Here is just about as much scoop as you are going to get before this thing is officially unveiled at CES this week. It seems that VIA is carving out their own segment of the emerging console market under the APEX brand name with the new "ApeXtreme Personal Gaming Console and DVD Player", or PGC.
Under the sleek and very living room friendly exterior is the now widely known VIA Eden Embedded System Platform running at a very fast 1.4GHz supported by a next-gen VIA chipset, the CN400. This system is not focused to be part of the hardcore gaming market but rather a more mainstream one. There are however a few features on the ApeXtreme that are going to make it a very likeable addition to many of an enthusiast living room.
It will be powered by a near-instant-on version of WinXP (embedded) with Windows Media Player, and as you can obliviously see from the pictures, will have removable media in the form of DVD/CD. We are told the OS will not be "locked down", certainly inviting many modifications by the end user. The video processor behind the box will be VIA's S3 DeltaChrome graphics processor, and VIA 5.1 "Vinyl" audio will supply 5.1 sound.
News source: [H]ard|OCP
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