Shuttle to introduce smaller barebones PCs

Already well known for small form-factor PCs, Taiwanese barebones PC maker Shuttle Inc. plans to introduce smaller versions of its compact XPC barebones system at the CeBIT exhibition in March, according to the company.

The XPC is already one of the smallest barebones PCs available on the market, measuring 18 centimeters by 20 centimeters by 30 centimeters. Barebones systems like the XPC include a case, motherboard and a power supply. Users add their own processors, memory, hard disk, optical drive and other peripherals to complete the system.

To help dissipate the heat that is generated by chips such as Intel Corp.’s Pentium 4 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s Athlon 64, the XPC comes with an internal heatpipe that is essential for keeping the inside of the small PC cool.

Shuttle plans to take its line of small form factor PCs one step further and will introduce smaller models of the XPC at the CeBIT exhibition in Hanover, Germany, in March, the company said in a statement. The company did not detail specific dimensions of the new XPC models to be put on display at the show.

Sales of the XPC have taken off in recent years as users look to smaller form factors for computers used in a range of applications, including office computers, servers and home gaming machines, Shuttle said. The company sold around 500,000 XPCs during 2003, up sharply from sales of 34,000 units in 2001, it said.