MSI Announces Fanless Mainboard with Atom-based Processor

Although Intel has just released the specially designed Atom E600C processor for embedded duty, there are still users out there that are far more interested in building small form factor systems based on regular Atom chips, MSI just releasing a 3.5-inch motherboard that come paired with a Intel Atom N270 processor.

Built in order to meet the requirements of an ultra-low power platform, this motherboard goes by with using a passive design and supports a wide range of DC inputs, ranging from 9V ~ 36V, also supporting numerous display interfaces, including VGA and LVDS.

These are driven by the graphics integrated in Intel's 945GSE chipset, MSI going with this tried-and-true solution for the I3-945GSE-D mainboard.

Although this won't definitely offer impressive graphics or high definition video decoding, MSI has included a wide range of ports and connectors including GPIO, 4 USB 2.0 ports, 5 RS-232 COM connectors, and a powered SATA connector to make up for this.

In addition, the motherboard comes with SO-DIMM memory slots that can take up to 2GB of DDR2 SDRAM, networking being provided by the Intel 82574L GbE LAN chip.

Expandability is further improved by the addition of flash memory slot as well as a mini-PCIe, a onboard watchdog timer being also present for added system redundancy and security.

As MSI states, the onboard power support and fanless design makes this well suited for use in a wide range of devices, from all-in-one computers to NAS solutions and embedded applications.

Unfortunately this won't appeal to those that want to use it for more advanced products, as it comes with the old Intel 945GSE chipset that doesn't manage to keep up with more up to date solutions, especially in the graphics department.

As far as product availability and pricing are concerned MSI failed to provide us with any informations regarding these subjects.