Why use PC/104 form factor?

[blapcb]

What are the advantages of the PC104 form factor over other forms? I know there are so many different other form factors out there (many by VIA etc) so what is special about PC104 and why perhaps to use it?

I have a system that is currently running on a Mini-ITX and I want to make it a lot smaller so looking for new platform. It runs XP/XPe and uses the COMS, USB and LAN. I want something that can take a DC/DC supply, not the standard ATX SMPS (it is for automotive).

 

[yura717]

PC/104 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
PC/104 Consortium

 

[RetroTechie]

From what I understand, the main advantage is that there exist many off-the-shelf boards that can be stacked onto a PC/104 board. So that you can quickly build systems with whatever combination of CPU, memory, I/O or specialized parts like DSP's or FPGA's you need, without needing to design boards yourself. Reducing time-to-market, and profit from numbers produced for common boards.

Of course as soon as you stack a number of those onto each other, that small form factor advantage goes out the window... :wink:

So if a limited set of I/O is enough for your application, you might be better off picking a specialized small board like one of those from VIA you mentioned. Or a micro-controller board if you can live without x86 compatibility.