SUMMARY: We've been working with Intel over the past month to give you all the latest on their new baby - Balance Technology Extended, or BTX for short. It's what Intel are calling their latest form factor specification which promises to offer better cooling and quieter operation for high performance computing. Read on and learn what the future has to offer for the PC!
The computer industry is constantly evolving and building upon technology with as much mind for the future as possible. However with such a constantly changing industry, standards which we rely on do not always anticipate the changes that occur in the future. That had been the case for the AT form factor and the issues with it were addressed by the creation of the ATX Form Factor all those years ago – the design specification which computer companies abide by when designing and manufacturing their products for the PC.
Now, as ATX and its closest cousins begin to show its age from the advent of new technologies like Serial ATA and PCI Express, a new form factor is seen as a need by many companies and Intel has the answer - it’s called Balanced Technology eXtended (BTX). BTX, in its basic principle design, is very similar to that of ATX, but there are a slew of changes that can and will be utilized to show that it has the potential to improve the system as a whole in terms of acoustics and heat dissipation.
Intel has been kind enough to provide us with some technical information and pictures on BTX. Let’s see what the future holds for us!
