Video: Intel reveals Moorestown PC motherboard, possibly world's smallest
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Apr 3rd 2008 9:03AM
posted Apr 3rd 2008 9:03AM
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WHERE'S THE PCI EXPRESS X16 SLOT?
Where's the PCI card capable of fitting on the motherboard?
where's the ISA slot?! fascists!
YOUR MOM HAS AN EXPRESS SLOT!
stop being a d!ck!
Diggity.
If you listened. This is for mobile devices. (Phones/PMP's/MID's/etc..)
You don't take those apart and pop cards in. Everything's integrated in mobile devices.
no shit kaki
I may be showing my age here but Mother in the name Mother Board refers to the fact you are meant to attach "Daughter Cards" (as they were called in the day) so how is this a mother board if thing are integrated? I'm sure there is a name that better fits this situation. Would this be more of a integrated Buss card?
what we are beginning to see is the end of upgradable pcs, more and more features are being stuck on the motherboard, from wifi, memory to gfx chips and eventually ssd's, the computer will soon be, just another comsumer electronics product.
Oh Noes! Teh Sky! It is falling!
Um, the seems like kind of a bold generalization to make. This board will not be going into mainstream desktop or laptop computers. Any device that uses this motherboard would be a consumer electronic device that was never hardware-upgradeable to begin with, like smartphones, MIDs, etc.
Im not saying its necessarily a bad thing, this is what apple made the personal computer as in the 1st place, a computer as a consumer electronic device, not something to technical or expensive for the average person. (more 99% of people do not upgrade anything on a pc, and most of that 1% only do the ram).
When was the last time you've changed the GPU in your cell phone?
by "beginning to see" you mean "have seen since the first laptop was invented."
I fail to see a problem with that. To many users, a computer IS just an appliance.
Bob, that is a VERY bad thing. Apple can go to hell with it's idea of the Computer. The day I am not allowed to upgrade my video card is the day PC gaming dies.
So it's not a bad thing, eh? Ok so maybe my DVD encoding times are getting slow. So I just bought a Quad Core for 230. In your vision of the future I will have to buy whole another computer!
How is that a good thing?!
Its not necessarily my view its just the way its going to happen, except maybe for specialist machines, look at a lot of modern laptops (the way the industry is heading) umpc's and mobile phones, also look at devises like the microsoft surface, people (as in the majority, not us geeks) want an instantly accessible machine and don't care about upgrading components. fyi, pc gaming is dying due to overpriced hardware, over specced games and a small specialist market, consoles and integrated set-top / mobile devises are gamings future.
damnn no SLI ???
That is pretty amazing I must say! Keep up the great work Intel.
Seeing the size of MBA motherboard, i am not too surprised intel will come up with something like this
"by "beginning to see" you mean "have seen since the first laptop was invented.""
the laptops that used pci wifi cards, had upgradable ram, and standard spinning Hard drives that could be removed and arent attached to a mobo? no i don't mean them. I mean what i said.
That thing still needs a chipset?!
What's all the fuss about? It's NOT a motherboard, it's just a PCB!
do you have any idea what goes into designing a PCB? and besides snapping on a few components (and probably soldering some too) is it pretty much a motherboard.
its kind of futile if there isnt not pci or cpu?
Nvidia's 10xx Series will surely fit on that mobo. Not.
I would like to see this on mobile phones, iPods*, cameras than on a PC.
I find myself captivated by the * you wrote after ipods...Care to elaborate?
I'd feel real silly showing just a PCB, really.
@everybody
I think that's the whole point. These are meant to create powerful pocket devices that have the full x86 functionality (but not upgradability!) of a standard PC. In other words, this isn't a PC that is replacing your gaming desktop at home; this is a PC that is going to replace your cellphone/PDA.
No PCI express? No PCI? No SLi? Why not ask that of any UMPC, MID, RIM or iPhone device?
Agreed completely. We've seen the current paradigm for years, and I highly doubt it'll disappear even in our lifetimes. (note that I'm actually a semi-Kurzweilian type of tech & science evangelist as well). First you build something relatively large, but powerful. It is used in correspondingly large machines. Then, that technology is shrunk a bit, and it ends up in laptops a bit later. Then, in mobile devices after that. We're already seeing smart cards (whose whole device is the size of a smashed rice grain) with the power of an IBM-XT.
We shouldn't fear miniaturization, because in the near term, our pc's will still be scores, if not hundreds, of times more powerful than most mobile devices.
Imagine the 'GeForce 10800 GX4', 16GB DDR4, a 512GB Solid State drive, and an 8 core 32nm prorcessor ;)
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/09/mtube-does-linux-wimax-weighs-five-ounces/
Why force the x86 outdatedness on people when you don't have to?
Why force proprietary hardware, higher costs, fewer software options (or higher developer overhead to port software), and limited deployment options, when you don't have to, because x86 is a perfectly capable framework? Especially if we're talking only about modest performance requirements in a handheld device.
Take the iPhone: it broke ground on the way people are beginning to think about their portable devices. But behind the GUI, there have been a host of problems. iPhone-only websites (how Web2.0 is that?). Poor initial SDK, and still limited development support. Limited hardware/accessory support. The point isn't to segregate services or functionality, or to reinvent it because you choose proprietary technology. Everything already works on x86, it's just not all that portable. Until now.
This could forseeably pair well with Android: a-la-carte software development with a-la-carte hardware requirements. "Build your own portable device", suited perfectly to your own needs, and integrated seemlessly with your existing technology. And all at relatively low cost.
Another mobile phone base, that's all this really is.
Another mobile base that is to phone hardware what android is to phone software.
see www.anandtech.com for the full explanation.
It's the second gen chipset to be used with atom for VERY small laptop PC's with VERY long life.
You could install Windows XP on your Qwerty cell phone with Microsoft Office. Think about that for a minute.
@Andy
No, you can't. You WILL be able to run a very slow and chopped up version of Vista, though. The cost of putting 32-64 GB of SDHC on it just to run Vista will double the price right off the bat.
@Urnama:
"Imagine the 'GeForce 10800 GX4', 16GB DDR4, a 512GB Solid State drive, and an 8 core 32nm prorcessor"
This will seem ancient in 6 years.
I can't wait for atom and Moorestown in the desktop form factor though.
I could have an always on, fanless Windows Home Server that consumes less than a watt at idle, and 10 watts or whatever when the drives spin up.
That kind of reminds me of that movie A.I, when they look inside that really lifelike Teddy Bear and find an Intel chip. I'm not quite sure WHY this reminded me of that, but it does.
Also, what's wrong with this? I like the idea of having my cell phone run like my PC does....and who says we'll be using PCI-E and internal cards by 2010. For all we know we could port everything to external equipment to be used through bluetooth, wifi or usb etc. Your PC could simply be a small box with a mobo and a processor/some memory. Someone also mentioned PCs not being upgradeable....and? Many laptops are nowhere close to as upgradeable as computers, and they still sell like hotcakes. Some people even prefer laptops over computers. There's even a market for these all in one pcs now, some that run on laptop boards. Nothing's wrong with a firmware upgradeable device. Who out of us upgrades their system piece by piece? I may buy a hard drive or more ram...maybe a better CD/DVD drive. CPU and Memory would really have no reason to be soldered into an after market/retail mobo, so I don't see that happening. The fact is, PCI slots are not entirely necessary for anything but GPUs now, and since those may soon be ported to CPU like chips then, hey who knows...slotless boards may come sooner than later. 'Upgradeable' can easily pertain to external devices nowadays. Most things you find inside a PC(except for CPU/RAM) can be found outside a PC now. I for one, prefer my hard drives and such external. And there are pretty kickass sound systems that are usb now. Only video needs to catch up on that front....otherwise you have wireless, bluetooth, more usb slots, etc. etc. all able to be hooked up externally.
Our cellphones, umpcs and mp3 players are all devices with often one board inside along with a processor and memory and they're generally pretty reliable. As long as smaller or 'integrated' doesn't mean less powerful/slow in comparison to/plain crappy or more expensive, then I don't have a problem.
Anyway, my point is that I think it's progress. Eventually PCs as small as say, the mac mini may be as powerful as say, a Tower with 4 cpus, 4 gpus and lots and lots of pci cards.
I see a fully functional computer the size of a usb hub, with external hd, dvd, sound, connected and powerd wirelessly. Followed by (insert company of choice) placing all the items back inside one case to reduce clutter and being praised for there innovative design and idea,
I think he totally missed an opportunity for a Steve Jobsian moment here. He should have pulled it out of his wallet. Someone please alert the PR firm to pay attention to potential of on stage theatrics to generate buzz.
someone at
... apple smells a challenge, Looks like it could fit into a Gameboy SP.
Intel MID - the reason you need a BIG pocket ;)
Remember, its just a motherboard. And nope, it won't fit in iPhone.
Great - the Q9550 which was released in January should be available by then!
There's something out similar to this, and it's available now. It's called the VIA Pico-ITX.
the pico-itx board is the size of a CD (120mm square), this is much smaller
Oops, thats nanoITX i was thinking of. PicoITX is pretty small (3.9in x 2.8in)
Even Pico-ITX sucks relatively large amounts of power, and is targeted at non-battery dependent applications (kiosks, cars, etc). Read the whitepapers on what Intel is doing with this chipset/platform with regard to being able to selectively shut off power-sucking resources during idle, without shutting off the whole system.
Miniaturization is one half of this. Extremely low and versatile power consumption is the other.
This is why technology is so great, its always expanding & I don't think it will ever stop. That small of a motherboard, just think of all the possible device could be developed with something that small. Phone would be quicker & more responsive, maybe gaming devices with more speed & processing power. Can't wait to see what the future holds for this motherboard. Nice find Engadget :D
That's a LOT to cram onto a single board of that size. Amazing. CPU, chipset (with integrated HD video and HD audio support, no doubt), RAM and storage memory, 3.5/3.75G cellular radios, WiFi (possibly WiMAX, too), BT, GPS, and who knows what else... I'd love to have all that beefed up, PC-level capability, speed, and power in a mobile device - all on one little chip!
Isn't the new nvidia card going to be called GT200 series?
But... will it blend?
the stuffed rabbit in the movie "The Last Mimzy" has Intel logo on it aswell...
Dwight from The Office is in it too, he's funny.
Test
who cares if you cant upgrade your computer? to hell if i had to pay for a new hard drive,i have a perfectly good one, and in no way do i want to loose all my bookmarks on Firefox, and WW3 would start if i had to pay for another version of windows if the one i have is perfectly fine. I don't need more speakers, don't need another power supply, don't need another set of fans, dont need another DVD burner/player, and i don't need another computer case. all i need is a 5.1 surround sound PCI card and maybie another graphics card.
i don't know why people don't upgrade computer parts, its way cheaper then anything else and is the only way you know what your really getting, and know your getting everything you need. maybe its like one book fahrenheit 451, everyone is just getting stupid.
he's declaring a pointer to an ipod
I for one welcome the new masters! J/K...anyway... i like the idea of small this kind of progress in technology. Imgaine the next Mars Rover or a faster smarter GPS device. Common we all know they are slow. Low power usage, all in one package smells ike a winner to me. For everyone worring about not haveing any kind of slots, heres some news for you: Both Intel and AMD are working on making multiple core chips and using some of the cores for graphics. I believe that intel is farther ahead in that front but it was AMD's idea to begin with. So either way the future holds no slot upgradeablity for the average consumer. If you are so inclined to wonder if this will run Vista....i wouldnt count on it because by that point there will already be another MS OS. I am in aw at mans progress in technology...never a dull moment!! Fight the norm i say and shoot for the stars because it is my belief that a computer smaller than that will control a craft that will take us there.
wtf is the difference between video and audio, and HD video and HD audio?
How about the novel name of SBC (Single Board Computer) in stead of the incorrect term "motherboard".
Upgrading a PC is an antiquated idea anyway. Processor speeds (and cores) are off the scales. Memory is cheaper than ever. 99.9% of new PC's will do anything you need them to do without upgrading (unless you're trying to run Vista..lol).
Cool to see more miniaturization though.
Enjoy.
Where's the VLB slot?
Nice. I got lost the other day and ended up in Moorestown, right on the edge of Mt. Laurel.
Looks nothing like the video.
@R1cebrner
Reminds me off the Mac Mini. Except for the wireless power part.
He should have pulled it out of his fifth jeans pocket, like when Jobs showed us the ipod nano.
really ,, someday we will find our kids loggin internet by glasses !! and we'll ignor what they do or watch !!!
@Neoprimal That was "The Last Mimzy"
But that aside, the possibilities this opens are amazing. Imagine a device the size of, as you guys said, an iPhone, but with the ability to run Windows XP or Vista at full speed, with decent 3D. Drop in a high resolution LED backlit screen, touch, and you get 720p or even 1080p HD video on a portable device. Portable HD player anyone? Or hey, you're on the subway, gotta kill 45 minutes, so you pull out your iPhone sized device and play a game with actual decent 3D. Moorestown will probably be using PowerVR developed chipsets like the Atom does, which will give us at least passable 3D performance. Now I'm not so sure about the idea of trying to play WoW on such a small device, but the ability to do so is at least intriguing. And hey, the PSP has a small screen that works wonderfully for games. All it would take is a decent UI refresh to make icons/text readable on a small screen, and I can honestly see myself on the metro playing Quake4 or something similar. Or a newer-ish Final Fantasy game. We shall see, but personally I'm excited.