Italian Vespa club takes a 2-week trek through the American Southwest with the VESPA-PUTER enabling navigation and live travelog

Taipei, Taiwan, 1 October 2004 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced that the Italian Vespaonline Association’s ‘Raid of the Desert’ taking place October 2nd to the 17th through the American Southwest will feature the world’s first VESPA-PUTER based on the VIA EPIA MII12000 Mini-ITX mainboard to stay connected.

24 members of Vespaonline will depart from San Francisco and journey through California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah, a trip of more than 3,500 miles with a daily rally of on average 300-350 miles all onboard their Vespa scooters. Driving through the Mojave Desert, the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, the Sequoia National Park and Zion National Park, the trip will alternate between seemingly endless desert roads and tortuous mountain inclines ranging from -80 meters below to 3000 meters above sea level.

In order to provide navigation and wireless communications able to withstand the rugged nature of the landscape, Luca Barzelogna, president of the Italian Vespaonline Association, converted his vintage Vespa scooter into the VESPA-PUTER. Fitted with the compact VIA EPIA MII 12000, the VESPA-PUTER is able to serve as a GPS navigational system as well as provide access to the Internet for route information and gas and motel locations along the way. Slim enough to fit on the stepboard, the system is equipped with dual hard drives and an 8” touch screen monitor mounted on the handlebar for mouse-less operation while driving.

The VESPA-PUTER is also equipped with a USB web camera allowing Luca to upload real-time images of his journey to the Vespaonline website. For areas too remote to access wireless networks, Luca enabled the system to use a satellite phone. According to Luca, “I specifically chose the VIA EPIA MII 12000 for the VESPA-PUTER because of its wide range of connectivity options as well as its high levels of performance and stability essential on a journal such as this.”

The idea for the Vespa Raid of the Desert arose from the increasingly popular ‘raid’ events held in Italy, and the desire of members for a more challenging adventure through some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world. The group will return to San Francisco on the final leg of their tour where they will recreate the famous car chase scene from the 1968 movie starring Steve McQueen, “Bullitt.”

During their trip, VIA plans on hosting live images from the event, along with commentary from members along the way; for more information, please visit the VIA Digital Brilliance portal at: http://www.via.com.tw/en/company/digital-brilliance/vespa.jsp


About the Italian Vespaonline Association
The Italian Vespaonline Association was founded in 1997 as a way for Italian Vespa lovers to meet over the Internet. Today, Vespaonline boasts over 300 members and has now become one of the most important Internet sites dedicated to Vespas in Italy. From the first event in 2000, the group has organized more than 15 different raids across Italy. http://www.vespaonline.com

About VIA Technologies, Inc.
VIA Technologies, Inc. (TSE 2388) 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. http://www.via.com.tw