Gigabyte Creates VIA-Powered Mini-ITX Motherboard

VIA may not hold a very big share of the CPU and chipset market, but the fields it does serve are better for it, enough so that Gigabyte decided to try out the NANO processor and its accompanying chipset.

There was a time, rather long ago, when VIA motherboards and processors were actually easy to encounter in PCs around the world.

Today, the company holds a very small share of the worldwide chipset and CPU market, mostly catering to the needs of the embedded segment.

That said, Gigabyte decided that the VX900 chipset and the Nano U3300 dual-core processor deserved its backing.

Thus it was that the M7V90PI motherboard came to be, featuring the Mini-ITX form factor.

For those who want to know the exact specs, the Nano U3300 chip is a dual-core unit with a clock speed of 1.2 GHz.

Meanwhile, the platform offers one DDR3 SO-DIMM memory slot, plus integrated graphics with DirectX 9 support (Chome9 HD) and a VIA Vinyl VT1708S audio codec.

What's more, customers will find six USB 2.0 ports on the I/O panel, along with a pair of SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors (SATA II) and video ports (D-Sub and DVI).

Finally, Gigabyte was able to cram one PCI Express x1 slot on the newcomer, along with plugs for a CPU fan, a PS/2 connector, two COM ports and Gigabit Ethernet.

By using the Gigabyte M7V90PI motherboard, customers in the embedded market will be able to build systems with up to 4GB of RAM (random access memory).

Power efficiency should be no problem, given the TDP (thermal design power) of the NANO U3300 (just 6.5W).

Unfortunately, though the company already added the official product page to its website, it did not say what price it demanded in exchange for this thing.

Then again, since this is not a consumer product, that is not so surprising.