WonderMedia release a new dual core SoC supporting the latest Android

VIA's WonderMedia were one of the very first SoC manufacturers to put together handheld tablets when the mobile market was moving from another VIA innovation, the OpenBook, to the keyboard-less tablet arena. That first SoC was found in many whitebox tablets during the first 7-inch tablet craze.

Now the company have announced a new one that upgrades the procesosor to a 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 Dual-Core. VIA's graphics solution is replaced with an ARM Mali-400 Dual-Processor GPU. The little chip supports a range of display options and the requisite 1080p resolution. The little gem is DRR3 and is intended for tablets and also info kiosk type applications.

"With its high-performance, and feature-rich design, the WM8980 is also optimized for a wide range of innovative system design applications, including tablets, Smart TV, SmartStream for wireless display and multimedia streaming, networked projectors, digital signage, and thin clients."

VIA shows off Android running on their ARM processors

Google's Android operating system is most commonly found on smartphones. It's had less success on tablets, being lately eclipsed by the iPad, at least in Western countries. The operating system has the potential to be used on other types of devices though and VIA was demonstrating this at the DESIGNWEST 2012 conference. Engineering TV did a long and insightful interview with Cliff Moon from VIA about the topic.

WonderMedia tablet chips support Android 4.0

WonderMedia made some of the first chips to support Android tablets and they have just announced a new one that supports the latest Android 4.0. The WonderMedia PRIZM WM8950 SoC supports 1080p video playback, Windows CE 7.0 and Android 4.0.

The chip is destined for more than just tablets:

"With its high-performance, and feature-rich design, the WM8950 is also optimized for a wide range of innovative system design applications, including smartbooks, Smart TV, SmartStream for wireless display and multimedia streaming, networked projectors, digital signage, and thin clients." - Source.

Two mystery Android tablets

For the last couple of days I have shown you some of the cheap tablets that VIA has been busy promoting leading up to Computex - Android devices with WonderMedia chips inside. But there are two models on the list for which not much is known.

The G-Link A8 looks like it has a considerably small screen than the iPad - unless they are very large hands.

The FirstView PC707 (second picture) has that Appley look although the screen seems to be a bit more widescreen-ish.

But that's about all I can tell you. I'll keep my eye out on the Computex coverage.

Eken's 8" Android tablet

Pictured above is the Eken M003 tablet. It would be pretty hard not to concede that it's been inspired by the iPad ... but it's a different beast ... er, kitten ... large cat maybe.

The Eken M008 has an 8 inch screen which is slightly larger than the 7 inch norm for most tablets, but smaller than Apple's 10 inches. It's an LCD full color screen. It supports 32GB of storage via an SD card slot. Inside you'll find a WonderMedia chip. It run Android (of course!). It's said that it will cost about USD 230 and apparently you can get it in pink, black or white.


- Source