VIA releases new Mini-ITX mainboard for home entertainment systems

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 27 Nov 2003 at 16:34

With an eye on the building of home entertainment systems, Via has released a new Mini-ITX board - the VIA EPIA MII Mini-ITX Mainboard Digital Home Platform.

The Mini-ITX is an x86 mainboard, measuring 170x170mm, designed for small form factor PC systems - found in Thin Clients, wireless network devices, set-top boxes and such like.

'The Totally Connected home is a reality and VIA recognizes the increasing need for digitally intelligent multimedia devices for the living room and beyond,' said Tim Handley, VIA's Processor Platform Marketing Manager. 'The VIA EPIA MII is the ideal Digital Home platform, combining multiple wireless connectivity options and portable storage with great digital media performance users have come to expect from this platform, opening the door to a rich variety of networked smart entertainment devices'.

Along with a CardBus (Type I and II) slot for wireless connectivity and a Compact Flash slot for handling media, I/O includes a LAN port, PS2 mouse and PS2 keyboard support, a Serial port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, a VGA port, a RCA port (SPDIF or TV-Out), a S-Video port, a FireWire port and 3 Audio jacks (line-out, line-in and mic-in).

In terms of the processor and chipsets, it runs with a VIA C3 (1.2GHz) or VIA Eden ESP (undisclosed frequency, for Silent PCs) processor, with the VIA CLE266 North Bridge and VIA VT8235 South Bridge chipsets. There is one DDR266 DIMM socket for up to 1GB of memory.

Full information on the new board can be found at the VIA website.

UK pricing is expected to be around £155.