Slashdot Mirror
New Nano-ITX 12cm Motherboards
Kris_J writes "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..."
VIA have removed the legacy ports, moved to mini-PCI and SODIMMs
Good thing Sodimmy is no longer illegal.
The idea is pretty interesting. I can only hope that it turns out better than this article suggests.
The pics are arranged in a three by three grid, but don't bother. Pics one and two are decent, three is okay, and nine is passable, but the rest are so blurry that once you've heard the board is 120 mm square, they're nothing you can't get from just viewing the thumbnails.
:\
Mom says my
So that's where Sodimm Hussein has been hiding! It's now the mother of all boards!
VIA have removed the legacy ports
I wish these companies would leave just a single RS-232 or RS-422 port. Sometimes you need a simple serial connection to connect through if the network is down. The lack of serial also limits the use for these boards for controlling other pieces of hardware if embedding is your thing.
Maybe an online petition to bring back the RS-232 is in order
Trolling is a art,
I can't say how many times I've wanted to make a small, embedded controller system, but couldn't do it. Most projects need the ability of pc, but can't handle the space requirements for a desktop sized box. These little babies aught to make my life much more fun, and possibly fully automated.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
I guess we would see the 800Mhz and 1 GHz Via C3 chips to start
While not the full specs, the screenshot page says...
The secret of Nano-ITX is the Nano-BGA (Ball Grid Array) package, which has allowed VIA to squeeze a 1Ghz C3 CPU into just 15mm square.
So, yep.
Genuine cheap DIY clone portables/laptops with interchangable parts - if a component fails, you dont have pay the earth to replace it? Anyone have good links/experience on that? :-)
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
12 by 12 centimeters (120 millimeters) is the same size as a CD... I wonder if one could squeeze one of these machines into one or two drivebays... I could definetly use a nice little dev box inside my regular box!
.: Max Romantschuk
Now I can make that ammo canister pc come true. I could even make Linux run on my MP5!.
Or what about using a US marines trooper helmet as a webserver! Or maybe I can equip a clip with a fileserver.
W00t. My Death/Linux dreams have finally come true.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
Mini-itx was 17x17 centimeters, this is 12x12, so 5cm (or about 2 inches) smaller than a mini-itx.
The RAM slot looks like it takes laptop ram, not stadard desktop DIMMs.
The cpu is a 1Ghz C3 processor, hardwired in (no upgrading that once purchased).
3 sound jacks, ethernet (mini-itx vias are 10/100, i assume this is), 2 USB, video out, PS2 keyboard jack, and a TV output. mouse would have to be via USB.
I love my mini-itx server, which is completely silent running, this thing is even tinier, but with a 1ghz cpu i'll be interested to see if they can make a fanless model. the 1ghz mini-itx boards don't passively cool without gluing on a Zalman flower heatsink.
[/itx-geek]
"You worthless post!"
-Shakespeare, 2 Gentlemen of Verona, 1. 1. 147
Mirror!
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One by one the penguins steal my sanity...
Actually, that's exactly the size of a CD jewel case.
Pretty nifty, huh?
Txurlo
1 centimeter = 1x10^-2m, 1 nanometer = 1x10^-9m.
FALSE ADVERTISING.
But they never specified their units. They only used the prefix nano. But they never said nano-whats. Their unit of distance could be root acres, or astronomical units, or in this case, the unit of measurement is 12cm*10^9
Heh heh, the devil is in the details my friend.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
Google - it's not just for breakfast any more.
Erik
According to this page, the shown Nano-ITX board got the following details:
- VIA CN400 Chipsatz (FSB 200 Support)
- 1 GHz VIA C3
- VIA VT8237 Southbridge (support for S-ATA)
- Mini-PCI on the back (maybe for WLAN)
- 1x SODIMM RAM Slot
- 1x S-ATA (one Channel)
- 2x IDE (ATA 133)
- TV-Out
- 6-Channel Sound
- DOC (disk-on-chip)
- Size: 12x12 cm
- CPU-Size: 15x15 mm
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One by one the penguins steal my sanity...
I got a connection refused when trying to connect. Here's an ASCII-art mirror of the motherboard:
[]
Man, that's small!
They haven't removed the worst offender of the old legacy PC, however. The BIOS is still there. PCs need to ditch BIOS and go with something decent like openboot. Also, console on an out of band management line needs to be stardand, so you can administer things remotely or when the network is down.
It doesn't need to be legacy serial, though that's what everything else uses. Put it on USB for all I care. Just make sure I can get to the system outside the network, and boot/reset/configure it from there.
Nice ascii art, but the font size is wrong leading me to get a wrong impression of the size. However it is easy to convert. There are by definition 2.54 cm to an inch, so the 12cm board = 4.72 inches - lets round that to the nearest quarter = 4.75. By definition there are 72 point to the inch, so you need to adjust your browser to a 342 point font. Note that I'm assume that your monitor properly scales fonts to actual size, odds are it does not (generally only macs try, and not all of them get it right), but that is implimentation specific.
I rounded the inches measurement up a little because in most fonts [] does not take up all the pixels it could, and thus isn't exact size. I'm hoping this adjustment brings us to a better average. (likely width still a little small, hight a little big)
You might loose your computer down the back of the sofa!