VIA has begun shipping its latest mini-ITX motherboards, the EPIA CL series. In addition to the obligatory tiny form factor, the CL line offers two network ports.

Designed to support VIA's x86-compatible Eden and C3 processors, the CL family is based on the company's CLE266 chipset, which incorporates a UniChrome 2D/3D graphics acceleration engine and MPEG 2 decoder.

These features, plus the dual 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports, make the mobo the ideal choice for networked home entertainment systems, VIA reckons, such a set-top boxes, digital video recorders, MP3 servers and the like.

The company is also touting the 17 x 17cm mobo as the basis for network gear such as routers and firewalls. VIA's top end C3 chips feature random number generators, which the company has, in the past, highlighted as an advantage for security applications.

The CL series' chipset also supports 266MHz DDR SDRAM and ATA-133 hard drives. It offers six USB 2.0 ports plus a single PCI slot for internal expansion. LVDS LCD panel support is built in too - again, a nod toward the consumer electronics business. ®