The miniITX formfactor has gained a wider acceptance over the last year or so. Not just because more people have realized how lovely it is with such a small system, but also because other manufacturers have shown more interest for it, including Intel. With the miniITX 2.0 specification, VIA hopes to make it even more attractive. Especially now that VIA has a mainstream processor to go with it. That doesn’t mean that you have to use Nano though, but any small and power-efficient processor, e.g. Atom, will do. More CPU power isn’t the only thing though, because the 2.0 specifications also introduces a mandatory PCIe x16 slot.
The specification also mandates a DirectX 9.0 or better integrated graphics processor, at least 6-channel HD audio, support for at least 2GB RAM, 1Gbit Ethernet, two SATA 3Gbps ports and one PATA port. Despite all of this, the physical measurements are the same: 17x17cm. Overall, this should result in a lot more small, yet powerful systems from both VIA and others.
We can only imagine what the HTPC enthusiasts will do with this thing.
VIA has also shared a video showing the VIA Nano processor playing Crysis with a GeForce 8600GT;
