Highly integrated with a wealth of connectivity options, and blending small size, low power, and low profile design, the VIA EPIA CL-Series spurs new systems that meet today’s networking challenges

Taipei, Taiwan, 2 September 2003 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced the worldwide availability of the VIA EPIA CL-Series of Mini-ITX mainboards, featuring onboard dual LAN, in a 17 by 17 cm, highly-integrated, low power form factor. Enabling the development of a wide variety of networking applications including servers, firewalls, and routers, the VIA EPIA CL-Series addresses today’s demanding network users who require high-bandwidth data, network security, and wireless functionality. The high integration of components, native x86 compatibility, fanless running capabilities and space saving characteristics of the VIA EPIA CL-Series, make it ideal for a cost-effective networking systems in the home, office, and commercial networks.

"With the EPIA CL-Series, VIA continues to accomplish higher levels of integration on the Mini-ITX form factor, enabling lower profile devices and enhancing its usefulness for networking applications such as routers, firewalls, a wide-range of servers, and many other connectivity devices," said Richard Brown, Associate Vice President of Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "The VIA EPIA CL-Series provides all the benefits of the VIA EPIA series: small, compact-size, rich integration, low power, and low noise, and offers an unprecedented level of connectivity options such as six USB 2.0 and two LAN ports, while leaving the PCI slot for more expandibility options."

The VIA EPIA CL-Series provides more connectivity options than any other VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard, making it easy to set up connections to PCs and devices in almost any network. The onboard dual LAN allows a VIA EPIA CL-Series system to connect to PCs, Local Area Networks and the Internet in a variety of configurations; for example, one port may be used to connect to the Internet or modem to provide broadband data while another may connect to a LAN or PC. The six USB 2.0 ports are ideal for expandable networking systems that leverage today’s media capabilities, providing connections to devices such as storage drives, printers, and camera devices, while the four onboard COM ports permit connections to legacy devices such as bar-code scanners vital in POS systems.

The VIA EPIA CL-Series runs fanlessly with the VIA Eden™ ESP processor, essential for once-on-always-on networking systems that require no moving parts. The mainboard is also available with the VIA C3™ processor versions, suitable for network-based video conferencing and video-streaming devices that handle audio and video media.

The VIA EPIA CL-Series comes complete with the VIA CLE266 chipset with an integrated UniChrome™ 2D/3D graphics core and an embedded MPEG-2 decoder for superior digital media performance. The VIA CLE266 is particularly effective in delivering high digital media performance when combined with VIA C3 Processor version of the VIA EPIA CL-Series, making it the optimal choice for media-intensive networking applications such as video conferencing systems.

About the New VIA EPIA CL-Series Mini-ITX Mainboard

The VIA EPIA CL-Series Mini-ITX mainboard targets networking systems in the home, office, and commercial LANs. Measuring 17 by 17 cm, the VIA EPIA CL-Series is a native x86 platform and is compatible with recent Microsoft® and a variety of Linux operating systems. The mainboard is also available in a variety of configurations including the VIA EPIA CL6000 that operates the fanless 677MHz VIA Eden ESP processor, as well as the VIA EPIA CL8000 and VIA EPIA CL1000 that uses the 800MHz VIA C3 Processor and the 1GHz VIA C3 processor with the 'Nehemiah' core respectively.

The VIA EPIA CL-Series of Mini-ITX mainboards features the VIA CLE266 chipset with an embedded hardware MPEG-2 decoder and integrated VIA UniChrome 2D/3D graphics core for enhanced digital media performance. Performance is further boosted with support for the higher memory bandwidth DDR266 SDRAM and the high media drive data transfer speeds of ATA-133.

The VIA EPIA CL-Series of Mini-ITX mainboards supports up to six USB 2.0 connections, as well as four COM ports and two 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet ports. The VIA EPIA CL also offers support for a number of LVDS embedded LCD panels, has one PCI slot for expandability options, and is compatible with a full range of Mini-ITX chassis as well as FlexATX and MicroATX enclosures and power supplies.



About VIA Technologies, Inc.

VIA Technologies, Inc. is the foremost fabless supplier of market-leading core logic chipsets, low power x86 processors, advanced connectivity, multimedia, networking and storage silicon, and complete platform solutions that are driving system innovation in the PC and embedded markets. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, VIA’s global network links the high tech centers of the US, Europe and Asia, and its customer base includes the world’s top OEMs, motherboard vendors and system integrators. VIA is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE2388) and achieved annual revenues of over US$720 million in 2002. http://www.via.com.tw