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There are also BTX, which was an Intel attempt at a smaller format but which has been superseded by micro-ATX and flex-ATX since they, unlike BTX, are compatible with ATX cases.

I think I mentioned DTX, which AMD introduced specifically for HTPC and such.

Intel also had WTX specifically for servers and high-end workstations. It was even larger than EATX, but the extra size is really unnecessary these days since you can get dual-socket boards in EATX. Most quad-socket boards are in a form factor called SSI MEB, which is about the same size WTX was. There are also SSI CEB and SSI MEB in that SSI family. Notice Wikipedia knows little about SSI.

Then there's the ETX and XTX family which are actually COM systems rather than true motherboards.

Then there's all the non-?TX stuff like NLX, LPX, EBX, EPIC, and a few more besides. Then there are all the proprietary boards out there.

For a pretty good comparison of the more common formats, Wikipedia has a computer motherboard form factor article and several individual articles for ATX, NLX, LPX, etc.

Then there's formfactors.org which, as the name suggests, is a whole site dedicated to documenting and reporting news updates on motherboard form factors. They have comparisons, specs, guides, info on testing equipment for system designers and builders, and list news on updates to specs and such on their main page.

Then there are embedded systems company sites and small-board enthusiast sites like smallformfactor.com (industry journal), mini-itx.com (small system enthusiasts_), pc104.com (list of PC/104 part suppliers), PC/104 Consortium, and places like Embedded Planet which sells embedded computer stuff including even more specialized small form factors, like AMC, PCI, microPCI, PrPMC, and other "industrial" form factors that typically require a chassis and backplane system designed for rack mounting in the industrial control or telecommunications applications.

...when we have PC104?

Has been on the market for ages, is well established and to me one of the neatest designs since the S100 bus.

Depending on what you want the computer to do. The PC/104 measures 3.8" X 3.6" consumes far less power than a standard PC system. Avaliable from a 8088 to Pentium type processor.

http://www.pc104.com
http://www.pc104.org

Sound systems like this allow one to add high-quality sound support for custom systems that do not have a conventional form factor that allows for a PCI-capable motherboard, for example, apps that are built around PC/104. Nice stuff.

Or you can find a ton of PC/104 vendors at www.pc104.com

Check this out:

PC104 Starter page

Wouldn't be too difficult to build an Apple G4-like tower of PC104 components and match the overall form factor ... as for the case, well a little soft-form plexiglass and an old frying pan, and you can make your own damned PC104 cube.

Anyone else notice the similarity between PC104 carrier cages and the G4 cube? That little module animation of the G4 cube looks a lot like the various computer modules in the Shuttle's experimenter bays, for example ... and that's industry-standard rack gear.

No reason we can't follow suit. Just find a cheap supply of PC104 components, build a stack, and away you go. Simple.

You know, for a little bit larger footprint, you can go with a PC/104 solution, and get a fully functional PC for a fraction of the cost. None of the JAVA based, special purpose embedded web server crap, but a real-life functional PC that can run anything you want. The beauty of these things, is once you have the main CPU board, you can add on virtually anything you want...hundreds of different interface boards for them. Check out this link for some examples....

The upshot is, you get a small but complete pc motherboard. You generally have to add a riser card to get pci expansion but thats okay, its still smaller than an Oreiley book. You'll need to find a vendor that will give you a chassis with space for pci or isa risers.

Also some of these vendors sell "point of sale" form factors, which were the basis of the I-opener and WebSurfer "little pc" boxes that caused so much hoopla recently.

A case which can hold one or two PC/104 (removable side-by-side PC/104 jumper card) would be a good tool, particularly if there was a case tall enough for a stack of two PC/104.

Make mounting points for some common LCDs, a common power supply, a common battery, and a hard drive. Have a spot where a PC/104 with PCMCIA can reach the outside if such a card is installed. Design the case to use a common thin compact keyboard.

• PC/104 is simply an ISA bus that is stackable for small cards (see for instance the picture on top at http://www.pc104.com/
• PC/104+ is the same idea with a PCI-bus. Drawback: I only saw a handful of PC/104+ products in the huge amount of PC/104 products (since the only actual use I would have for this would be a 100 Mbps router, I postponed my dreams :-)

I hope that PC/104(+) will become widely commercially successful, so that we start to see the prices dropping, and might have a chance to get fun assembling micro-PCs :-)