From mini-ITX to nano-ITX

[peroxidechicken]

As reported on Slashdot...

"mini-itx.com have exclusive pictures of VIA's new 12cm x 12cm motherboard standard they're terming 'Nano-ITX'. VIA have removed the legacy ports, moved to mini-PCI and SODIMMs and now a new batch of custom PC projects can be produced where previously there wasn't quite enough room for the motherboard. I already have an idea..."

[redrumloa]

Yes interesting for sure. I didn't turn my head much for mini-ATX, but nano? Now were talking:-)

My only beef is they should not have skipped the term micro and jumped to the term nano. It's misleading.

[Kronos]

For the metrical disabled :
12x12cm ~ 1 CD-jewel-case .....

[dammy]

I didn't see any mention of ethernet, pity.

Dammy

[BADHead]

could we see a PC in a 5.25" drive bay Just like
the Access 1200 ?

[lempkee]

i sure aint ready to move away from legacy ports! , and heh i am pretty sure alot will complain about it beeing a tad slow in big games etc even on a 2-3 ghz pc!.

but then again this is not a gamers  lamer machine ...or maybe not??  a big gameboy maybe`?

[KennyR]

I'd like a little thing like this. Slap linux on it, stick it in a little case and it would be a great little dedicated server box, despite the furnace x86 chip racking up your electricity bills.

However, it lacks too many ports. Lack of a serial alone port is fatal, and parallel means I couldn't use it as a print server.

So it's nice, but not practical. I don't see what niche it could fill. Gamerlamers are only interested in big, hot, noisy systems anyway.

[Kronos]

@KennyR

a) these will use VIA-C3-CPUs. Quite "cool" (but also a bit slow).

b) perfect for a living-room-PC used as MP3-server and digital videorecorder.

Maybe even as a low-end game-emu stattion (mane UAE and the likes).

[JoannaK]

Yep.. In one nice blow.. A1-lite looks old, ugly etc..

Me wanna one of these..
http://epia-center.de/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=202

[Dietmar]

> However, it lacks too many ports. Lack of a serial alone port is fatal, and parallel means I couldn't use it as a print server.

I understand it has a header for serial on-board and as to printing, USB is much better for that anyway (faster, thin cable, hot plugging).

[mikeymike]

/me waits for the inevitable "why haven't Eyetech released a G5-equipped nano-ITX motherboard?!?" :-)

[JoannaK]

KennyR: Most todays new printers have USB and if printer don't have
one, USB-Parallel adapter costs no more than about 20 USD .. So it
ain't good enough reason to avoind that board.

[takemehomegrandma]

@ JoannaK

Yep.. In one nice blow.. A1-lite looks old, ugly etc..

And the A1 Lite is not even released yet! MAI is going to do a redesign of the board to ad some new chips (probably a new NB as well) and some more connectors, bugtest it, etc. Say that it's going to be released in 4-6 months from now. Then it will be kind of jurassic and (probably) very expensive. At least if you compare it to the x86 solutions that will be available in half a year from now.

But PPC will be kind of unique though, and that makes me like the A1 Lite concept. But at the bottom line it all comes down to the price ...

[Oli_hd]

I didn't see any mention of ethernet, pity.

Yes it does, above the two USB ports (photo 2 on the mini-itx.com website)

Nice design but I dont like where they put the SO-DIMM, I guess its the only place for it though.

EDIT: Opps, thats the mini PCI slot not SO-DIMM on the bottom, thats ok then.  :-)

[Glaucus]

Legacy ports are just that, legacy. If you're gonna buy a brand new computer, what the heck do you need legacy ports for? Go USB all the way!

  - Mike