NetbookTech

Do you love the portability and affordability of the netbook but dislike the overall performance? Are thin-and-light notebooks a bit too expensive for what they offer? Well, VIA Technologies is looking to address this with the introduction of the NetNote segment. Based on the VIA “Surfboard” motherboard, VIA is targeting the “NetNote” at the segment between netbooks and traditional notebooks.

According to VIA, the NetNote “combines the portability and affordability of a netbook with the functionality and HD entertainment capabilities of a notebook in a light, high performance clamshell mobile device with long battery life, screen sizes of between 10.2″ – 12.1″, and support for flawless playback of high bit-rate 1080p HD video.”

Key to the performance and affordability of the NetNote is the combination of the VIA VX855 media system processor with either the VIA C7-M ULV or VIA Nano processor – resulting in two VIA Surfboard NetNote Edition Platforms.

In addition, VIA will be offering complete NetNote Turnkey systems which allow vendors quick and easy ways to enter into the market.

Both the new motherboard designs as well as NetNote Turnkey Systems will be made available to members of the VIA Global Mobility Bazaar program.

The two motherboards turnkey platforms are the VIA VT6552 and the VIA VT6549. The two motherboards share the following specs

• VIA C7-M ULV @ 800MHz FSB or VIA Nano @ 800MHz FSB
• VIA VX855 Media System Processor
• Supports internal display resolutions of up to 1366 x 768 pixels and external display resolutions up to 1920 x 1440 pixels
• One SO-DIMM socket , Support DDRII 667/800, up to 2GB
• VIA Vinyl VT1702S audio codec
• VIA Rhine VT6107 10/100Mb Ethernet
• ITE8502E embedded controller
• IDT ICS9UM701AKLF-T clock generator
• Mic-In, HP-Out audio jacks
• D-SUB VGA Output
• 2 USB ports

The VT6552 comes with Genesys GL827S card reader and Sunplus SPIF223B PATA to SATA chipset while the VIA VT6549 has an ITE IT1337E card reader and a Marvell 88SA8052-TBC2 PATA to SATA chipset.

VIA will be showcasing the new platforms as well as new systems based on the platforms at the VIA Global Mobility Bazaar Alliance event to be held on Friday 25 September in Shenzhen, China.

[Check it out]

Here’s an interesting (and somewhat flawed or mislabeled) benchmark test over at CNET’s Crave.com. The website pitted three systems against one another. An ASUS Eee PC 1000HE with an Intel Atom processor vs a Samsung NC20 with a VIA Nano processor vs. the new HP Pavilion dv2 with the AMD Athlon Neo processor. Their goal – to establish how the netbook/ultra-portable processors compare against one another – a “CPU showdown” of sorts.

Their result? Not surprisingly, confusing and inconclusive. The Atom processor faired well in their “multitasking test”, while the Nano faired well on the Apple iTunes encoding test and finally, the Neo faired best in their Jalbum test.

This “processor showdown” was unfortunately flawed to the bone and realistically mislabeled. It would have been somewhat better to call this a system showdown between three different netbook/ultra-portable families – one involving the Intel netbook platform, one with a VIA netbook platform, and one with the AMD Neo platform. Comparing these systems was like comparing a Granny Smith Apple to a Red Delicious Apple to a McIntosh Apple. They’re all Apples but they vary in size, shape, texture, taste, etc. 

Folks who benchmark for a living (anandtech.com, techreport.com etc) will often try and isolate processor performance from the rest of the system. This means when they’re comparing one version of a Core 2 Duo vs a new version of the processor- they try and keep everything else the same. Same motherboard; same RAM; same Hard Drive etc etc. The Crave review pitted three very different systems with different guts against one another. There was no real way to isolate processor performance from the rest of the system components.

Ah yes.. the art of benchmarking..

In any case, what I find most interesting about this test is the relative poor showing of the Athlon Neo processor – not so much what the Atom or Nano did.. Makes me wish I could have three different systems to compare against!

[Check it out]

We’ve known this for quite some time now but VIA Technologies finally decided to make it official by spilling the beans Friday that the new Samsung NC20 will feature the VIA Nano processor on the inside (hey – they have to be proud of a design win here and there you know!). Of course folks in the netbook industry already knew about the NC20 and heck – even a Ukrainian website managed to get a hold of the NC20 last month for review purposes. (the results certainly look promising if not competitive to the Atom based netbooks out there).

Now the one good thing about the press release – we get to see the official specs of the Samsung NC20. Here they are

• 12.1 inch LED WXGA (1280 x 800) display
• VIA Nano ULV Processor U2250 (1.3+GHz, 800MHz)
• VIA VX800 Unified Digital Media IGP Chipset
• Integrated VIA Chrome9 with DirectX 9.0 3D graphics support and hardware video acceleration
• Windows XP Home Edition
• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• 160GB HDD – 2.5inch SATA HDD
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 10/100 Mbps LAN
• Atheros 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x Ethernet, 3 in 1 memory card reader
• 6 call Lithium Ion battery
• Measures 292.4mm x 217mm x 30.7mm
• Weighs 1.52 kg
• 6.5 hour battery life

You can see a gallery of shots on the Samsung NC20 here.

[Check it out]

There’s a glimmer of jealousy and envy in my eyes right now and it’s directed at the Ukrainian gadget site gagadget.com. They managed to get their lucky grubby hands on a new Samsung NC20 (grumble) netbook.. err.. ultra-portable notebook.. (or whatever you call this 12.1 inch system these days). The NC20 replaces the Intel Atom processor found in the popular Samsung NC10 netbook with the VIA Nano ULV U2250 processor which also happens to be clocked at 1.6GHz.

Other notable specs to the NC20 includes:

• 1GB of DDR2 667MHz RAM
• 160GB HDD
• Glossy 12.1 inch 1280 x 800 resolution LED backlit display
• VIA Chrome graphics
• Li-Ion rechargeable 5200mAh battery
• Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, and USB
• 3 USB ports, VGA port, audio, microphone
• 1.3 megapixel webcam

On the outside – the NC20 looks very much like a bigger NC10. On the inside, things are slightly different thanks to the VIA processor and integrated graphics. Here are interesting tidbits from the review (which is translated into English using Google Translate):

• Samsung plans on having other hard drive configurations including 80GB and 120GB models- as well as a 16GB SSD model
• The keyboard is larger than the 10 inch NC10 – we’re talking about a 97 percent keyboard vs the 93 percent found on the NC10
• The NC20 comes with the same (albeit larger) cloth case that the NC10 has
• For some reason, the Windows key has moved to the right side of the keyboard – not sure why
• The display’s viewing angle is about 150-160 degrees horizontally and a little more than 90 degrees verticaly

Wondering how the integrated graphics held up? Well they ran the 3DMarks benchmark and got a measly 138 3DMarks.. but what do you expect? We’re talking about integrated graphics.

Where things got really interesting was in the area of HD video playback. The reviewer found that the NC20 was capable of playing back 720p and 1080p content without maxing out the processor. Not bad at all! The NC20 could very well be the perfect multimedia netbook.. errr.. notebook.

So what do we make of all of this? The system certainly has the makings of a successful product. Staying close to the original NC10 design was probably smart of Samsung. Moving to the VIA Nano appears to have given the system an edge when it comes to multimedia performance. However, at the end of the day, the NC20 won’t necessarily be compared against regular 10 inch netbooks but rather against a range of systems such as the Dell Inspiron Mini 12, the ASUS Eee PC S121, and the upcoming HP Pavilion dv2 which features the Athlon Neo processor. The ultimate differentiator will again be price. If the NC20 is cheap enough (say… under $500 dollars), then it stands to be fairly successful.

[Check it out via LaptopMag]