Mini computing at Computex 2006
 

Hall two at the Computex 2006 trade show in Taipei was filled with motherboards. One type of motherboard in particular dominated the displays: Mini-ITX. The Mini-ITX form factor design was developed by VIA in March 2001. By April 2002, VIA had launched its own motherboard division in order to manufacture and sell the world's first Mini-ITX mainboards, dubbed EPIA. They were targeted at enabling developers to design a new breed of ultra-compact entertainment devices. The Mini-ITX form factor has, however, been adopted as a mainstream choice for industrial applications and embedded computing. In fact it's fair to say that the Mini-ITX form factor has enabled significant developments in embedded computing. As such, all of the single board computer (SBC) manufacturers and industrial circuit board manufacturers on the show room floor had a bevy of Mini-ITX boards to choose from.