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Pentium-M In Mini-ITX Format

Posted by timothy on from the oh-be-passive dept.

Hektor_Troy writes "A German outfit is going to introduce a Pentium-M based mini-ITX board. Finally good performance in a small size. The manufacturer claims it can be cooled pasively, but I'd like to see it first." "Good performance in a small size" is relative, of course -- I like the quiet little EPIA system in front of me pretty well ;)

9 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. 'finally good performance'? by Neophytus · · Score: 4, Informative

    The shuttle sff range have been up with the big boys since they got an AGP slot.

  2. page hits by Eyston · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why would you link to a secondary site talking about the companies announcement and not the actual announcement?

    http://www.lippert-at.com/miniitx.html

    -Eyston

  3. Re:Excellent! by FrostByte03 · · Score: 5, Informative

    the Pentium M is not a Pentium 4M, its a Pentium 3 enhanced, P3 core, larger L1 64kilobyte cache L2 1megabyte with the P4 host bus interface, longer pipeline at 12 stages. Intel added an extra pin on the chip to prevent it from being plugged into existing motherboards and hence a new license agreement. What I like about the chip is that the 1.7Ghz Pentium M is faster than the Pentium M 2.2ghz and consumes (about) 27watt only... Radisys has a microATX board with AGP http://www.radisys.com the E7501 chipset can be used with the Pentium M chip its a matter of time till someone makes a mboard with the chipset with AGP http://www.intel.com/design/intarch/pentiumm/penti umm.htm FrostByte

  4. Re:more Pentium M less P4s by mabhatter654 · · Score: 3, Informative
    It's really a next gen P3 not a P4! It's a like P3 with support for 400MHz ram and other goodies every one wanted when the travisty of P4 came out. There's more to it than that, but it's a far more efficent processor than a P4---more ops at less MHz and watts.

    Actually, it looks like they are building this board to qualify for a Centrino logo! This requires specific intel hardware all of which is in the demo photo. Unfortunately, this will cost a small fortune if you can even find it at retail. SBCs are horribly expensive, but do make allowances for extended/harsh environment [run with no fan at 120 degrees in the shade] needed for industry and public service. Think welded shut in a subway station or under a steel drop forge type apps.

  5. Standard Components by Eamon+C · · Score: 3, Informative
    I like the quiet little EPIA system in front of me pretty well.

    Then you must not be using Linux. Some cool folks like this guy (not to mention this guy) are working hard at making Linux work on the EPIA -- but it doesn't have to be this hard. I've been keeping my eye on these MiniITX boards for some time now, but I'm waiting until I can do everything I want (play DVDs and DivX files, maybe run a couple emulators) without reverse-engineering drivers. Maybe this new board will make it happen.

    1. Re:Standard Components by Rob+Simpson · · Score: 3, Informative

      Huh. I've got a VIA C3 on a PC Chips M787 board (yeah, I know, but it was $260 Canadian) and it works fine on linux. The only problem I've had is getting the sound to work on Mandrake 9.1, but Knoppix/Morphix KDE work fine. (I installed the latter, since I couldn't figure out how to get Knoppix to install.)

  6. is this news? by rewdy · · Score: 5, Informative

    has anyone been paying attention to the mini-itx community? Commell Systems has had mini-itx pentium4 based boards out for months in both mobile and desktop processor versions.

  7. Pentium-M is P4-based, not P3 by Alereon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Pentium-M IS a Netburst-based CPU, just like the P4. What Intel did was to shorten the pipeline, thus increasing the IPC, making the CPU do more work per clock cycle. Thus, the Pentium-M is what the P4 SHOULD have been, had Intel not implemented a long pipeline to get higher clockspeeds for marketing purposes. It is a "P3-like" P4, but it's still a P4.

    1. Re:Pentium-M is P4-based, not P3 by connorbd · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is not true. The Pentium-M/Banias is a P6, and it was designed by the same Israeli design team that produced the ill-fated Timna chip. I think Banias was given to them because Intel knew that an overclocked P6 (a Tualatin at least) could spank a Pentium 4, and the Israeli team knew more about the P6 architecture than anyone else in the company. Banias borrows some ideas from the P4, but it's essentially a Pentium Pro milked as far as it can possibly go, which puts it as the direct successor to the Pentium III.