A1 Motherboard specs diagram

[Carlos Nazareno]

In the photo diagram of the A1 motherboard available at this link:
http://www.olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=4508.msg30159#msg30159

there's a section of the board at the upper right that says "HD Audio
Codec". Does that mean hardware acceleration of audio codec playback?
Will there be software support for this?

Also, according to the diagram, the A1 uses a Via VX855 media system processor:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/chipsets/v-series/vx855/

This chip has a built in Via Chrome9 (formerly S3 graphics brand) 3D
accelerator. Does this mean we'll now have pretty good OpenGL hardware
acceleration on the XO? :) -- Compiz Fusion for Fedora or Ubuntu on
the XO! ;)

Also, the Via page mentions hardware decoding of certain video codecs.
Will we see software support for any of these? (given that these are
proprietary video codecs)

Finally, it says processor is a Via C7-M ULV.
According to the Via page:
http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/c7-m_ulv/

This has a power consumption of 3.5W which is significantly higher
than the AMD 0.8-1.3W of the XO-1's AMD Geode LX 700. This is why I
was asking about battery life -- it's a concern for using the XO with
common tasks like as a mobile e-book reader.

I'm pretty certain there's going to be a hit on battery life compared
to the XO-1, but I'm pretty excited about the faster chip + upped
memory as this now means that the XO will now be able to surf sites
heavy with AJAX and Flash as well as be able to watch Flash video
within the browser such as on sites like YouTube -- something not
decently possible with the XO-1.

Best regards,

-Naz

-- 
carlos nazareno
http://twitter.com/object404
http://www.object404.com
--
user group manager
phlashers: philippine flash actionscripters
adobe flash/flex/air community
http://www.phlashers.com
--
interactive media specialist
zen graffiti studios
http://www.zengraffiti.com
--
"if you don't like the way the world is running,
then change it instead of just complaining."