Apple's Mac mini's mini motherboard January 14, 2005
Apple have released a small form factor computer in the shape of the Mac Mini. The Mac mini measures just 6.5" x 6.5" x 2", and is powered by an even smaller motherboard with a 1.25 or even 1.4Ghz G4 PowerPC CPU, and integrated ATI Radeon 9200 graphics. This is great news for the weeny PC community, and can only popularise our cause.
Macnews.de got their hands on one incredibly quickly and in possibly the first Mac mini warranty-voiding exercise ripped it open to reveal the innards. The board itself is slightly smaller than Mini-ITX at about 160mm square by our estimations, and includes Ethernet, Modem, DVI/VGA, 2 x USB, Firewire and Audio connectors (sadly not optical).
The Motorola MPC7447 (aka G4 CPU) can be seen on the front of the board, together with a connector for optional WiFi and/or Bluetooth and of course the single DIMM socket. On the reverse of the board is the ATI Radeon GPU, and the Intrepid "Agere" IC, the Mac mini's North/South bridge (also seen on some previous Powerbooks). Thanks to Frédéric and Chris for filling in the gaps in our knowledge here. We'd love to see this new Mac spawn as many creative re-packaging efforts as Mini-ITX boards have... (the rounded corners should help cramming it into unusual places)
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