The VIA EPIA M10000 mainboard to act as the PC brains inside the AUVT submarine, aiming to propel Virginia Tech to victory at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego, Aug. 7~10

Taipei, Taiwan, 16th July 2003 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced their sponsorship of Virginia Tech’s Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team (AUVT). AUVT is developing a submersible vehicle based on the VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX mainboard that can navigate and propel itself autonomously, with the aim of winning this year’s competition sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Office of Naval Research. The AUVT submarine is self-propelled and able to autonomously navigate a course based on visual cues, and drop a marker on a target for extra points.

“We’re proud to sponsor the AUVT submarine. It’s a perfect example of the exciting new applications we see VIA platforms such as the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX moving into,” said Richard Brown, Associate Vice President of International Marketing for VIA Technologies, Inc. “Our silicon design values are well suited to the needs of the robotics field and we’re delighted to see our platforms being adopted for such innovative applications.”

“Our submarine needs to process on-the-fly complex visual algorithms to identify the status and direction of navigational cues and targets,” declared Justin Hayes, Team Leader for AUVT. “The VIA EPIA M10000 gives us a powerful enough environment to do that while being small enough to fit the submarine’s design and draw very little power from the limited battery resources.”

Autonomous vehicles are sophisticated mobile robots that traverse land, sea and air under the guidance of their own internal artificial intelligence. Typically they require robust, low power computing platforms to act as the complex software control environments that run the mechanical movement instructions, sensors, positioning, and navigation equipment that enable their independent operation.

To learn more about the AUVT Team please read a personal interview with Justin Hayes at:

<http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=317>

The AUVSI & ONR 6th International Underwater Vehicle Competition takes place at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in San Diego August 7-10. For more information please visit: <http://www.auvsi.org/competitions/water.cfm>

About Virginia Tech’s AUVT

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team was founded in January of 2001. The focus of the team is to provide a forum in which students can develop as engineers through the use of a design based competition, which requires a multidisciplinary approach. AUVT has grown into a team of nearly 50 students of several backgrounds, including Aerospace, Ocean, Electrical, Computer, Mechanical, and Industrial Engineers, Computer Scientists, and Business and Marketing students all interact to fully design and compete in a collegiate competition sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). For more information please visit: <http://www.fbox.vt.edu/eng/aero/AUVT/index.html>

About the VIA Robotics Initiative
The VIA Robotics initiative is the first phase of VIA’s efforts to promote PC architecture and VIA platforms for the robotics industry. By highlighting some of the ongoing projects using existing VIA EPIA-Series mainboards VIA intends to validate design strategies that are highly applicable for today’s robot markets while laying the groundwork for platform advances that will continue to progress the future development of robot-specific technologies and products.

As part of a greater effort in 2003 for VIA to participate in the robotics community, the VIA Robotics initiative plays an important role for defining the longer-term direction of VIA’s “Total Connectivity” message. Robot and PC industry watchers can expect to see a series of projects and announcements throughout the remainder of this year.

For more details about the VIA Robotics initiative please visit:

<http://www.via.com.tw/en/robotics/robotics.jsp>

About the New VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX Mainboard

The new VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX mainboard is the second-generation 17cm x 17cm platform optimized for today’s killer digital video, audio and more complex processor intensive applications. In addition to its integrated 1GHz VIA C3 processor, the board features the VIA Apollo CLE266 chipset with embedded MPEG2 decoder and a new integrated 2D/3D graphics core to ensure smooth DVD playback and a rich overall entertainment experience. With the sizable memory bandwidth of DDR266 SDRAM and the high data transfer speeds of ATA/133, the VIA EPIA M10000 ensures the high performance levels required of today’s most popular digital media and productivity applications. The user’s digital media experience is further enhanced by support for 5.1 surround sound, courtesy of the onboard VIA Vinyl Six-TRAC Audio.

The latest in high-bandwidth connectivity is supported with IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0 connections provided, as well as S-Video and RCA TV-Out (NTSC & PAL) and 10/100 Ethernet for seamless broadband connectivity. The VIA EPIA M-Series also offers support for a growing number of LVDS embedded LCD panels, has a PCI slot for expandability options, and is compatible with a full range of Mini-ITX chassis as well as FlexATX and MicroATX enclosures. It is also compatible with Microsoft® Windows® 2K/ME/XP and a variety of Linux-based operating systems.