PC on a chip by VIA

http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=33556

from what i pulled out of this article, VIA has combined the CPU with the north and south bridge from a motherboard... making things more modular. Or at least combining critical parts of a mainboard with the CPU.

i highly doubt at this point the strength of the processor would be able to run heavy loads... but how i see it this could allow EVERYTHING that computes 1's and 0's to be just a version of windows, nix, or some other OS loaded..

i know there is a lot of devices like this in existance as it is... but this has the potential to tripple that number

from a security stand point i wonder how this could affect things. many devices do have onboard OS's but are restricted in many ways. and the hardware can only accomplish so much. now you have a full computer with full OS support deciding wethre you clicked Coke or Diet coke on the vending machine pannel.


just my thoughts... what about yours?

I'd be surprised if VIA hadn't though about security in depth when they were building the chip.
It looks like it's still very much a prototype so we'll have to wait on the details.
If it's shown to be have defective security it simply won't get used anywhere that requires significant levels of assurance.

I like the idea of having a tiny little low power PC for office work and a bit of browsing. 4Gb flash storage or a 1" HD maybe a laptop HD, juts use an external DVD or ethernet + usb drives to load it up. Could work nice with a little 10" tft and wireless to work where ever you have space.

I've looked at those VIA EPIA boards. They're miniITX (17 x 17 cm.) and a fully blown PC. You can run windows or linux on them.. They're build around the same type of CPU as this PC-on-a-chip.

I wanted one so I could build a PC inside my car.. Hooked up to an in-dash 7 inch display.. Cool but it all turned out to be more expensive then my car was worth :mad: (I bought my car for 400 euro ;) )