Pico-ITX


In computer design, Pico-ITX is a PC motherboard form factor announced by VIA Technologies in January 2007 and demonstrated later the same year at CeBIT. The formfactor was transferred over to SFF-SIG in 2008. The Pico-ITX form factor specifications call for the board to be, which is half the area of Nano-ITX.

EPIA PX

PX10000G

The first motherboard produced in this form factor is called EPIA PX10000G. It is and the printed circuit board is 10 layers deep. The operating temperature range is from. The operating humidity level can be from 0% to about 95%. It uses a 1 GHz VIA C7-M processor, a VIA VX700 chip set, and is RoHS compliant.
It has onboard VGA video, VIA VT6106S 10/100 8P8C Ethernet, UDMA 33/66/100/133 44-pin ATA, and SATA I/O. DVI and LVDS video-out, USB 2.0, COM, PS/2 Mouse & Keyboard, and HD 5.1 channel audio are supported through the usage of I/O pin headers and add-on modules/daughter cards.
It has been demonstrated running Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista. older versions of major Linux distributions, including Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu 7.10, will also run on it. It is available as a single board, as well as part of a barebones package, the Artigo, a small form factor complete computer.

PX5000

This model is similar to the PX10000G, but uses the 500 MHz VIA Eden ULV CPU.
There are two versions of this model, the PX5000G, which has a fan-assisted heatsink, and the PX5000EG, which has a fanless heatsink.

Add-on modules


The VIA PX-O daughtercard supplies access to:
  • 1 RCA-out for S/PDIF usage
  • 4 USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 3.5mm Mic-in, 1 3.5mm line-out, 1 3.5mm line-in
  • 1 buzzer/speaker
  • 1 CN9 connector
  • 1 CN10 connector.
The VIA VT1625M daughtercard supplies access to:
The Serener PXFPIO is 109mm × 22mm in size and connects via a 120mm ribbon cable through a daughter card. This addon may require modification to the heatsink due to the size of the daughter card. It supplies access to:
  • power & reset switches
  • 3.5mm audio in/out
  • S/PDIF-in
  • power & HDD activity LEDs
  • 4 USB 2.0 ports
The VIA PX-TC daughter card, compatible with the PX10000G only, is designed to enhance the multimedia capture and output. It supplies access to:
  • 1 S-Video port
  • 1 video-in port
  • 1 YPbPr port
  • 1 S/PDIF-out

EPIA-P700

The second motherboard series in this form factor, the P700 series improves upon the PX10000G series by offering Gigabit Ethernet or a 10/100 Ethernet adapter as a manufacturing option, integrating the power adapter, and making the Ethernet & VGA ports optional via the P700-A daughter card.
Expanded functionality is offered via the following pin I/O:
  • 1 LAN
  • 1 VGA/DVI
  • 1 COM Port
  • 1 Audio pin connector for Line-out, Line-in, MIC-in
  • 1 Front panel
  • 4 USB 2.0
  • 1 PS2 mouse/keyboard
  • 1 LVDS
  • 1 LPC/SM Bus/GPIO
The EPIA-P700-10L has a 1 GHz VIA C7 CPU.
The EPIA-P700-05LE has a 500 MHz VIA Eden ULV CPU and has a passive heatsink.

Add-on modules

The P700 comes retail with the P700-A & P700-B daughter cards.
The P700-A supplies:
The P700-B supplies:
  • 4 USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 Buzzer
  • 1 Line-out, 1 Line-in, 1 MIC-in

Intel-based products

Even though the form factor was introduced by VIA Technologies, there are also boards available based on Intel processors. Some have the CPU and the chipset directly on the Pico-ITX board.

ARM-based products

Pico-ITX boards are also available with ARM architecture. In this field DH electronics uses the standardized DHCOM Computer On Modules with several ARM based modules.

Pico-ITXe

The Pico-ITXe specification adds onto the Pico-ITX form factor by taking the EPIA-P700 and upgrading the chipset to a VX800, doubling the maximum RAM to 2 GB, allowing for 667/533 SO-DIMM RAM, upgrading the GPU to VIA's Chrome9 HC3, and adding support for SUMIT. Another notable addition is the expansion from 10 to 12 layers thickness.