backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 17 comment(s) - last by Raidin.. on Feb 2 at 3:37 PM

Image courtesy of EPIACENTER
"EPIACENTER" has three close-up images of the upcoming EPIA PX pico-ITX motherboard

EPIACENTER has managed to snap close-up images of VIA’s upcoming EPIA PX motherboard. The EPIA PX sports a new pico-ITX form-factor that measures in at 3.9 x 2.8 inches. This is approximately half the size of VIA’s uber small nano-ITX form-factor. VIA initially demonstrated the EPIA PX at its yearly Lunch@Piero’s event held during the Consumer Electronics Show.

In its early stages a VIA C7 processor clocked at 1 GHz powers the EPIA PX. EPIACENTER is unsure which chipset the EPIA PX contains but believes it is either the VX700 or CX700M. DailyTech predicts the EPIA PX features the previously released UMPC oriented VX700 due to the sheer size of the board.

Due to the small footprint of the EPIA PX the board features very limited connectivity options. The EPIA PX features a single VGA and LAN port as far as external connectivity goes. There are plenty of internal headers and connectors, though EPIACENTER does not mention what the headers are for.

AMD recently announced its plans to pursue development of the DTX form factor.  DTX is considerably larger than pico-ITX, though all formats are essentially derivatives of ATX.

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
Ram?
By PlasmaBomb on 1/28/2007 7:04:29 AM , Rating: 2
Where does the ram go on that board?




RE: Ram?
By Chillin1248 (blog) on 1/28/2007 7:53:00 AM , Rating: 4
Excellent question, my guess would be that it comes intergrated on the motherboard. DT if you can clear this up?

-------
Chillin


RE: Ram?
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 1/28/2007 7:54:26 AM , Rating: 2
I believe it's soldered onto the backside of the motherboard.


RE: Ram?
By Emillos on 1/28/2007 8:08:09 AM , Rating: 3
Yup, as far as i've heard, there should be SO DIMM 200pin slots on the backside.

Very exiting platform... :)


RE: Ram?
By lucyfek on 1/28/07, Rating: 0
RE: Ram?
By ZoZo on 1/29/2007 12:07:21 PM , Rating: 1
How do you input anything?
By InsaneScientist on 1/28/2007 9:22:27 PM , Rating: 2
Okayyyy.... so there's a VGA port and an Ethernet port... now what about minor necessities like your keyboard?

Is there a header somewhere that will allow PS/2 or USB ports, or is this the world's most useless computer? :)

Seriously, though, I know it's got to have one or the other (PS/2 or USB), but I'm curious as to which.




By InsaneScientist on 1/28/2007 9:23:58 PM , Rating: 2
D'oh... I knew I forgot something...

What about sound? Are there any audio headers, or do you just have to make do without?


RE: How do you input anything?
By abakshi on 1/28/2007 10:49:51 PM , Rating: 2
Here are the specs - there are pin headers for everything.

Processor: VIA C7 1.0GHz
Memory: 1 DDR2 533 SODIMM socket, up to 1GB
VGA: Integrated VIA UniChrome Pro II 3D/2D AGP graphics, with MPEG-2/4 and WMV9 decoding acceleration
IDE: 1 UltraDMA connector
SATA: 1 SATA connector
LAN: 1 VIA VT6106S 10/100 Ethernet
Audio: VIA VT1708A Hi-Definition Audio Codec (7.1 channel)
I/O: 4 USB 2.0, 1 COM, 1 PS2, 1 LVDS/DVI, 1 multimedia for TV/out, 1 audio for line-out/line-in, mic-in, optical-in, and 7.1 channel output, RJ-45 LAN, VGA


By Missing Ghost on 1/29/2007 1:37:27 PM , Rating: 2
Then this thing is awesome.


that is one tiny freakin board...
By pillagenburn on 1/28/2007 3:40:50 PM , Rating: 3
couple that with a laptop hard drive and a laptop dvd-writer and youve got one tiny system... great for basic HTPC or something. My only question is where do i put my dual 8800GTX's ? haha :P




RE: that is one tiny freakin board...
By Lifted on 1/28/2007 4:18:02 PM , Rating: 2
Not so viable for HTPC when it appears to be limited to a lone VGA interface, unless you're connecting to an LCD with VGA.


By abakshi on 1/28/2007 5:16:25 PM , Rating: 2
There's also an LVDS/DVI header on the board.


Random Observations
By mindless1 on 1/28/2007 8:52:03 AM , Rating: 2
It's nice to see gold plating, thought on a larger low profile 'sink, no electrolytic capacitors

Features I wish it had -

- Barrel jack <=12V input, step down regulator onboard for the remaining voltages

- One or two USB ports

- Heatsink mounting much closer to the CPU, at least one stud would increase board rigidity and potentially improve interface with the flipchips

- Component placement changed such that snap-on modules (USB, SD reader or CF reader and CF-ATA interface slot) would provide that on the same side as video and lan. I mean low height modules that fit within the perimeter of the board, there looks to be a USB header that won't satisfy that latter factor.

- Larger keep-out zone around board edges

- Video socket on same vertical plane as lan socket

- Something done about the power socket so it doesn't require so much more clearnance for the power cord and plug. As it stands it may increase the space requirement in height by roughly 50% unless there is a very proprietary/custom inverted power board made to fit this, but with it inverted there may be cooling issues.

- Same issue different day, I'm not crazy about Via silicon, but if they can get the price down low enough that might redeem it for some uses.




RE: Random Observations
By Raidin on 2/2/2007 3:37:23 PM , Rating: 2
I'm guessing that this board was designed to work within an enclosure that will have all the necessary ports built-in, run from the headers.

Excellent way to save space, nice and clean.


They've reached the limit
By Polynikes on 1/28/2007 10:36:46 PM , Rating: 2
You can't really go much smaller than that and still retain functionality with current connection hardware. Even a seemingly small ethernet port is gigantic on that board. Now they need to work on shrinking that stuff.




RE: They've reached the limit
By mindless1 on 1/29/2007 12:38:58 PM , Rating: 2
Considering the target markets, I think there is actually an easy way to go much smaller, just put the chipset and CPU on the same core.


"If you can find a PS3 anywhere in North America that's been on shelves for more than five minutes, I'll give you 1,200 bucks for it." -- SCEA President Jack Tretton

DailyTech Poll
Which web browser do you use on your primary personal machine? 






44 Comments









botimage
Copyright 2009 DailyTech LLC. - RSS Feed | Advertise | About Us | Ethics | FAQ | Terms, Conditions & Privacy Information | Kristopher Kubicki