VIA Announces Three New Platforms That Deliver Advanced Edge AI Capabilities

[Nomad76]

VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading innovator in the development of embedded platforms and systems, today announced the launch of three new high-performance edge AI solutions: the SOM-5000, VAB-5000, and ARTiGO A5000. These platforms are designed to meet the growing demand for intelligent edge computing across a wide range of industrial, commercial, and consumer applications.

"These new platforms represent a significant leap forward in edge AI technology," said Epan Wu, General Manager, VIA Intelligent Solutions. "With their advanced processing capabilities and versatile connectivity options, the SOM-5000, VAB-5000, and ARTiGO A5000 enable our customers to develop innovative and efficient edge AI applications."





VIA SOM-5000
The VIA SOM-5000 is a fanless, low-power system-on-module designed for advanced edge AI applications. Powered by the MediaTek Genio 700 Octa-Core SoC, it features an integrated AI processor for high-efficiency Edge AI tasks, 4K hardware-accelerated H.265/H.264 video processing, support for dual displays and dual MIPI CSI-2 cameras, and optional 4G LTE mobile broadband with onboard M.2 and SIM card slots for enhanced connectivity.

VIA VAB-5000
The VIA VAB-5000 is a versatile Pico-ITX board engineered for flexible Edge AI deployments. Featuring the MediaTek Genio 700 Octa-Core SoC, it includes the MediaTek Deep Learning Accelerator 3.0 and Vision Processor 6 APU for advanced AI processing, 4K hardware-accelerated H.265/H.264 video encoding and decoding, compatibility with MIPI CSI, AHD cameras, and eDP/LVDS displays, and extensive I/O options including a 40-pin Raspberry Pi-type GPIO header.

VIA ARTiGO A5000
The VIA ARTiGO A5000 is an ultra-compact system crafted for edge AI applications, also powered by the MediaTek Genio 700 Octa-Core processor. It offers an integrated AI processor for sophisticated Edge AI applications, 4K hardware-accelerated H.265/H.264 video encoding and decoding, dual-band Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 for robust connectivity, and comprehensive I/O options including HDMI, USB 3.1, and a MicroSD card slot.

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[Daven]

Welcome Mediatek to the most crowded field of CPU providers ever!

And welcome back VIA. Long time no see!

 

[Rexter]

Does VIA still have the x86 license? Strange they dont leverage that, but I guess it takes an absolute insane amount of money to get that ball rolling again.

 

[azrael]

Didn't know that VIA was still around. I believe I lost track of them shortly after they acquired S3.

 

[Vincero]

Does VIA still have the x86 license? Strange they dont leverage that, but I guess it takes an absolute insane amount of money to get that ball rolling again.

Maybe... They joined a joint-venture with China and continued x86 development under the Zhaoxin name.
I guess that VIA bring the license and existing IP and China bring the money/fabs, etc.

VIA are still about but they really haven't done a great job exploiting some / most of the IP they developed or bought in back in the 2000s when they were going strong.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Does VIA still have the x86 license? Strange they dont leverage that, but I guess it takes an absolute insane amount of money to get that ball rolling again.

It's complicated, to say the least.
Centaur was sold to Intel and Centaur was the part of VIA designing the chips.
However, xinese Zhaoxin somehow licensed the Centaur design from VIA and has kept developing it.
I'm not sure how the actual licensing is working there though, but VIA owns a part of Zhaoxin.

Didn't know that VIA was still around. I believe I lost track of them shortly after they acquired S3.

They've been doing embedded solutions for years now, using all kinds of Arm based chips.

 

[Vincero]

It's complicated, to say the least.
Centaur was sold to Intel and Centaur was the part of VIA designing the chips.
However, xinese Zhaoxin somehow licensed the Centaur design from VIA and has kept developing it.
I'm not sure how the actual licensing is working there though, but VIA owns a part of Zhaoxin.


They've been doing embedded solutions for years now, using all kinds of Arm based chips.

I was under the impression that Centaur was sold in terms of resources (i.e. the team / facilities, and maybe some old IP), but VIA still owned the x86 license.
I guess that would make sense if financially (for VIA at least) they were promised extra cash/investment from China part of joint-venture to drop the USA part of the business to box tick the 'independent of the west' box.
A shame for the Centaur engineering team as the impression was that they were soon to release some new stuff (with AI acceleration) which was roughly Zen+/2 equivalent performance. Not great in terms of still being years behind the curve, but not too far off either. I guess maybe we'll be seeing some of that AI stuff in Intel's current offerings.
Obviously they (VIA) don't have any equivelent low power tech left over to match the Mediatek ARM based SoCs.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I was under the impression that Centaur was sold in terms of resources (i.e. the team / facilities, and maybe some old IP), but VIA still owned the x86 license.

Yes, but it was the team that did the x86 CPU designs, so without them, who's going to design the processors? They didn't even finish their last CPU design.

I guess that would make sense if financially (for VIA at least) they were promised extra cash/investment from China part of joint-venture to drop the USA part of the business to box tick the 'independent of the west' box.

Except all the chips Zhaoxin so far have released, have been based on the work done by Centaur. Even their latest chip is based on the design Centaur didn't finish.

A shame for the Centaur engineering team as the impression was that they were soon to release some new stuff (with AI acceleration) which was roughly Zen+/2 equivalent performance. Not great in terms of still being years behind the curve, but not too far off either. I guess maybe we'll be seeing some of that AI stuff in Intel's current offerings.

Yeah, but it seems like Zhaoxin will be doing something with that. It should be part of the KX-7000 series.

Zhaoxin KX-7000 8-Core CPU Gets Geekbenched

Zhaoxin finally released its oft-delayed KX-7000 CPU series last December—the Chinese manufacturer claimed that its latest "Century Avenue Core" uArch consumer/desktop-oriented range was designed to "deliver double the performance of previous generations." Freshly discovered Geekbench 6.2.2...

www.techpowerup.com

Obviously they (VIA) don't have any equivelent low power tech left over to match the Mediatek ARM based SoCs.

VIA actually owned an Arm SoC business, but most people don't remember that.

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