Japanese consumers will be able to buy one of the world's smallest PCs next month when local vendor Third Wave ships what it calls the Prime Super Mini - a desktop machine smaller than a 12in notebook computer.

The compact machine takes up a little more space than Apple's Mac Mini - it's 17.2 x 22.6cm to the Mini's 16.5 x 16.5cm - but at 4.2cm it's shorter than the Apple box's 5.1cm height. It's heavier than the Mini, too - just: 1.35kg to 1.31kg.

The Third Wave machine's specifications are broadly the same too: a 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo T2600 processor, Intel 945GM chipset, 80GB Serial ATA hard disk, 512MB of memory, Firewire 400, four USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi. It also has DVI-I and S-video ports, but there's no Bluetooth, unlike the Mini. There's even a slot-loading multi-format optical drive.

Third Wave will offer the machine on 12 May with Windows XP Home Edition on board. Local reports put the price at ¥122,580 ($1,043/£584/€845). ®