Mini-ITX
Encyclopedia
Mini-ITX is a 17 x 17 cm (or 6.7 x 6.7 inches) low-power motherboard
form factor developed by VIA Technologies
in 2001. Mini-ITX is slightly smaller than microATX
. Mini-ITX boards can often be passively cooled due to their low power consumption architecture
, which makes them useful for home theater PC
systems, where fan noise can detract from the cinema experience. Beside that specific application, they are commonly used in small form factor (SFF)
computer systems. The four mounting holes in a Mini-ITX board line up with four of the holes in ATX-specification motherboards, and the locations of the backplate and expansion slot are the same (though one of the holes used was optional in earlier versions of the ATX spec). Mini-ITX boards can therefore often be used in cases designed for ATX, micro-ATX and other ATX variants if desired.
The form factor has provision for one expansion slot. Conventionally this is a standard 33 MHz 5V 32-bit PCI slot. Many case designs use riser cards and some even have two-slot riser cards, although the two-slot riser cards are not compatible with all boards. Some boards based around non-x86 processors have a 3.3V PCI slot, and the Mini-ITX 2.0 (2008) boards have a PCI-express x16 slot; these boards are not compatible with the standard PCI riser cards supplied with cases.
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In March 2001, the chipset
manufacturer VIA Technologies
released a reference design for an ITX motherboard, to promote the low power C3 processor
they had bought from Centaur Technology
, in combination with their chipsets. Designed by Robert Kuo, VIA's chief R&D expert, the 215 mm x 191 mm VT6009 ITX Reference Board was demonstrated in "Information PC" and set-top box
form factors. He would later go on to design the Mini-ITX form factor. The ITX form factor was never taken up by manufacturers, who instead produced smaller boards based on the very similar 229 mm x 191 mm FlexATX form factor.
In October 2001, VIA announced their decision to create a new motherboard division, to provide standardized infrastructure for lower-cost PC form factors and focus on embedded devices
. The result was the November 2001 release of the VT6010 Mini-ITX reference design, once again touted as an "Information PC", or low cost entry level x86 computing platform. Manufacturers were still reticent, but customer response was much more receptive, so VIA decided to manufacture and sell the boards themselves. In April 2002 the first Mini-ITX motherboards—VIA's EPIA
5000 (fanless 533 MHz Eden processor) and EPIA 800 (800 MHz C3)—were sold to industrial customers.
Enthusiasts soon noticed the advantages of small size, low noise and power consumption, and started to push the boundaries of case modding
into something else—building computers into nearly every object imaginable, and sometimes even creating new cases altogether. Hollowed out vintage computers, humidor
s, toy
s, electronics
, musical instruments, and even a 1960s-era toaster
have become homes to relatively quiet, or even silent Mini-ITX systems, capable of many of the tasks of a modern desktop PC
.
Mini-ITX boards primarily appeal to the industrial and embedded PC markets, with the majority sold as bulk components or integrated into a finished system for single-purpose computing applications. They are produced with a much longer sales life-cycle than consumer boards (some of the original EPIA
s are still available), a quality that industrial users typically require. Manufacturers can prototype using standard cases and power supplies, then build their own enclosures if volumes get high enough. Typical applications include playing music in supermarket
s, powering self-service kiosks, and driving content on digital displays.
VIA has continued to expand its Mini-ITX motherboard line. Some of the earlier generations included the original PL133 chipset boards (dubbed the "Classic" boards), CLE266 chipset boards (adding MPEG-2 acceleration), and CN400 boards (which added MPEG-4
acceleration). Second generation boards featured the EPIA M, MII, CL, PD, TC and MS — all tailored to slightly different markets. Legacy VIA boards use their x86-compatible CPUs — the C3, C7 or low-power Eden variants, with newer boards featuring the VIA Nano CPU, launched in May 2008. Other manufacturers have also produced boards designed around the same form factor, using VIA, but also Intel, AMD, Transmeta
and PowerPC
technology.
Intel has introduced a line of Mini-ITX boards for the Atom
CPU, which demonstrates a significant increase in processing performance (but without added power consumption) over older VIA C3 and C7 offerings and is key to making the form factor viable for use in personal computers. Other manufacturers saw the potential of the form factor and followed suit, some even not limiting themselves to the Atom, as evidenced by Zotac
GeForce 9300-ITX board that supports Core 2 Duo CPUs with FSB
frequencies up to 1333 MHz, two separate-channeled 800 MHz memory slots and fully functional PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot that could connect through SLI
to the onboard video. This new wave of offerings has caused Mini-ITX to explode in popularity among home users, hobbyists and even overclockers.
is the primary early provider that designed and marketed Mini-ITX motherboards to the consumer market in 2006.
Some times ago, GIGABYTE Technology announced a mini-ITX P55 based motherboard. The board features the LGA-1156 socket with support for Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs. It includes two DDR3 memory slots, and a single PCI-Express x16 slot which is required due to the lack of integrated graphics. For connections it has eSATA and 4xSATA II ports, 8XUSB 2.0, 2XUSB 3.0, Gigabit LAN ,8 channel audio with SPDIF.
There are many contemporary LGA1155 mainboards for Sandy Bridge CPUs in Mini-ITX form-factor on market now. A typical Mini-ITX LGA1155 mainboard not only allows using integrated graphics, but can also take in an external graphics accelerator. That is why there is always a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot. Moreover, many mainboard makers provide their products with additional mini-PCI Express slots that can be used for extra expansion cards, such as Wi-Fi, TV-tuner cards, SSD, etc. As for the interfaces originally supported on such mainboards, among them certainly are SATA 6 Gbps and USB 3.0. That is why Mini-ITX LGA1155 mainboard can be a high-performance and up-to-date platform.
and HDCP for home theater PC systems and comes with the MCP68PVNT chipset for AMD Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64, and Sempron CPU with AM2 socket. The MCP68PVNT supports DirectX 9 and the H.264 hardware decoding to decreases the CPU load when playing HD content. AOpen nMCP68PVNt-HD has a HDMI port that support 480P, 720P and 1080P high-definition video and audio with HDCP.
Some boards have built in DC-DC converters and converters have also been made to plug directly into the ATX connector (e.g. the PicoPSU), either of these options avoids the need to mount a separate DC-DC converter into the case, saving space and design effort. Boards using full-power Intel or AMD CPUs typically use ATX12V 2.x connections and require a case with appropriate power supply and cooling for these more power-hungry chips.
Motherboard
In personal computers, a motherboard is the central printed circuit board in many modern computers and holds many of the crucial components of the system, providing connectors for other peripherals. The motherboard is sometimes alternatively known as the mainboard, system board, or, on Apple...
form factor developed by VIA Technologies
VIA Technologies
VIA Technologies is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory, and is part of the Formosa Plastics Group. It is the world's largest independent manufacturer of motherboard chipsets...
in 2001. Mini-ITX is slightly smaller than microATX
MicroATX
microATX, also known as µATX is a standard for motherboards that was introduced in December 1997. The maximum size of a microATX motherboard is 244 mm × 244 mm , but some microATX boards can be as small as 171.45 mm × 171.45 mm...
. Mini-ITX boards can often be passively cooled due to their low power consumption architecture
Thermal Design Power
The thermal design power , sometimes called thermal design point, refers to the maximum amount of power the cooling system in a computer is required to dissipate. For example, a laptop's CPU cooling system may be designed for a 20 watt TDP, which means that it can dissipate up to 20 watts of heat...
, which makes them useful for home theater PC
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
systems, where fan noise can detract from the cinema experience. Beside that specific application, they are commonly used in small form factor (SFF)
Small form factor
A small form factor is a computer form factor designed to minimize the volume of a desktop computer. For comparison purposes, the size of an SFF case is usually measured in litres. SFFs are available in a variety of sizes and shapes, including shoeboxes, cubes, and book-sized PCs...
computer systems. The four mounting holes in a Mini-ITX board line up with four of the holes in ATX-specification motherboards, and the locations of the backplate and expansion slot are the same (though one of the holes used was optional in earlier versions of the ATX spec). Mini-ITX boards can therefore often be used in cases designed for ATX, micro-ATX and other ATX variants if desired.
The form factor has provision for one expansion slot. Conventionally this is a standard 33 MHz 5V 32-bit PCI slot. Many case designs use riser cards and some even have two-slot riser cards, although the two-slot riser cards are not compatible with all boards. Some boards based around non-x86 processors have a 3.3V PCI slot, and the Mini-ITX 2.0 (2008) boards have a PCI-express x16 slot; these boards are not compatible with the standard PCI riser cards supplied with cases.
History
Chipset
A chipset, PC chipset, or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product.- Computers :...
manufacturer VIA Technologies
VIA Technologies
VIA Technologies is a Taiwanese manufacturer of integrated circuits, mainly motherboard chipsets, CPUs, and memory, and is part of the Formosa Plastics Group. It is the world's largest independent manufacturer of motherboard chipsets...
released a reference design for an ITX motherboard, to promote the low power C3 processor
VIA C3
The VIA C3 is a family of x86 central processing units for personal computers designed by Centaur Technology and sold by VIA Technologies. The different CPU cores are built following the design methodology of Centaur Technology.-Samuel 2 and Ezra cores:...
they had bought from Centaur Technology
Centaur Technology
Centaur Technology is an x86 CPU design company, now a wholly owned subsidiary of VIA Technologies, a member of the Formosa Plastics Group, Taiwan's largest industrial conglomerate.-History:...
, in combination with their chipsets. Designed by Robert Kuo, VIA's chief R&D expert, the 215 mm x 191 mm VT6009 ITX Reference Board was demonstrated in "Information PC" and set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
form factors. He would later go on to design the Mini-ITX form factor. The ITX form factor was never taken up by manufacturers, who instead produced smaller boards based on the very similar 229 mm x 191 mm FlexATX form factor.
In October 2001, VIA announced their decision to create a new motherboard division, to provide standardized infrastructure for lower-cost PC form factors and focus on embedded devices
Embedded system
An embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system. often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal...
. The result was the November 2001 release of the VT6010 Mini-ITX reference design, once again touted as an "Information PC", or low cost entry level x86 computing platform. Manufacturers were still reticent, but customer response was much more receptive, so VIA decided to manufacture and sell the boards themselves. In April 2002 the first Mini-ITX motherboards—VIA's EPIA
EPIA
VIA EPIA is a series of mini-ITX, nano-ITX and pico-ITX motherboards with integrated VIA processors...
5000 (fanless 533 MHz Eden processor) and EPIA 800 (800 MHz C3)—were sold to industrial customers.
Enthusiasts soon noticed the advantages of small size, low noise and power consumption, and started to push the boundaries of case modding
Case modding
Case modification is the modification of a computer chassis , or a video game console chassis. Modifying a computer case in any non-standard way is considered a case mod...
into something else—building computers into nearly every object imaginable, and sometimes even creating new cases altogether. Hollowed out vintage computers, humidor
Humidor
A humidor is any kind of box or room with constant humidity, and ideal temperature, used to store cigars, cigarettes, or pipe tobacco. For private use, small wooden or acrylic glass humidor boxes for a few dozen cigars are used, while cigar shops may have walk-in humidors, sometimes consisting of a...
s, toy
Toy
A toy is any object that can be used for play. Toys are associated commonly with children and pets. Playing with toys is often thought to be an enjoyable means of training the young for life in human society. Different materials are used to make toys enjoyable and cuddly to both young and old...
s, electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
, musical instruments, and even a 1960s-era toaster
Toaster
The toaster is typically a small electric kitchen appliance designed to toast multiple types of bread products. A typical modern two-slice toaster draws anywhere between 600 and 1200 W and makes toast in 1 to 3 minutes...
have become homes to relatively quiet, or even silent Mini-ITX systems, capable of many of the tasks of a modern desktop PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
.
Mini-ITX boards primarily appeal to the industrial and embedded PC markets, with the majority sold as bulk components or integrated into a finished system for single-purpose computing applications. They are produced with a much longer sales life-cycle than consumer boards (some of the original EPIA
EPIA
VIA EPIA is a series of mini-ITX, nano-ITX and pico-ITX motherboards with integrated VIA processors...
s are still available), a quality that industrial users typically require. Manufacturers can prototype using standard cases and power supplies, then build their own enclosures if volumes get high enough. Typical applications include playing music in supermarket
Supermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s, powering self-service kiosks, and driving content on digital displays.
VIA has continued to expand its Mini-ITX motherboard line. Some of the earlier generations included the original PL133 chipset boards (dubbed the "Classic" boards), CLE266 chipset boards (adding MPEG-2 acceleration), and CN400 boards (which added MPEG-4
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
acceleration). Second generation boards featured the EPIA M, MII, CL, PD, TC and MS — all tailored to slightly different markets. Legacy VIA boards use their x86-compatible CPUs — the C3, C7 or low-power Eden variants, with newer boards featuring the VIA Nano CPU, launched in May 2008. Other manufacturers have also produced boards designed around the same form factor, using VIA, but also Intel, AMD, Transmeta
Transmeta
Transmeta Corporation was a US-based corporation that licensed low power semiconductor intellectual property. Transmeta originally produced very long instruction word code morphing microprocessors, with a focus on reducing power consumption in electronic devices. It was founded in 1995 by Bob...
and PowerPC
PowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
technology.
Intel has introduced a line of Mini-ITX boards for the Atom
Intel Atom
Intel Atom is the brand name for a line of ultra-low-voltage x86 and x86-64 CPUs from Intel, designed in 45 nm CMOS and used mainly in netbooks, nettops, embedded application ranging from health care to advanced robotics and Mobile Internet devices...
CPU, which demonstrates a significant increase in processing performance (but without added power consumption) over older VIA C3 and C7 offerings and is key to making the form factor viable for use in personal computers. Other manufacturers saw the potential of the form factor and followed suit, some even not limiting themselves to the Atom, as evidenced by Zotac
Zotac
ZOTAC International Limited is a computer hardware company based in Hong Kong producing consumer electronics in the form of motherboards , Mini PCs, Nettops, and Nvidia based graphics cards...
GeForce 9300-ITX board that supports Core 2 Duo CPUs with FSB
Front side bus
A front-side bus is a computer communication interface often used in computers during the 1990s and 2000s.It typically carries data between the central processing unit and a memory controller hub, known as the northbridge....
frequencies up to 1333 MHz, two separate-channeled 800 MHz memory slots and fully functional PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot that could connect through SLI
Scalable Link Interface
Scalable Link Interface is a brand name for a multi-GPU solution developed by NVIDIA for linking two or more video cards together to produce a single output...
to the onboard video. This new wave of offerings has caused Mini-ITX to explode in popularity among home users, hobbyists and even overclockers.
Consumer product
Since VIA focuses on IPC, their Mini-ITX products were designed and sold to the industrial and System Integrator markets. AOpen Inc.AOpen
AOpen is a major electronics manufacturer from Taiwan that makes computers and parts for computers. AOpen used to be the Open System Business Unit of Acer Computer Inc. which designed, manufactured and sold computer components. It incorporated in December 1996 as a subsidiary of Acer Group with an...
is the primary early provider that designed and marketed Mini-ITX motherboards to the consumer market in 2006.
Intel-based products
The first AOpen Mini-ITX motherboard is i945GTt-VFA, it supports 667 MHz FSB Intel Core Duo/Core Solo Socket 479 CPU and Intel Viiv technology for setting up a HTPC (Home Theater PC). The latest AOpen Mini-ITX motherboard is nMCP7ASt-V that adapts Socket 775 Intel Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Duo/Celeron FSB 533/800/1066/1333 MHz CPU, Dual Channel DDR2 667/800 MHz SDRAM up to 4GB, and a PCI Express x 16 Slot (Support nVIDIA Hybrid SLI technology and PCI Express 2.0 via nVIDIA MCP7A-S chipset).Some times ago, GIGABYTE Technology announced a mini-ITX P55 based motherboard. The board features the LGA-1156 socket with support for Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs. It includes two DDR3 memory slots, and a single PCI-Express x16 slot which is required due to the lack of integrated graphics. For connections it has eSATA and 4xSATA II ports, 8XUSB 2.0, 2XUSB 3.0, Gigabit LAN ,8 channel audio with SPDIF.
There are many contemporary LGA1155 mainboards for Sandy Bridge CPUs in Mini-ITX form-factor on market now. A typical Mini-ITX LGA1155 mainboard not only allows using integrated graphics, but can also take in an external graphics accelerator. That is why there is always a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot. Moreover, many mainboard makers provide their products with additional mini-PCI Express slots that can be used for extra expansion cards, such as Wi-Fi, TV-tuner cards, SSD, etc. As for the interfaces originally supported on such mainboards, among them certainly are SATA 6 Gbps and USB 3.0. That is why Mini-ITX LGA1155 mainboard can be a high-performance and up-to-date platform.
AMD-based product
AOpen also made the first AMD based Mini-ITX motherboard, the MCP68PVNt-HD, it supports HDMIHDMI
HDMI is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data. It is a digital alternative to consumer analog standards, such as radio frequency coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, or VGA...
and HDCP for home theater PC systems and comes with the MCP68PVNT chipset for AMD Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64, and Sempron CPU with AM2 socket. The MCP68PVNT supports DirectX 9 and the H.264 hardware decoding to decreases the CPU load when playing HD content. AOpen nMCP68PVNt-HD has a HDMI port that support 480P, 720P and 1080P high-definition video and audio with HDCP.
Power
The Mini-ITX standard does not define a standard for the power supply, though it makes some suggestions of possible options. Conventionally Mini-ITX boards use a 20- or 24-pin "original ATX" power connector. This is usually connected to a DC-DC converter board which in turn is connected to an external power adapter. Generally both the power adapter and the DC-DC board are supplied with the case.Some boards have built in DC-DC converters and converters have also been made to plug directly into the ATX connector (e.g. the PicoPSU), either of these options avoids the need to mount a separate DC-DC converter into the case, saving space and design effort. Boards using full-power Intel or AMD CPUs typically use ATX12V 2.x connections and require a case with appropriate power supply and cooling for these more power-hungry chips.
See also
- EPIAEPIAVIA EPIA is a series of mini-ITX, nano-ITX and pico-ITX motherboards with integrated VIA processors...
, Mini-ITX, Nano-ITX and Pico-ITX motherboards from VIA - Mini-ATXMini ATXMini-ATX is a 15 x 15 cm motherboard form factor developed by AOpen Inc. Mini-ATX is slightly smaller than Mini-ITX...
, 15 cm x 15 cm form factor developed by AOpen - Nano-ITXNano-ITXNano-ITX is a computer motherboard form factor first proposed by VIA Technologies at CeBIT in March 2003 , and implemented in late 2005. Nano-ITX boards measure 120 × 120 mm , and are fully integrated, very low power consumption motherboards with many uses, but targeted at smart digital...
- Pico-ITXPico-ITXPico-ITX is a PC motherboard form factor announced by VIA Technologies in January 2007 and demonstrated later the same year at CeBIT. The formfactor was transferred over to SFF-SIG in 2008. The Pico-ITX form factor specifications call for the board to be 10 × 7.2 cm , which is half the area...
- Mobile-ITXMobile-ITXMobile-ITX is the smallest x86 compliant motherboard form factor presented by VIA Technologies in December, 2009. The motherboard size is 60mm × 60mm. There are no computer ports on the CPU module and it is necessary to use an I/O carrier board. The design is intended for medical, transportation...