Mobile Module Targets Tiny Apps

March 18, 2010

VIA EPIA-T700 is the first board based on the Mobile-ITX form factor. VIA EPIA-T700 is based on a 1-GHz VIA Eden ULV processor

William G. Wong

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VIA EPIA-T700 computer on module (COM)

VIA Technologies has spawned a host of compact motherboard standards, including Mini-ITX, Nano-ITX, and Pico-ITX. Now, the company’s latest 6- by 6-cm VIA EPIA-T700 (see the figure) heralds its Mobile-ITX computer on module (COM) form factor.

The Mobile-ITX form factor is smaller than most COM form factors such as STX, which has a PC/104 form factor. Like most COM modules, Mobile-ITX has a pair of high-density connectors on the back. Its range of uses includes low-power, rugged applications such as medical and military environments.

The fanless VIA EPIA-T700 is based on a 1-GHz VIA Eden ULV processor and the VIA VX820 chipset with UniChrome Pro 2D/3D graphics support, which has MPEG 2/4 hardware acceleration. There also is a VGA and TTL/DVP video interface. Additionally, the module comes with 512 Mbytes of soldered DDR2 RAM.

Further, the VIA EPIA-T700 has an x1 PCI Express interface and Ultra DMA integrated development environment (IDE) capabilities. There are five USB 2.0 ports as well. A VIA VT708B audio chip provides HD audio support. It offers an SPI port, SMBus support, a pair of SDIO ports, and a 4-bit GPIO port. And, the module supports a range of operating systems, including QNX, Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard, and Linux.

VIA Technologies

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

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