Via has finally unveiled a reference design for its Pico-ITX motherboard, which reaches a new low of 100mm x 72mm for an off-the-shelf product. It's not much bigger than a playing card.
According to TG Daily, "In addition to the low-power processors the board will have one SO-DIMM DDR2 slot that supports up to 1 GB of RAM. One SATA and one IDE connector is on the motherboard and the graphics is powered by a VIA Unichrome chip. Four USB 2.0 and 2 PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse are also on the board."
Via Tech's page says:
Helping to fulfill VIA's vision to drive the x86 platform more widely and empower more people to enjoy the digital lifestyle, the Pico-ITX mainboard form factor is designed to enable system developers and OEMs to create smaller, lighter, quieter and even more mobile devices than ever before, and open up a new world of possibilities across multiple embedded PC, system and appliance segments.
But how much of a boost it might give the UMPC (ultra-mobile PC) depends a lot on the price, which isn't mentioned on the page. PC manufacturers always want a premium for small devices, while mass market buyers want them to cost less than larger systems.
