MINI ITX

Mini-ITX is an ultra-compact (6.7 x 6.7 in.) mainboard form-factor developed by Via Technologies Inc. Mini-ITX targets a new generation of quiet, small footprint, connected, information and entertainment systems and enables the creation of an exciting new generation of small, ergonomic, innovative, and affordable embedded systems through its high level of integration and vastly reduced size of less than 33% that of the FlexATX mainboard form-factor.

The mini-ITX form-factor, as originally defined by VIA

VIA launched mini-ITX as a way to showcase its inexpensive chipsets for computer hobbyists, but the form factor has since gone into many other embedded markets. Its success has brought a vast proliferation of cases, power supplies, slim-line drives, Flash-to-IDE adapters, and other handy computing components that have helped drive the form factor into applications such as living room PCs and commodity hardware-based dense computing applications.

Additionally, the charms of mini-ITX have not been lost on industrial board vendors such as Kontron and others. Of course, it's important to note that mini-ITX motherboards from industrial single-board computer (SBC) vendors typically offer thicker PCBs, more rugged designs, and better build quality, compared with mini-ITX boards aimed at the consumer market. They also have correspondingly higher prices and minimum order volumes.