Unless you are a big fan of small form-factor computing, you probably haven’t been tracking the development of VIA’s Pico-ITX motherboards. This form-factor was announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but it has been almost impossible to get your hands on an ITX motherboard and the official U.S. release has yet to happen. A few samples have made their way to reviewers and developers, but because of their rarity coverage has been sparse.If you are not familiar with Pico-ITX, all you have to know is it is a newer and smaller motherboard size than what we have seen before. A full-sized ATX motherboard is 12″ x 9.6″ (305mm x 244mm) and Mini-ITX is 17cm x 17xcm, which makes it much smaller than the average system. Nano-ITX, which was announced in March 2004, but is mainly used for industrial and business systems, is 12cm x 12cm. Pico-ITX has cut the size down once again, and measures in at an incredible 10cm x 7.2cm, but has retained almost all of the features and functionality of the larger platforms.I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of the new motherboards, the EPIA PX10000. These are not yet available in the U.S., but I was able to purchase one from Mini-ITX.com, which is based in the U.K. The motherboards are not cheap, and they will seem quite barebones if you are used to working with ATX or Micro-ATX motherboards, but once you factor in the size and (relative) power they offer, Pico-ITX could be the perfect platform for a project PC or a silent computer.
Via intros do-it-yourself kit for Pico ITXTo see the world in a grain of sandBy INQUIRER staff: Friday, 07 December 2007, 10:57 AMCHIP FIRM VIA said it has released a builder kit which lets you make your own PC using its tiny Pico ITX boards.The Artigo builder kit contains an Epia PX 10000 Pico ITX mobo, chassis, power adaptor and accessories. Via claims it can help you make an X86 machine which you can hold in the palm of your hand.The kit goes on sale the 14th of December at a number of distributors, online sites, and shops at a recommended price of $300.
I can really see myself getting one of these...just for the hell of it.
If that integ video chip is half decent it would be possible to build a psp killer for a good price.. Load it up with ROMS , starcraft , quake 3 , counter strike , maybe even a little warcraft III or wow... imagine playing WoW on a psp sized device !?Truly , if Nvidia or another company could give them technical assistance , Via's platform could make a killing in the mainstream with microcomputers .
