VIA's mobile affair with Eve

Able to boast a range of technologies in the graphics, CPU and audio markets, VIA plans to combine the fruits of its endeavors to create a proprietary mobile gaming platform -- the Eve Mobile Gaming Console.

'Eve' will be developed by the Ministry of Mobile Affairs (MoMA), a San Diego company run by Andrew Huang and Nikki Justis, authors of the introductory guide to Xbox reverse-engineering. According to the MoMA website, the company is 'dedicated to providing affordable mobile gaming based upon the x86 architecture' and 'strives to provide the hardware groundwork for secure, private on-line transactions as well as fair rights management'.

The technology within the console is based on VIA's ultra low-power x86 platform known as 'Grace'. Featuring a 533MHz Eden-N processor, VIA CN400 digital media chipset, integrated S3 UniChrome graphics core and VIA Vinyl six-channel audio, the major components are all proprietary and sourced internally from VIA's numerous hardware subsidiaries. Eve provides for application and user storage needs with 128MB of DDR SDRAM and a 20GB hard drive.

In addition to playing PC games, of which there is already an enormous range, Eve will allow users to watch MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV and DivX-encoded movies and listen to MP3 and WMA audio files.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the console is its online framework, a content delivery service dubbed 'GameDweller'. GameDweller will provide the console with Digital Rights Management (DRM), instant messaging and peer-to-peer facilities. The console will adopt the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Smart-Card technology in order to manage and store user information. By doing so, Eve will inherit the security and flexibility of the technology, which has come to maturity over the ten years of its availability.

These technologies include advanced cryptography services, and the ability to perform secure third-party and anonymous transactions for communications and billing using encrypted private keys. User profiles will also be portable and not limited or 'locked' into a single device.

Pricing has yet to be announced at this time; however, VIA and MoMA are looking at a 2005 first-quarter release of the console.

Logan Booker