Pico-ITX, Because Size Matters

An anonymous reader writes "It's not every day that a new form factor comes out, especially not one that is 10cm x 7.2cm. Despite its size, Pico-ITX is the hottest new thing in the rapidly changing small form factor market. It is considerably smaller than Mini-ITX (17cm x 17cm) which has proven itself to be quite versatile and though some sacrifices had to be made to shrink the platform, Pico-ITX is surprisingly complete. The system was tested with Feather Linux but the PX10000 has the power to run Windows XP or Ubuntu if you want to add on a hard drive."

Comments

drop the legacy ports; minimal IO configuration

[johnrpenner]

| Despite the size, the specifications make it clear that the ITX motherboard
| has a full range of connections, including DVI, VGA, ethernet, four USB ports,
| two PS/2 connections and more.

we do not want a 'full range' of connectors -- because anything that wastes circuitry
for PS2 connections on a pico size board is a dodo (imo).

we DO NOT WANT: IDE, PS/2 or VGA connectors cluttering up our motherboard.
they duplicate functions already better achieved with: SATA, USB, and DVI.
we want as few ports as possible and still be able to achieve any function.
so, what ARE the desireable ports?

-USB 2.0 (four ports)
- SATA (two ports)
- DVI (with optional VGA header)
- SODIMM Slot for RAM (two)
- ethernet (10/100/1000)
- optional 802.11g/n

that's it -- no extra ones besides that.
get the bios working so it can boot with those,
and drop the legacy cruft.

j

'Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler' (Einstein)