Wondermedia are a subsidiary of VIA Technologies that launched their product, an ARM-based platform for low-power computing appliances, this time last year. We’ve heard a few bits and pieces about them over the year but it seems that they are now gearing up for a wave of customer products that will launch later this year.

Richard Brown, Marketing manager for VIA, has been in the U.S. briefing the press and has also taken the time to write up a little bit of information on his blog. The press articles I’ve seen so far  are hardly worth reading (Bloomberg simply taking the opportunity to spin an iPad article) but expect to see more soon. We’ll try and hook-up with Richard at Computex next week and get some hands-on for you too.

Please don’t expect iPad-killers though. The Wondermedia PRIZM platform is ARM9 based, contains DNLA support and video decoding hardware and is really targeted at simple internet and media presentation rather than multitasking and a rich, fast web experience. It’s comparable to the Rockchip in the Archos 7 Home Tablet which is already in the market.

Just a quick word of warning. While the iLet Mini might look good and suggest a comfortable web browsing experience, it’s not exactly going to perform if you put it to those sort of tasks. The 600Mhz CPU that we suspect is VIA’s ARM9-based Wondermedia Prizm platform,  just doesn’t have the power to handle it.

If you need such a device, take a look at the SmartQ7 (ARM11) or the Wirelession 1060 / WITs A81 (even better, Cortex A8.) and leave the iLet Mini for ebook reading and MP3 playing only.

Haleron iLet Mini HAL the latest device to join the 7-inch tablet army.

It was June 2007 when we first got excited about the Mobile-ITX platform from VIA. It promised PC-like performance in a small and efficient motherboard and it looked like it would allow slicker, more efficient ultra mobile PC designs. Since then, Intel introduced the Menlow platform which does pretty much the same thing. It allows handheld, efficient, low-power small form factor computers. Over 2 years later, VIA finally announce that the Mobile-ITX platform will….actually it’s difficult to say. If you read the press release, it’s presenting information on a product that will be announced in Q1 2010. As for availability, maybe it takes another 2 years!

As least it will give Intel some competition and help to drive prices down but with ultra mobile PC operating system choices narrowing to Windows 7, this (1Ghz indicated) C7-based processing board (not complete motherboard) might be too little, too late for ultra mobile PC fans. Mobile-ITX looks like it will be a better fit in the place where VIA are aiming it; the embedded market.

via Pressemitteilung: VIA Mobile-ITX Referenzboard offiziell vorgestellt | Netbooknews.de – das Netbook Blog. [English press release and images available]

More information available from VIA  here. White Paper [PDF] here.

Step 1. Go to HowtoBeMobile.com

Step 2. Highlight your favourite HD YouTube video and tell them why.

Step 3. Wait to see if you’ve won an NC20

TheNC20 might not be the most ‘ultra mobile’ PC out there (at 4.7 times the weight of a UMID for example) but notebooks in this bracket can make quite a good low-cost travel option so definitely come into the ‘mobile’ bracket.

All the details are at HowToBeMobile. Good luck!

The Samsung Q1EX is due to head on to its next review appointment so it’s time for me to round-up my coverage of  it by giving you some performance test results and an overview. It should at least give a reference point for future VIA Nano-based products and an idea of where this device fits in. It’s a difficult device to position but when compared with peer devices, it offers improvements all round at a good value price.

Overall performance levels as measured by CrystalMark are in the netbook class which is good for a UMPC. I saw CPU results coming in at what I’d normally expect from a 1.3Ghz Atom Z-series CPU but similar clock-for-clock results when compared to, say, the older Pentium-M. It’s nearly twice as powerful as the VIA C7 at the same clock speed according to the results. The summary is shown below and the details can be seen here.

Read the full story

Smaller than I thought it would be and looking well designed (as always with Samsung devices) it’s the Samsung Q1-EX being reviewed by VIA’s ‘How To Be Mobile’ crew.

LaptopMag reviewed this recently and weren’t too impressed that the split mini thumboard was missing but as I said before, I think this one is targeted at a specific industry segment where it will fit perfectly with dedicated software. It may not be the perfect consumer ultra mobile PC but I’m eager to test it out with my ‘business’ hat on and see how the VIA Nano and VX800 chipset perform.

Previous articles on the Q1EX here. Full spec from Samsung here.

Source: HowToBeMobile

Netbook 3G have lined up a stack of VIA C7-based netbooks that are expected to be shown at the Lunch@Piero’s event on the 9th.

VIA are said [cached news item] to have between 10 and 15% of the global netbook market. Most of the sales are outside the western markets so we rarely get to see the big picture. This showcase halps to put some perspective on it.

Via (French): Netbook 3G » CES 2009 : VIA présente des netbooks encore avec le VIA C7-M !.

PCWorld have just published an article that gives a nice overview of where the Nano is going. There’s a version ‘3000’ due for Q3 which will be that same as the curent Nano’s but will use an optimised manufacturing process. Then, in Q4, VIA will have a dual-core version ready.

In adition, Richard Brown of VIA, says the there’s a new chipset in the works and that the C7 will still be used for the current netbook market. As we thought, the Nano is really going to be for low cost laptops rather than anything ultra mobile but there’s still a chance that a low-end Nano will allow OEMs to offer higher-end versions of UMPCs.

What we really want to know is, where’s that Mobile-ITX product? It’s due for Q2 2009!

Via’s Dual-core Nano Processor on Track for Late 2009 – PC World.