VIA VAB-1000 Pico-ITX Board Features VIA Elite E1000 Dual Cortex A9 SoC, Targets Embedded Android and Linux

Via has introduced VAB-1000 Pico-ITX board at Embedded World 2014. This new embedded board features VIA Elite E1000 dual Cortex A9 SoC together with 2GB DDR3 SDRAM, 4GB eMMC Flash memory, and numerous I/Os. The board targets interactive kiosk, digital signage and HMI (Human Machine Interface) applications running Android or Linux.

VIA VAB-1000 Specifications:

• SoC – VIA Elite E1000 dual core Cortex A9 SoC with unnamed 2D/3D GPU with Unified Shader Architecture featuring 64 stream processors
• System Memory – 2GB DRR3
• Storage – 4GB eMMC + microSD slot
• Back panel I/O
  • 2x HDMI connectors for HDMI-in and HDMI-out
  • 2x mini-USB 2.0 port
  • 1x MicroSD slot
  • 1x Gigabit Ethernet port
  • 1x DC-in Jack.
• Front panel I/O
  • 1x pin header for two additional USB ports
  • 1x pin header for SPI and 8-pin GPIO
  • 1x pin header for three I2C and two COM ports
  • 1x pin-header for front audio (Line-in/Line-Out/Mic-In).
• Internal I/O
  • 1x dual channel LVDS connector
  • 1x S-video pin header
  • 1x Mini-PCIe connector.
• Misc – Watchdog, RTC
• Dimensions – 10 cm x 7.2 cm, Pico-ITX form factor

I’m never heard about VIA Elite E1000 SoC before, and I can’t find any information about this new processor at this time.

The board supports Android and Linux OS, and developers can either use VIA Android Development package with Android 4.1, a Smart ETK (Embedded Tool Kit) comprising several APIs for Watchdog Timer, GPIO access, COM port access, RTC for auto-power on, as well as a sample app, or VIA VAB-1000 Linux Development Package which comes with a pre-built OS image, the kernel and bootloader source codes, and a toolchain (GCC?).

As an option, VIA can also provide VAB-1000 I/O extender card, which adds Line-In, Line-Out and Mic-In audio jacks, two USB ports, one suspend LED power indicator, a power on/off button and pin headers for one COM port (TX/RX support only) as well as 3 board-to-board connectors and one USB board-to-board connector.

The extender card is part of VAB-1000 Starter Kit pictured above, which also includes the pico-ITX board, a serial debug cable, as well as spacers and screws, and comes pre-loaded with either Android or Linux.

Sample units are available now. You may find further details on VIA VAB-1000 page.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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