On Thursday VIA said that starting with the VIA EITX-3002 Em-ITX board, its x86 embedded platforms will support Android. VIA reports that the ability to run Google's OS on its x86 design will allow for increased flexibility, enhanced multimedia support and cost saving advantages for embedded applications such as interactive kiosks and in-vehicle entertainment.
"Key advantages for Android on x86 include leverage of Android development resources and existing apps, rich I/O flexibility, greater CPU performance as well as higher display resolutions of up to 1920 x 1080," VIA said. "In addition VIA has released SMART ETK, an Embedded Tool Kit which allows monitoring and control of peripheral devices through the Android OS, allowing for greater environmental control of kiosk and other installed environments."
VIA's first Android-supported board, the VIA EITX-3002, is powered by a choice of a 1.2 GHz VIA Nano X2 E-Series or 1.0 GHz VIA Eden X2 dual-core processor in combination with the VIA VX900 media system processor. The latter is what VIA calls "feature packed," an all-in-one digital media chipset that provides hardware acceleration for the latest HD video formats including MPEG-2, H.264, VC-1 and WMV9. It also supports dual independent display for superior digital signage displays.
"Designed for stability at extreme temperatures, fanless devices based on the VIA EITX-3002 can enjoy absolute stability at temperatures ranging from -10oC to 65oC," the company said. "Dual I/O coastlines include an HDMI port, VGA port, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, dual COM ports, four USB ports, two USB 3.0 ports (optional), audio jacks and power and HDD activity LEDs. The VIA EITX-3002 supports Windows 7, XP, Windows Embedded Standard 2009 and WES7 as well as Debian Linux and Android 2.2 operating systems."
For more information about the VIA EITX-3002 Em-ITX board, head here. Seen below is a video demonstration of Android running on a VIA's EITX-3002 x86 board.
