AMD-Powered Xi3 Modular Computer is An Ultra-Versatile Aluminum Cube

While nettops and thin clients are not exactly much of a big deal anymore, the people over at Xi3 Corporation have decided to somewhat alter this concept and launched the Xi3 Modular Computer, a small, ultra-compact device that provides a very impressive level of versatility, with no drawbacks on the computing power. Measuring less than 4-inches per side, powered by dual core processors from AMD, yet requiring less than 20 Watts to operate, the Xi3 Modular computer is a small cube-like computer that is (as its name suggests) completely modular in nature. The Xi3 architectural design houses the three boards within a strong yet lightweight aluminum cube that is small enough for almost any embedded solution, the casing also doubling as a type of heatsink, while the flow-through design and the placement of the processors within the computer combine to help mitigate and dissipate heat blooms inside the enclosure itself. Three of the external sides of the aluminum casing also host separate universal mounting slides, making it simple to mount an Xi3 Modular Computer to almost anything, anywhere. The "X" factor of Xi3 is the patented Xi3 Backplane card (also referred to as the [I/O Card]) defines and identifies the specific function of the system, the main idea here being that, by separating the functionality of the system from the "core" (processor and memory), the Xi3 architecture can be easily configured to meet any computing need. Moreover, the company behind the Xi3 claims that this is the only architecture to offer a "Southbridge Agnostic" design. By placing the Southbridge chip (the chip that controls all of the logic or I/O interfaces) on a separate board than the Northbridge, Xi3 allows a very large amount of functions to be easily integrated into one core design. As far as the tech specs are concerned, we'll have to mention that this thing supports AMD Athlon 64, 2000+, 3400e and 4200+ CPUs, up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, M72 graphics engine, plus plenty of connectivity and output options (strange enough, no info on the storage solution was provided within the specs' sheet). “We reject the concept that computers should have a useful life of only two to four years,” said Jason A. Sullivan, President and CEO of Xi3 Corporation. “Instead we believe that computers should be upgradeable and updateable over and over and over again, and that’s how we’ve designed the Xi3 Modular Computer, making it (potentially) the last computer you ever need to buy.” And speaking of buying, it's also important to mention that this thing is priced at less than $1,000, but for the time being, it's only available in limited supplies, just for evaluation and proofs-of-concept purposes, with general mass market availability slated for early 2011.