New micro-ATX board consumes less than 24 watts during idle

VIA today announced its latest energy-efficient motherboard – the pc3500. The new VIA pc3500 consumes a mere 1.09 watts in sleep and 0.68 watts in standby modes. VIA claims that OEMs and system integrators can build systems running Windows Vista that consume less than 24 watts of power during idle with the pc3500 which helps meet Energy Star 4.0 Category A requirements. VIA pc3500-based systems can draw less than 35 watts of power during DVD playback.

“With the launch of VIA pc3500 mainboard we are leading the way in developing innovative low power platforms that enable our OEM and SI customers to meet the growing worldwide demand for energy-efficient PCs,” commented Richard Brown, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “Consumers and business users who purchase PCs based on the VIA pc3500 mainboard will not only be able to significantly reduce their energy costs but also minimize their environmental impact while running all the latest software applications.”

VIA’s pc3500 motherboard features the CN896 chipset with integrated Chrome9 HC integrated graphics. The integrated VIA Chrome9 HC IGP delivers DirectX 9 compatibility with the Chromotion 3.0 video processing engine. VIA pairs the CN896 with an embedded, nanoBGA2 VIA C7-D processor. Two speed grades of the pc3500 are available – 1.5 GHz and 1.8 GHz.

Additionally, the board features two DDR2 DIMM slots for up to 2GB of DDR2 400/533/667 MHz memory, four USB 2.0, two SATA 3.0 Gbps, two PATA 10/100 Ethernet and onboard eight-channel high-definition audio. Gigabit Ethernet, S-Video and S/PDIF outputs are optional. PCIe x16 and PCI slots are also available for additional expansion.


Source from DailyTech