Info about the chipsetThis UMPC runs off a VIA technologies C7-M processing unit clocked at 1GHz in full swing. The technology integrated within the chip is supposed to be very ecologically friendly and competes directly with the Pentium M (Centrino chipset platform) segment of the market. This unique offering from VIA is supposed to deliver a more heat efficient solution to anything else the market has to offer.
VIA have deliberately focused on power management and heat economy in this VX700 chipset through various ingenious power saving technical methodologies which they have built into their design. One of the included technologies is a dynamic clock gating control on functional blocks to turn off parts of the chip not in use. In addition to that there is support for the latest power management specifications including ACPI 3.0 and APM v1.2 as well as support for CPU clock throttling and clock stop during ACPI C2/C3/C4 reduced activity states.
Furthermore, there is support for multiple system suspend types, all with automatic hardware wake-up. The other features are fairly common and include Power-on Suspend (POS) with flexible CPU/PCI bus reset options, Suspend to DRAM (STR) and Suspend to Disk (soft-off). Essentially this system is perfect for a small, unobtrusive device such as a UMPC.
Looking through some interesting diagrams courtesy of VIA, we were able to see that the C7-M integrates with a single solution chipset called the VIA VX700 IGP, this designed to take the place of the double chipset platform which is traditionally made up of a northbridge and southbridge.
This all-in-one VIA solution from the chipset to CPU incorporates the 8 channel Vinyl HD Audio capability and the UniChrome™ Pro II graphics core. The DDR or DDR2 memory controller (depending on the configuration) has two DIMM slots. The GIGABYTE U60 has the two slots configured for DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 and shares the memory with the VGA display. The chipset supports four PCI devices, six USB 2.0 connections as well as the usual mouse/keyboard capabilities.
In addition, GIGABYTE has enabled many wireless devices such as Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) and Wi-Fi making this UMPC ultra portable, ultra connectable and ultra impressive. Add on the docking station, digital TV Tuner and GPS modules and there is suddenly very little that this machine cannot do.
Check out the full specifications listing here:-
The VX700 single solution chipset gives off a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 3.5Watts and really halves the real estate needed on the platform. With a low wattage TDP signature, low power consumption and even better; a device that can fit easily and lightly (weight -740g) into one’s bag or jacket pocket, the UMPC is set to be very popular indeed.
