Via Now Shipping Dual-Processor Mini-ITX Board

An anonymous reader writes "Via is now shipping its first dual-processor mini-ITX board. The DP-310 features two 1GHz processors, gigabit Ethernet, support for SATA drives, and a media-processing graphics chipset. It targets high-density applications -- according to Via, a 42-U rack with 168 processors would draw about 2.5 kilowatts, or about as much power as two hair dryers." This also looks like the basis for a nice car computer. Also on the small-computing front, an anonymous reader submits "General Micro, meanwhile, last week released what it calls the world's fastest mini-ITX board, powered by a Pentium M clocked up to 2.3GHz. "

Comments

Car computer?

[temojen]

Sounds like an excellent-performing midrange desktop replacement to me. Only trick would be marketing it to consumers & businesses who've been indoctrinated in the MHz cult. Two CPUs should give excellent responsiveness.

Re:Car computer?

[UserChrisCanter4]

Yeah, I remember the good ol' days, with their 300 baud modems and walking backwards uphill both ways in the snow.

Now I have a 6000kbps/400kbps broadband link to my home. What you call OS Bloat and graphics bloat I call useability increases.

I run Firefox, which allows for nice, handy tabbed browsing. It might be useable on a 233mhz computer, provided there was enough RAM, but I wouldn't push it.

While doing that, I'll have an IM Client open that allows for connection to all major IM networks.

I'm also going to have Thunderbird open, which allows for easy management of my RSS feeds along with email.

MP3 player will of course be running in the background, because I like to listen to music while I browse. That alone would tax the hell out of your 133mhz 5x86.

If I see a /. story about an innovative new software program, or a cool liveCD, I can fire up a bit torrent client and grab it without putting as much of a strain on the server.

I didn't say you NEED a faster machine for web browsing, but I wouldn't want to do it on something slower than about 500Mhz nowadays. The minute that I have to start shutting down applications so that I can do other work, I'm just going to start looking into an inexpensive upgrade route. If my computer is seriously inhibiting my ability to do what I want to do, then no amount of bitching about bloat is going to fix that problem. While bloat is there, advances have taken place in software since 1997 (the year of the P233), and you shouldn't just discount them because your system's too slow to use those applications.

What board are those photos of?

[marmite]

The article says that the northbride is a CN400, but the photos have a CLE266 northbridge on... What's up with that?

--marmite

Why does this thing STILL have PS/2 ports?

[Fortunato_NC]

Can't we let PS/2 ports die already? Four USB 2.0 ports on this thing, and Via still thought we needed PS/2 ports. I'd rather drop the PS/2 ports and get a FireWire port, or another USB 2.0 port. PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports are as much of a dead end as the MCA bus - it's time to let go.

Re:Dual-processor car computer?

[grylnsmn]

Something like this could be useful for where I work.

We do railroad track geometry testing, and use a modified pickup truck to carry our equipment. A dual processor system would be better for us than our current setup. It would allow us to use one machine for data collection (especially the interrupt handling) and realtime analysis of the data. Additionally, the smaller form factor would allow us to have a lot more room in the back seat of our truck.

2 1GHz processors would be more than enough for our needs. We only have a 800MHz PIII right now.

Re:TV?

[spagetti_code]

I built a myth PVR based on an EPIA board. While that machine is awesome (quiet, small, reliable), it was a major mission to get it there.

The M and MII boards have well documented DMA issues There have been many attempts to contact VIA to discuss these, all have been actively ignored (we are pretty sure they are getting the messages).

What concerns me is that the problem has been fixed in windows, but Via wont even talk to linux people about it. That indicates a certain lack of interest in the linuxworld that bodes badly should problems arise with these new mobos. I would be very circumspect about picking up another mobo from them unless I was sure I wouldn't need support.

Just one jilted dudes opinion.

Re:cheap Linux servers?

[Kz]

I do that. For near-line archive, several 1U boxes, each with an M10000 Epia board and four 300GB HD. Another box with a database and a web frontend to manage it, and goes like a charm.

not much processing needs, but lots of storage space with little heat. unfortunately the next drives (400GB) are only at 7200 RPM, no longer 5400RM