www.mini-itx.com -> www.mini-itx.com/
Tranquil PC have announced their two new near-silent machines, the T2 and T3 are now available to order. The T2 is the new Tranquil PC for 2004, with new styling and several improvements over the original Tranquil. The T3 is a new low cost Mini PC designed for diskless operation - bootable over a network or with an optional Compact Flash reader. Our picture taken at CeBIT shows the two devices getting rather friendly with each other - and of course the T2 can be used as a controlling server for several T3 nodes.
The T2 is available in many configurations, like the original Tranquil, including a case and board barebones option for the self builder. Configuration options include a CDROM or blank front panel, 60W or 120W PSUs, riser card for 2 PCI cards up to 200mm in length, a 19 rack mounting option and the ability to hold up to 4 x 35in HDDs, or 3 with a slimline optical drive. The 387mm x 345mm x 66mm Steel, Aluminium and Polycarbonate case and improved heatsink is designed to handle the next generation of 12Ghz and above Nehemiah C3 CPUs, and theres even a free remote control port thrown in. Tranquil T2 and T3 at the Mini-ITX Online Store The T3 is moulded in ABS, allowing almost any colour for OEM customers.
Obligatory EPIA N Pictures CeBIT Coverage 2 - Posted on March 24, 2004 Weve shown various development stages of VIAs Nano-ITX sized board over the past few months, and this time we have the latest prototype from the VIA stand at CeBIT. The visible differences are: this one actually has a heatsink, and a simpler style of power socket 10 connectors instead of 20 as on the previous prototypes. The EPIA N board will be driven by a CN400 Northbridge and VT8237 Southbridge, which means Serial ATA, S3s Unichrome Pro graphics with built-in MPEG-2 decoder and MPEG-4 acceleration, and 6-channel VIA Vinyl Audio. Memory is provided by up to 1GB on a single DDR266, 333 or 400 SODIMM. VIA anticipate 533Mhz, 800Mhz and 1Ghz versions - all with fanless Eden CPUs. And in case we confuse you in future: Nano-ITX is the 12x12cm form factor.
Nano-ITX Case Reference Designs CeBIT Coverage 1 - Posted on March 22, 2004 In no particular order were writing up the contents of our digital camera, safely returned from CeBIT 2004 - or to the untrained eye, the Hanover CPU plumbing and USB memory stick exhibition. In this instalment are our pictures of a selection of reference design Nano-ITX enclosures commisioned by VIA. Some of the designs might not make it to market exactly as seen here, and maybe even not at all - but they do show what is possible with the forthcoming Nano-ITX motherboard, the 12 x 12cm EPIA N.
The P50x Spider from General Micro Systems is powered by up to a 800MHz PowerPC processor with 256MB SDRAM with an SD slot for storage, contains two Gigabit ethernet ports and measures just 72mm x 48mm x 10mm. The Linux Rocket from Data Design Corporation is so small - 45mm square - that to do useful things it piggy backs onto a slightly larger plug-in board providing a DC-DC converter and interface ports. The powering CPU is an IBM Power PC 405 GPr running at up to 400Mhz. Gumstix measure 20mm x 80mm, and come in two flavours of Intel XScale PXA255 processor, 200Mhz and 400Mhz. For a little more wedge, a small case with 1 USB and 2 Serial ports is available. The T-Cube from Japans Personal Media Company measures 52mm x 52mm x 45 mm high, and runs the T-Engine Operating System on an NEC VR5701 processor, with a Compact Flash slot and 2 USB ports.
Scythe in Japan, makers of some rather desirable heatsinks and cooling products, have created the noiseless E-Otonashi case, specially for the popular EPIA M 10000 motherboard. The E-Otonashi makes use of a rather clever Heatlane heatpipe attached between the 1Ghz C3 CPU and the original CPU heatsink with original fan removed. Our upside-down picture shows the rather meaty rubber-sleeved black-anodized aluminum heatsink on the base. The chassis measures 280W x 190D x 90H mm and takes a 25in laptop-style hard drive and slimline optical drive, and the whole case is powered by a Universal 60W PSU, making the whole setup entirely fanless.
Silent Mike has been busy reviewing interesting things recently, amongst them is Mappits rather quiet A4F EPIA M10000-powered Mini-ITX System. The A4F has an all-aluminium enclosure, is competely fanless and unvented and has an internal universal 65W PSU, all in a 315 x 200 x 60mm package. SilentPCReview the Mappit A4F TeePods make Tournament debut Posted on February 18, 2004 .
The TeePod is an interesting EPIA VE5000-powered device from 4everSports aimed at the deep-pocketed golfing fraternity. Essentially a weather-protected solar-powered PC with touch screen display and wireless networking, the TeePod brings the internet to the fairway. Easy to use browser-based software allows players to order 19th hole refreshments, request assistance, view hole information, and of course keep score - and keep tabs on other players scores. Course operators have a wealth of administration tools available to them to ensure things are running smoothly. TeePods run Linux, so tournament hacking is unlikely and golfers wont be seeing any blue screens. Although TeePods have been around for a while, the 4everSports Pro-Pro event at Dobson Ranch Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona on March 8th will be their first PGA-certified tournament debut. VIAs Eden CPUs reach 1Ghz Posted on February 13, 2004 VIA have announced the availability in volume of their fanless Eden CPUs at new faster speeds of 800Mhz and 1Ghz. The Nehemiah based Eden ESP8000 and ESP10000 CPUs consume as little as 7W and include VIAs second generation Padlock security, which includes high-speed hardware based AES encryption and two Random Number Generators. The 733Mhz ESP7000 CPU has been available to manufacturers for a while, as utilised in early versions of Nimbles V5 communications device for instance. New EPIA Mini-ITX boards that take advantage of these chips havent been announced - though we would be surprised if we didnt see something at CeBIT at the end of next month, with boards appearing on the market some time after that. VIAs Press Release The Humidor CL Server Posted on February 4, 2004 .
Weve bowed to incredible public pressure and divided this into bite-sized chunks not one person complained - do you all have 20MBit connections or something? Theres still the bake a cake while the page loads option for those yearning for the good old days. Archived News for January 2004 Archived News for December 2003 Archived News for November 2003 Entire News Archive Back to top of page .
|
http://csua.com/feed/