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Unveils “The Prodigies” as the official VIA team for the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and demonstrates new commercial robots from White Box Robotics and RoboDynamics at RoboNexus 2004 event

Santa Clara, California and Taipei, Taiwan, 20 October 2004 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today unveiled The Prodigies, VIA’s official team for the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 autonomous vehicle off-road race. The Prodigies and their robotic vehicle, the eXpeditor, will be in attendance at the VIA booth #310 at the RoboNexus event Oct 21st to 23rd along with new commercial robots from White Box Robotics and RoboDynamics at their own booths respectively.

The Prodigies is made up of two extraordinary young students Nicholas Hoza and Christopher Medrzycki (15 and 20 years old) who have built from the ground up their own autonomous vehicle using a VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard as the PC brains for their vehicles navigation system. eXpeditor which will be on display can drive and navigate on its own and has been designed to conquer the hazardous off-road conditions that will make up the trail of the coming DARPA Grand Challenge which offers US$2million in prize money to the winner. Be sure to visit booth #310 to see eXpeditor first hand.

“VIA is proud to announce our sponsorship of the Prodigies for the upcoming DARPA Grand Challenge” said Timothy J. Brown VIA Robotics Program Manager. “Their ingenuity and zeal ensure these young geniuses will be serious contenders for the US$2 million in prize money.”

"The DARPA Grand Challenge is the most exciting, fun, and challenging project I've ever participated in -- knowing that I'm building something completely unique makes every small achievement exhilarating," said Nicholas Hoza, The Prodigies Team Captain. "As my team's VIA EPIA Mini-ITX platform based autonomous ground vehicle gets closer to perfection, I'm more and more confident that it will provide tough competition on race day."

The RoboNexus event will also feature VIA EPIA Mini-ITX based robots from White Box Robotics with their 912 series robot at booth #714 and Milo the personal robotic assistant from RoboDynamics at booth #210. These two new commercially available robots demonstrate the ability of low power VIA platforms for making attractive robots with cutting edge functionality that are affordable to the average consumer.

“VIA’s line of Mini-ITX motherboards is the perfect cost-effective solution for our 912 PC-Bot.” says Thomas Burick, President of White Box Robotics. “Their low power consumption, powerful embedded processors, and all-in-one design afford our 912 robot advanced functions like vision-based navigation and object recognition. “

”The Mini-ITX form factor combined with an x86 architecture is an ideal solution for onboard processing in robotics applications,” said Fred Nikgohar, CEO RoboDynamics. “VIA’s ME6000 is the cornerstone of MILO, our first robot, and we are very pleased with the dedicated support of VIA and their Robotics Initiative, which has proved a key element in the success of our company to date.”

About RoboNexus
RoboNexus is America’s largest business development, education and consumer event for emerging robotics technologies. RoboNexus takes place October 21st to 23rd at the Santa Clara Convention Center, 5001 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA 95054, Tel: (408) 748-7000. For more information visit: www.robonexus.com

About White Box Robotics
White Box Robotics, LLC will be a leading developer and innovator of industry standard PC based mobile robotic platforms for the entertainment, educational, commercial, and personal robotics industry. White Box will deliver value to the industry by designing, marketing, and retailing high quality, affordable, and visually stunning mobile robotic platforms.

About RoboDynamics
RoboDynamics Corporation is a leading developer of robotic platforms and underlying technologies. RoboDynamics has a heavy emphasis on R&D and a keen interest in various robotic applications including security, personal assistance technologies, and personality development. The goal is to develop technologies that enable third party developers and partner companies to create high-impact robotic applications using our underlying mechanical, electronic, and software technologies.

About VIA Technologies, Inc.
VIA Technologies, Inc. (TSE 2388) is the foremost fabless supplier of market-leading core logic chipsets, low power x86 processors, advanced connectivity, multimedia, networking and storage silicon, and complete platform solutions that are driving system innovation in the PC and embedded markets. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, VIA's global network links the high tech centers of the US, Europe and Asia, and its customer base includes the world's top OEMs, motherboard vendors and system integrators. www.via.com.tw


Also available for download is a video about the eXpeditor:

http://www.via.com.tw/en/downloads/videos/expeditor.wmv

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