VIA Intros World's First Mini-ITX Motherboard with Nano X2 E-Series CPU

VIA Technologies has today announced the release of what the company likes to refer to as the “world's first” mini-ATX motherboard to feature a VIA Nano X2 E-Series dual core processor, the VIA EPIA-M900.

Measuring just 17 square centimeters, the VIA EPIA-M900 board features a dual core VIA Nano X2 E-series CPU clocked at 1.6GHz, which is combined with the company's own VX900 chipset.

Also called a Media System Processor, or MSP for short, the VX900 includes the ChromotionHD 2.0 video engine, that boasts hardware decoding acceleration for 1080p content using the VC1, H.264, MPEG-2 and WMV9 HD formats, as well as the VIA Vinyl VT2021 HD audio codec.

Both the processor and the VX900 chipset are cooled by a large aluminum heatsink, which is paired with a small diameter fan.

Right bellow the heatsink, users will find two SODIMM memory slots, that can be populated with up to 8GB of system memory, while to the right of the cooling assembly VIA placed a PCI Express x16 and a legacy PCI slot.

Two SATA ports are also located there, next to a series of pin-headers providing one dual channel 24-bit LVDS link, SPDIF out, four USB 2.0 ports, and a range of other features.

Four additional USB 2.0 ports are available on the rear I/O panel and these are accompanied by a COM port, a Gigabit LAN connector, D-Sub and HDMI video outputs as well as by three 3.5mm jacks for 5.1-channel audio.

"The VIA EPIA-M900 brings high performance VIA dual core computing power to embedded devices for the first time," said Epan Wu, head of the VIA Embedded Platform Division, VIA Technologies, Inc.

"It will enable the creation of a wealth of innovative next generation digital signage, POS, Kiosk, ATM, home automation, healthcare and media client system design applications," concluded the company's rep.

VIA hasn't released any information regarding the price, or the availability, of the EPIA-M900 mini-ITX motherboard.