VIA has updated its seven year old Mini-ITX specification. Included in the update is better support for modern technologies such as PCIe, Blu-ray and SATA II. The updated specification also mandates that integrated graphics processors must support DirectX 9.0. DirectX 10 support can be added via PCIe.
Other features required by the “minimum specifications” include:
- Support for a minimum of 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
- VGA port for LCD display (HDMI via expansion card)
- HD Audio: 3 audio jacks for up to 6-channel surround sound
- 1 x gigabit LAN port
- 2 x serial ATA II slots + 1 x IDE (PATA) slot
- At least four USB 2.0 ports
- 1 x PCI Express 16-lane slot
And the operating system requirements are:
- Microsoft Windows Vista
- Microsoft Windows Vista Premium (with add-in graphics card)
- Microsoft Windows XP
- “Major Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Suse Linux, and gOS”
Expect Mini-ITX 2.0 boards to be available from major vendors fourth quarter this year.