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VXL Itona: TC35xx and TC36xx Hardware 


 

 

 

The back panel of an Itona fitted with a PV3B-VXL motherboard
VXL Itona back of PV3B motherboard

I believe this motherboard to be fitted to the TC35xx and TC36xx series. What I have is a TC3541 and a TC3641.

Specifications

The basic specs are:

ModelTC3641TC3541
Processor
   Type
   Speed		 Via C3 Nehamiah
1GHz		Via C3 Nehamiah
800MHz
Memory
   Flash
   RAM		 32MB
64MB (max 1GB)
Video
   Chip
   Max resolution		 Via VT8601
1600 x 1200 16-bit colour
Ports
   Network
   USB
   Serial
   Parallel
   PS/2		 10/100
4 x USB1.1
1
1
Kybd & mouse
Power
   Off
   Idle
   On Load		 3W(*)
~16W(*)
38W(*)		2W
16W
31W
Dimensions
W x H x D26.5cm x 5cm x 24.5cm
Manufactured
 May 2005February 2005

[*] My TC3641 has a dead PSU. Readings were taken using an external PC Supply.

Both units run Windows CE.

Processor

Linux's cpuinfo tells us:

TC35xxTC36xx
CPU family:  6      6
model:  7      9
model name:VIA Samuel 2  VIA Nehemiah
Stepping:  3      8

Motherboard Itona TC35xx and TC36xx series motherboard

The motherboard has P3VB-VXL printed on it. It is fitted with either an 800MHz or 1GHz VIA C3 processor. It uses a VIA VT8601T northbridge with integrated graphics and a VIA VT82C686B southbridge. It has 2 dimm slots for low density (32x8) PC-133 memory. Each slot can handle up to 512 MB. In additional to the usual ports the rear panel also has a game port. (Some information on this board used be found at http://jim.geek-republic.com/ [Link found to be dead in 2016 and removed]).

Click on the photo for a larger version.

Expansion

As it is based on a mini-ITX board both the Flash memory and the RAM in the Itona are easily replaceable.

Flash: The flash memory is a Disk-On-Module plugged into the red 40-pin IDE connector. Unlike a lot of similar thin clients where the DOM is powered through pin 20 on the interface this is not the case here. The pin is missing and the DOM is powered externally via a separate connection to the power supply. There is a second 40-pin IDE socket on the board.

RAM: The board is fitted with two 168-pin PC100/PC133 sockets. While checking things out I added a 128Mb PC133 memory module to the second socket to provide 192Mb in total. A 256MB PC133 DIMM also worked ok, but I had problems with a double-sided 512MB DIMM. http://jim.geek-republic.com/?p=64 reported that "...It has 2 dimm slots for low density (32x8) PC-133 memory. Each slot can handle up to 512 MB".

PCI: The board does have a PCI slot on it, but the case is not engineered in a way that would let you make use of it.

 

Any comments? email me.    Last update October 2012