Via talks up ruggedised board designs

The company said that the new EPIA N700-10EW Nano-ITX boards are able to operate in temperatures ranging from -20c to 70c. The boards do not require a fan and run traditional x86 processors.

The range features support for 2GB of memory, and two SATA drive connections along with USB 2.0 and Gigabit LAN connections.

Via is planning to use the boards mainly for embedded industrial systems, and outdoor computing devices which can be exposed to very high or very low temperatures.

"By expanding our range of EPIA products to include extended temperature products, VIA is addressing the broader needs of our extensive customer base," said Daniel Wu, vice president at VIA Embedded.

"Extreme thermal competency usually comes at a premium, and the VIA EPIA N700-10EW will help to significantly lower that barrier."

VIA will be focusing its new design on embedded systems, but vendors across the entire IT sector have been rethinking cooling and heating practices in the face of rising energy costs and concerns over consumption.

A study from Intel last September suggested that allowing datacentres to operate at temperatures as high as 32c could cut costs by as much as two thirds without significantly affecting reliability.