The "Janus Project"
August 31, 2006
The "Janus Project" is the brainchild of Kyle Williams of the Janus Wireless Security Research Group in Portland, Oregon. Mounted inside an epoxy and silicone-sealed watertight case lives a 1.5GHz C7 powered EPIA EN 15000G motherboard, 2 x four-port PCI to mini-PCI adapters, 8 x 802.11a/b/g mini-PCI WLAN Modules, 2 x 1W 2.4Ghz WLAN amplifiers, a keyboard and a 17in LCD screen. The system can scan up to 300 wireless networks simultaneously, storing and AES encrypting in real time all the data onto its 20GB hard drive. By focusing all 8 WLAN cards onto an access point and using a combination of common Linux tools, the Janus Project can crack a WEP key in under 5 minutes. WPA and WPA2 encryption aren't far behind - Kyle and his friend Martin Peck are optimising the software to use the Padlock hardware acceleration of the C7 chip to crack those too.
If Kyle gets captured in enemy territory and tortured, an "Instant Off" switch will render the captured data useless until a password is entered and a USB stick containing a 2000-bit passkey is inserted. Presumably during the torturing process.
The Janus Project (Tom's Hardware)
A Couple of New Features
August 15, 2006
We've let our pet programmer loose from his darkened underground pit for a few hours and added a couple of features to the site. It's now possible to email any story to a friend using the imaginatively named 'Email this' link underneath it. There's also a section on the right of each page showing the most popular projects viewed in the past 24 hours, with a wee explanatory bar graph showing relative popularity. The graph updates every few minutes. Clicking refresh in your browser won't increase its vote though - we're counting independent views here. So now you know. You lucky people. Update: Our popularity experiment has had an interesting (but perhaps inevitable) side effect. The top 5 projects are now over twice as popular as the nearest competitors...
The "Leela PC"
August 05, 2006
Jan Erik Vangen wrestled with his conscience before producing a Futurama-themed follow up to his very popular Bender PC, but he figured if nobody else was going to do it he might as well. Leela is fully Mini-ITX powered, has a working webcam in her eye - and a USB thumbdrive in her... thumb.
Jan Erik Vangen's "Leela PC"
Nexus Launch a Psile
July 13, 2006
Netherlands-based noise reduction specialists Nexus Technology have launched their amusingly named "Psile" Mini-ITX case. The 22.5 cm x 22.5 cm x 19 cm case is constructed from a 4mm thick Aluminium chassis and a strong plastic cover insulated with noise cancelling material. The basic Psile is available in black or white, but the cover can be customised with a choice of artwork or better still - with your own design. We took a look inside one for your perusal. Full disclosure: We're proud to be the UK distributors of the Psile, available at our online store. Nexus Technologies' Psile Website Psile at the Mini-ITX Online Store Many more pictures and a Mini-Review...
VIA's "John" Technology
June 29, 2006
Wenchi Chen, President and CEO of VIA Technologies, gave a sneak peak of "John" during the VTF 2006 opening keynote address at Computex this year. John follows the biblically named Matthew, Mark and Luke in stuffing major x86 components into small spaces. On the board here, John is actually the dark green blob top left, fitting a CPU and Northbridge onto a 35x35mm package. Most of the rest of the chips on the (unnamed) board support the interfaces and power regulation. Being a VIA creation, it has power management to save power and Padlock security features built in, and looks to be aimed at future hand held devices.
Nano-ITX in a Football
June 26, 2006
Spotted on the Foxconn stand at Computex was a cunningly hidden fully working Nano-ITX motherboard. Can you guess where it is?
Inside the football
VIA's "Vogue" Mini-PC
June 20, 2006
VIA Technologies launched their "Vogue PC Reference Design" platform during the VTF 2006 opening keynote address at Computex this year. A Vogue PC can be modified using VIA's erm, "QuickSlip" technology - i.e. an internal enclosure containing all components that can easily be placed into different housings. During their brief catwalk appearance a sporty, classic and feminine look were on show, all designed by Taiwanese studio Cre8 Design. Equally of interest were the specifications given, offering a glimpse into the future of C7 Mini-ITX boards: A Mini-ITX board with C7 processor, but with a *CN800* chipset and optional S3 Graphics Chrome20 Series DX9 accelerator. Bumps in chipset technology generally go hand in hand with graphics or audio improvements. The CN700 chipset (EPIA EN, EPIA CN) promises HDTV capabilities, the CX700M (EPIA EX) seems to add HD Audio on top of that. The CN750+VT8251 should add H.264 and WMV9 in hardware, so the CN800 presumably packs in the S3 graphics somehow. Unless it uses a separate graphics card. We're speculating a little here.
VIA's Vogue Computing site
UnityCorp's "Piccolo" Nano-ITX Case
June 16, 2006
This blue beauty is a 135×135×75mm Nano-ITX case called the "Piccolo" from UnityCorp in Japan. We took a quick look at it while we were watching the football reporting valuable news items for you over at Computex.
More description and pictures
VIA preview EPIA EX motherboard
June 10, 2006
VIA Technologies this week previewed their EPIA EX, a Mini-ITX motherboard firmly aimed at the media playback market. The C7-powered board has a feature that has been lacking on all previous EPIA boards to date: a DVI output.
More specifications and pictures
Mini-ITX boards may take your money
June 08, 2006
Those of you with a penchant for brightly coloured lights, unlimited buffets and 3/4 size historically inaccurate facsimiles of various parts of the world may already have been relieved from their loose change by a Mini-ITX powered gaming machine. Continued...
News Archive
* Back to Mini-ITX.com *
| 
