PC on a chip by VIA

[hexadecimal]

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?

[Aspman]

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.

[SirDice]

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 (I bought my car for 400 euro )