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Mini-ITX, the smallest x86 platform in the world
A masterclass from VIA in how to cram as much hardware into a PCB barely bigger than a CD jewel case. Imagine the picture rotated 90° to the right and lets start at the top left and work our way right and down.
The first thing we hit is the ATX power connector aligned to the top left edge of the PCB with a fan header underneath and a smattering of power regulation circuitry for the embedded CPU. In creating the EPIA, VIA went with a fixed CPU package (no upgrading) and took advantage of an x86 core that it acquired during the Cyrix/Centaur deal and has since updated slightly. The M-9000 features an actively cooled 933Mhz C3 processor versus the passively cooled, less powerful Eden package on slower EPIA models. I'll talk about the C3 later in the review.
After the C3 processor we barely have room for the solitary DDR DIMM slot and the pair of IDE ports flush to the right hand vertical edge of the board. A tight squeeze so far but, refreshingly, a good layout up to this point giving the illusion things aren't too cramped.
Underneath the C3 we have the shiny northbridge heatsink with the CLE266 moniker emblazoned on top, lest you forget what's underneath. The bridge is responsible for the CPU controller, display hardware and memory controller with the VT8235 taking care of pretty much everything else along with the peripheral controllers located in the bottom left corner of the PCB.
The 8235 itself and floppy connector parked in the middle are the major features along the bottom half of the board along with the lonely PCI slot at the very bottom edge to give you a single chance at peripheral expansion if the onboard features aren't enough for you. The only thing I can think of to put in the slot is a video capture card of some description or a sound card with more ability than the provided onboard solution.
All in all quite a fascinating layout and a wonder VIA got everything on there without making the layout a complete nightmare to work with. As it is, it's small (obviously) but very friendly with the main components on the edges of the PCB where they should be to stop you having to drag cabling over the middle of the board.
So what about performance? Let's have a quick look at the C3 processor and the onboard MPEG-2 decoder on the CLE266 bridge since they'll be doing the majority of the work the EPIA will have to take care of and see if they'll be enough for the majority of applications the EPIA will have to deal with.
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