VIA’s APC can best be described as a bare-bones computer board powered by an 800 MHz WonderMedia WM8750 ARM11 processor, 512MB of RAM and 2GB of storage.
The board – which is priced at an extremely reasonable $49 – can be used to build a small computer that runs Android or various Linux flavors.
As Liliputing’s Brad Linder points out, the Via originally began shipping in limited batches for $49, but weighed in at $87 after factoring in shipping costs from Asia.
Fortunately, there is now a cheaper option, as Newegg is almost ready to take orders directly for the APC in the US and Canada, with shipping costs expected to total a sweet $5.99.
Although the APC is similar in concept to the wildly popular Raspberry PI, VIA’s version boasts more advanced specs, including 4 USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA, mic and speaker/headphone jacks, 10/100 Ethernet and a microSD card slot.
As an added bonus, the APC arrives with Google Android pre-loaded, and the company recently released the source code for both kernel and bootloader which should help devs get their devices up and running STAT.
Those interested in purchasing an uber-mini barebones PC board may also want to check out the Raspberry Pi, Origen 4 Quad, Hackberry A10 and BeagleBoard.
