The HP Mini 2133 Mini-Note was my second netbook. I picked one up in early 2008, after being drawn in by the attractive case, keyboard, and high resolution 1280 x 768 pixel display. But I quickly found that the VIA C7-M processor and Chrome graphics in the netbook caused a little bit of a speedbump. That’s because the model I…

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Long before there was an Intel Atom processor for low power mini-laptops and tablets, there was the VIA C7-M. This processor has fallen out of favor in recent years, and it’s not quite as fast as the Atom chipset. But it is an x86-based chip, which means you can run Windows, Linux, or pretty much any other operating system on…

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The folks at Jolicloud are pretty serious about making sure that their netbook-centric operating system works on every mini-laptop on the market. The team already has an impressive list of compatible devices. And it’s about to grow longer. Jolicloud posted a message on Twitter this morning indicating that the developers are working on compatibility with the VIA C7-M processor found…

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It’s been a few months since I’ve heard anything about the OLPC Xo laptop 1.5 refresh. but it looks like the new model is close enough to reality to have a working prototype floating around. The folks at the OLPC Learning Club in DC got a little hands-on time with an XO 1.5 prototype last night. The new model replaces…

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Netbooks and smartbooks with Intel and ARM based processors are getting a lot of attention at Computex 2009. But Sascha from NetbookNews.de took a tour of VIA’s showroom where he found dozens of mini-laptops, nettops, and even MIDs using VIA’s Nano and C7-M processors. While many of these devices will never show up in the US, VIA has been working…

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As demand for mini-laptops continues to grow, CPU, display, and other hardware vendors are having a tough time keeping up with demand. According to DigiTimes, DRAMeXchange says that there aren’t really enough netbook components including CPUs, LED parts, and networking components to go around — especially with demand for netbooks starting to rise in China, which, last I heard, represented…

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The folks at the OLPC Foundation have announced a major change in the XO Laptop hardware. The XO 1.5 will look almost identical to the original XO Laptop. But instead of using an AMD Geode low power processor, it will sport a VIA C7-M CPU. Last month there was a rumor going around that OLPC was going to drop the…

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VIA has produced a reference design for a netbook-sized motherboard that can handle 1080p video playback and 8 channel audio while using a low power VIA C7-M processor. The Surfboard C855 is designed to accommodate a 1.6GHz VIA C7-M ULV CPU on an 800MHz bus. it also uses the new VX855 HD chipset. The board offers support for 1366 x…

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VIA is holding a press event this afternoon where the chip maker is showing off a ton of real and conceptual netbooks running VIA C7-M and Via Nano processors. The VIA C7-M chip has been around for 4 years or so, and it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. While it’s certainly a low power chip, it doesn’t really…

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It’s been a while since I’v seen anybody get excited about a netbook with a VIA C7-M processor. But tomorrow “Doctor Gadget” will be promoting the Seamless Notebook on the Tyra Banks Show. The Seamless notebook is a 10.2 inch netbook with a 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 120GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and a 1.6GHz VIA C7-M…

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Just a year after the concept of the netbook was born, there are dozens, if not hundreds of netbooks to choose from. And to be perfectly honest, there aren’t a ton of things setting many of these models apart. Timothy Brown at VIA wrote in this morning to let me know about a netbook that does stand out from the…

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Windows 7 won’t be officially released to consumers until 2009 or 2010, but with early developer builds making the rounds, we’ve seen that the operating system already runs pretty well on low powered computers like the Asus Eee PC 1000H and the MSI Wind. But those are netbooks with the Intel Atom CPU. How does Windows 7 perform on a…

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