The new EPIA SN Series Mini-ITX motherboard from VIA Technologies has just this minute surfaced in an official press release from the company. It represents a momentous moment for all involved in the development of small computers. Measuring a mere 12cm x 12cm this motherboard is on average 30% more powerful than previous EPIA Mini-ITX boards and has just about everything a Mini PC enthusiast could want. Oh, it also has a Windows Vista certified IGP.
As I mentioned in a previous article about form factors, VIA has been pioneering miniaturized x86 systems for some time now - the Mini-ITX form factor was released in 2001, Nano-ITX in 2003 and Pico-ITX ths year. These form factors aim to squeeze the size of a motherboard down as far as it will go while keeping the whole system within the required thermal envelope. No mean feat.
A regular x86 based motherboard, the SN-Series comes in 2 versions. The 1.8GHz and the 1.0GHz. The 1.0Ghz version is cool enough to go about its business without needing a fan but the 1.8Ghz version is by far the most powerful EPIA board yet. At 1.8GHz it also has a PCI-Express slot for advanced graphics cards, supports up to 4GB of DDR2 677, dual Ethernet including a Gigabit as standard and 4 Serial ATA ports for all your storage fantasies and the most powerful integrated graphics chip yet.
The new EPIA SN Series Mini-ITX motherboard from VIA Technologies has just this minute surfaced in an 
