to ship a $49 Android-based PC in July. Dubbed the APC, the device is powered by an 800 MHz WonderMedia ARM 11 SoC and sports some rather nifty specs, such as four USB 2.0 ports, 2 Gbytes NAND flash, a microSD slot and VGA and HDMI display ports, among other features. Wow!
Before you go getting too hopped up on this, though, I neglected to mention that we are just talking about the board here (motherboard if you will). But it does seem to be an experimenter’s delight. APC is based on the new Neo-ITX form factor measuring just 17 cm x 8.5 cm and can be housed in any standard Mini-ITX or microATX chassis.
Regarding the OS, APC uses a custom build of Android that has been optimized for keyboard and mouse input, and comes with a browser and a selection of preinstalled apps. This optimized version of Android works together with hardware acceleration, so VIA claims that this combo will meet the most demanding video formats, and that the APC will deliver stunning HD quality multimedia, either streamed from sites or stored locally, plus deliver a great gaming experience on a large screen monitor or TV. So maybe I’m wrong about this mini PC’s ability to serve up a great video experience, but we’ll see.
How do you connect to the Internet with the APC? The board has a built-in Gigabit Ethernet MAC and interfaces for Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth. This means that wireless is essentially not available out of the box. It remains to be seen how wireless connectivity will play out. I expect it will be available via a module or two, but nothing has been announced as far as I can tell.
Finally, the APC consumes only 4 watts when operating at idle power and 13.5 watts at maximum load. This is ten times less than a standard PC system and ensures significant power savings in large scale deployments. A 15 W power adapter is included with the system.
Just so you have all the relevant specs and features, here they are:
WonderMedia PRIZM WM8750
• 800Mhz ARM1176JZF processor
• OpenGL-ES 2.0 compliant graphics processor
• Multi-standard 1080p video decoding engine
• H.264 video encoding
• DDR2/DDR3 DRAM interface
• Multiple video interface including HDMI, LVDS, TV-out, DVO and VGA
• Flexible networking and peripheral interface
• Advanced hardware security engine
VIA APC
• Optimized Android OS
• HD TV support
• Hardware acceleration of the most demanding video formats
• VGA and HMDI display ports
• Four USB 2.0 ports
• One microSD slot
• One 10/100 Ethernet port
• Audio-out/ Mic-in
• VIA WonderMedia ARM 11 SoC
• 2GB NAND Flash
• 512 DDR3 SDRAM
• 15W power adaptor
For more information about APC visit: www.apc.io