Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
inches wide, and 12 inches deep. This results in a kind of micro-tower or desktop size. A typical
microATX motherboard is shown in
Figure 4.17
.
Figure 4.17. A typical microATX motherboard's dimensions are 9.6 inches × 9.6 inches.
As with ATX, Intel released microATX to the public domain to facilitate adoption as a de facto
standard. The specification and related information on microATX are available through the Desktop
Form Factors site (
www.formfactors.org
).
FlexATX
In March 1999, Intel released the FlexATX addendum to the microATX specification. This added a
new and even smaller variation of the ATX form factor to the motherboard scene. FlexATX's smaller
design is intended to allow a variety of new PC designs, especially extremely inexpensive, smaller,
consumer-oriented, appliance-type systems. Some of these designs might not even have expansion
slots, allowing expansion only through USB or IEEE 1394/FireWire ports.
FlexATX defines a board that is up to 9 inches × 7.5 inches (229mm × 191mm), which is the smallest
of the ATX family boards. In all other ways, FlexATX is the same as ATX and microATX, making
FlexATX fully backward compatible with ATX or microATX by using a subset of the mounting holes
and the same I/O and power supply connector specifications (see
Figure 4.18
)
.
