VIA's Mobile-ITX platform is half as big as Pico-ITX, still full of heart
VIA's Pico-ITX platform took things to an entirely new level a few years back, and now the company is introducing an even smaller variant for even more minuscule applications. The Mobile-ITX specification measures in at just 6cm x 6cm, or right around 50 percent as large as the aforementioned Pico-ITX form factor. Aimed specifically at next-generation embedded devices that are barely visible to the naked eye, Mobile-ITX employs a modularized design that includes a CPU module card and an I/O carrier board. We're told that CPU modules based on the Mobile-ITX form factor integrate "core CPU, chipset and memory functionality and I/O that includes the CRT, DVP and TTL display support, HD Audio, IDE, USB 2.0, as well as PCI Express, SMBus, GPIO, LPC, SDIO and PS2 signals," and the 5-watt power usage means that these are well suited for always-on systems. Look for the first commercial Mobile-ITX-based CPU module to ship in Q1 2010.
