Eken M001

When WonderMedia issued their Press Release about cheap Android based tablets, they also put a whole bunch of photos on VIA's Gallery site of examples. So I thought I'd take a look at a few.

The image above is of an Eken M001 tablet. Inside is a WonderMedia PRIZM MW8505 @ 600MHz. It has a 7 inch display, which seems to be more popular with almost all tablet manufacturers, other than Apple. It's only got Wi-Fi connectivity but it does support up to 32GB of SD storage and has 2GB built in flash. Here's a video with more info:

-Source

WonderMedia brings diversity to the tablet market

As I reported several times last week, VIA's VP of marketing was doing a tour of US journos with some Android tablet PCs in his back pack. The official WonderMedia Technologies, Inc. version of the message has been issued as a Press Release now - with an invitation to view the tablets at the Computex trade show being held in Taipei this week. The booth and room numbers where you can catch WonderMedia are the same as VIA's, demonstrating how closely the two companies work together.

The message of the Press Release is the same as that of the media tour last week ... that the WonderMedia PRIZM and Android are a customizable and highly suitable platform for tablets that is not being lost on Chinese manufacturers.

"Dubbed SmartTouch, the combination of the multimedia-optimized, power-efficient WonderMedia PRIZM SoC and Google’s popular Android software stack offers the ideal platform for system designers to build innovative, affordable, and highly usable tablet devices around."

VIA Labs Demos World’s First 4-Port USB 3.0 Host Controller

With glamorous tablet PCs, netbooks and a well known and diverse range of embedded products, it's easy to forget that VIA is a chip company. Many of the chips they design provide great features ... but kind of mundane. A bit like bread in a diet ... a staple. USB chips are a bit like that. We all expect them on every motherboard and in every device. We kind of forget that someone develops them, manufactures them, and sells them. VIA do.

They've just announced the VIA Labs VL800 which is a 4 port USB 3.0 Host Controller. Apparently there are only 2 port controllers on the market so far, so this is good stuff! The four ports are all on the one chip.

"Not only will desktop PC systems featuring the new VL800 host controller be able to transfer huge amounts of data back and forth from several devices simultaneously, but with support for the USB Battery Charging Specification the PC’s USB ports can also be used to power and charge peripheral devices such as flash drives, hard drives, video cameras and mobile phones."

In Australia, at the moment Gigabyte are dominating the market with motherboards because they have USB 3.0 ports on them. Everyone wants USB 3.0 on their new systems and distis and SIs are dumping older stock that only has USB 2.0. After that, we'll start seeing a demand for more ports and the VL800 looks to be a great contender.

Five VIA Android tablets due out in 2H 2010

VIA's VP of marketing, Richard Brown, is obviously on some sort of tour of media in the US, as snippets of his conversations with top journalists are dominating this blog this week. He's on a tablet rampage, this time Slashgear reporting that five models from unkown manufacturers are said to be hitting the market in the second half of this year, all priced between USD 100 - 150.

Chris Davies from Slashgear notes that " ... given the price bracket Brown has indicated, we’re not expecting them to legitimately go up against Apple’s iPad. Instead, we’d expect something more along the lines of Freescale’s recent tablet reference designs, which have resistive touchscreens and prioritise simple web access and multimedia playback." I think this comment hits the nail on the head. Any non-iPad tablet is being compared to the iPad but there are so many other ways to offer a tablet-ish experience, and dare I say it, probably better ways.

VIA a dark horse in the ARM camp

The Wall Street Journal's tech editor Don Clark has joined the chorus of journos watching the Android tablet space in the lead up to Taiwan's Computex trade show. Whilst Apple are enjoying the limelight with the iPad - aptly and amusingly described in The Age as a device that must be teflon coated since not even legitminate critisisms seem to stick - an untold number of smaller Chinese manufacturers have been busy pumping out smaller Android based tablets, many of which are expected to debut at the show.

These tablets, according to VIA's VP of marketing, Richard Brown, will hit an all-time-low price point of USD 100. It's a captivatng deal. Who cares if it's not as big or responsive as the iPad, for USD 100 it's a bloated eBook with Google Android apps. VIA is helping to pitch the new Android tablet game since their WonderMedia ARM solution could be their chance to shine.

Clark notes that the "Taiwanese company is usually known as the distant third-place runner in a race with Intel and Advanced Micro Devices in the market for an altogether different kind of microprocessor, the x86 variety used in PCs. But Via also has a unit called WonderMedia Technologies that has licensed ARM designs, and has already placed them in some simple, inexpensive tablet machines from Chinese manufacturers shown off last week in a visit to San Francisco by Richard Brown."

I can just picture them as items sold at Aldi, can't you?

VIA relishing Chinese tablet market

The New York Times technology blogger, Ashlee Vance, has been visited by VIA's VP of marketing, Richard Brown, who brought along a couple of slate or tablet PC samples from China. They're about half the size of Apple's iPad, notes Vance, and they run Android OS. The blog doesn't specify what VIA chips are in these devices but I'm tipping it's the WonderMedia PRIZM.

Whilst Chinese manufacturers building cheap products is not a new story, Brown asserts that the new tablet category is giving opportunity for Chinese manufacturers to hit the big time in the US.

“This is a new market, and China is going to make it happen,” Mr. Brown said. “It certainly remains to be seen, but I think completely new brand names will come out of this tablet market.”

He notes that these Chinese manufacturers have been making smartphones for years now and they're ready to bring out innovative products that "lead rather than follow."

Vance sounds mildly impressed with the samples, although he had a few misgivings about responsiveness and a clunky interface. But Android will mature as time goes on. VIA's WonderMedia PRIZM is a platform that is no doubt easily accessible to Chinese manufacturers and like Android, is open to customizing designs around it.

WonderMedia chip in cheap but impressive tablet

WonderMedia ARM chips first made their debut in smartbooks, a device category that has pretty much gone the way of the dodo. The device category that in a way is replacing the smartbook, is of course the tablet, spurred on by Apple's iPad. Digital Arts Online has reported on a USD 140 "slate device" that's full of useful ports, a 7" display, accelerometer, Wi-Fi and more. It's only got 2GB of storage built in but it's also got an SD memory card slot so you can add an extra 32GB. Not bad for the cost of a decent jacket. It's made by EKEN who are OEM/ODM developers - so hopefully some bright spark nabs the design, brands it and brings it to Oz.