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Via Debuts Smallest PC Mobo Format Yet

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Via is readying a media-oriented motherboard in what could be the next popular size for small form-factor PCs: Pico-ITX. The 'Epia PX' board measures 3.9 x 2.8 inches and features a 1GHz C7 processor, along with rich audio/video I/O, albeit mostly on pin headers. Pico-ITX measures 3.9 x 2.8 inches (10 x 7.2 cm) — exactly half the surface area of Via's already small 4.7 x 4.7-inch (12 x 12cm) Nano-ITX standard, and considerably smaller than the original 6.7-inch square (17 x 17cm) mini-ITX standard."

12 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Still ATX power supply? by scsirob · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is something I don't understand. This should be the ideal motherboard for a Car PC. But this board yet again insists on an ATX power supply.

    Why not design a single supply board? Preferrably wide-range input (say 8 - 28V) and be done with it? These boards don't need +/- 12V anyway, and +5V or +3.3V is already regulated down to core voltages.

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    1. Re:Still ATX power supply? by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is something I don't understand. This should be the ideal motherboard for a Car PC. But this board yet again insists on an ATX power supply.
      Nope, it insists on an ATX format power plug. Surely you don't imagine that there are no small and 12V input-capable power supplies out there?
      --
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    2. Re:Still ATX power supply? by cazzazullu · · Score: 4, Informative

      I got me one of these for my via epia board. It plugs right into the power connector, is barely bigger than the connector itself, and runs from 12V DC. My Epia now runs for several hours on a small lead acid battery. Also perfectly fit for use in cars I guess...

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    3. Re:Still ATX power supply? by dan+the+person · · Score: 4, Informative

      Nope, it insists on an ATX format power plug.

      Exactly.

      Lookout for pico PSUs if you want something small.

      This one is DC-DC and takes up barely more space than the atx connector itself.

      http://www.mini-box.com/s.nl/it.A/id.417/.f?sc=8&c ategory=13

  2. Via hw is excellent by dozer · · Score: 4, Informative

    But their drivers are utter crap. I've owned a couple micro-ITXes and none of them ran well, either Linux or Windows. Via just says things like, "well, try not to DMA much." Or quietly push out a bugfix bios three years late. They claim that many of their drivers are open source and then steadfastly refuse to release source. Fiona, just because you promise to release source in 4 months, that doesn't mean you can claim they're open source today. And really, given Via's abysmal past performance at opening source (no a shim plus a binary blob is NOT open), I wouldn't hold my breath.

    I'll never buy Via again, no matter how small they make their boards. It's a crying shame because, really, their hardware is just gorgeous.

    1. Re:Via hw is excellent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
      Via just says things like, "well, try not to DMA much."

      I wish they did. For a high-tech project, we decided on embedding VIA Mini-ITX motherboards. The one we picked (pressured for lowest COGS) had a C3 and a VT8235 south bridge. We ran into very weird USB and PCI communication problems, and spent almost a man year in total on trying to fix our software. It turns out that the south bridge is the problem. On the VIA Arena forums, this turned out to be a known problem (google for "VT8235 lockup"), mostly apparent when generating heavy network traffic. The "driver fixes" for Windows turn out just to throttle the network traffic.

      Officially, our VIA representative still hasn't acknowlegded this problem, and we were ready to switch to a different, more "industrial" mobo. We still picked a VIA one though (with a C7 and a 8237) because frankly, their prices are hard to beat.

      If you are considering a VIA mobo for an embedded application, make sure you test, test, test and don't automatically blame the SW guys when you find something weird. Don't let the fact that this is "consumer electronics" fool you. We figured that this meant cheap, well-tested, large series hardware with ppm failure rates. Apparently, that's not always the case.

  3. Vapourware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    VIA have a nasty habit of announcing technology, and not shipping it. Look at the NTX format. They announced it, and for the next several years you just could not buy them retail.

    If you are building OEM devices, they may sell to you - but there are other alternatives out there for mass production besides VIA.

    And to second another poster - there are always problems with the drivers. If they were building the same quality in a more conventional marketplace (ie desktop) people would put them in the same marketspace as many of the original 'all in one' boards and avoid them in droves.

    VIA - if you are serious - show it. If not just go blow away.

  4. Re:It plays Fairplay by OverlordQ · · Score: 4, Funny

    This thing is only portable if you carry a really long extension cord.

    --
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  5. Where does the ram go? by simm1701 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No seriously... I couldn't see it in the article as spec'ed on board and I certainly couldn't see a socket for it?? So where is it?? Did I miss something obvious? (I will admit its only 9am and I am running low on coffee today)

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  6. Still not impressed by Tainek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    i have two problems with the VIA Mini Range

    1: Low Performance

    Even the 1.5 GHZ VIA Cores perform badly, only a nudge faster than a P3. there are other options, such as the pentium boards (see point 2) and an AMD socket 754 board (Why 754? , why not AMD2, even 939 just so we can use dual core!)

    2: Price
    These things cost a silly amount, here in the UK its about £90 entry for the pathetic 500mhz boards, and about £150 for a 1.5GHZ via. or you can pay £150 for a intel board, but still need to buy a proccessor

    And the nano ITX, well now those are ugly, for the cost of one of those i can get an xbox360...

    1. Re:Still not impressed by DaveCar · · Score: 4, Informative


      May not be quite the same thing, but you can get a Jetway 1.5GHz C7D (http://linitx.com/product_info.php?cPath=12_138&p roducts_id=1044) for just under £100.

      It's no speed demon, takes just over twice as long to encode an ogg as my 2GHz P4 for example, and even with the openchrome drivers under Linux, window redraws etc are dog slow. Plays video fine though, and 3D graphics appear to work.

      It's pretty usable as a desktop - gnome, openoffice all work OK, and the only really noticable thing is when you draw a window you get a trail as mentioned above.

  7. Re:Why the analog video output? by zakezuke · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When are these going to go away? Nobody I know uses a CRT any more. Why not include a DVI connector on the back instead? For that matter, why do all graphics cards and many low-end LCD screens employ these old VGA interfaces?

    I know of many people who still use CRT. I still use CRT. CRT is where it's at as far as peformance, versaltility, sharpness, and clarity. On my old sony 20seII s, I can do 720p or 1080p if I wanted, and these are 10+ year old monitors. LCDs are stuck at a set resolution. Many plasma TVs do come stock with VGA connectors. For 20 inches and above CRTs actually seem to cost more. While "old" it's more than adquate for it's purpose, unless you are talking LCD which does benifit from a digital signal.

    Aside from that, you are probally right, a DVI port can at least be adapted to VGA. If you are going to have one port, might as well be DVI.

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