Meet Liva, the 'world's smallest' Windows kit PC
At under 200g and only 118mm long, the Liva mini-desktop from Taiwanese manufacturer ECS is a seriously tiny Windows-based kit PC.
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- If you're a fan of small, cute computers, the Liva Kit PC from Taiwanese company ECS will float your boat.
At just 190g (under 7oz) and measuring 118 by 70 by 56mm (4.6 by 2.8 by 2.2 inches) the Liva can be held in the palm of your hand. In fact ECS is -- very carefully and precisely -- calling it the "world's smallest Windows-based Mini PC kit" here at Computex.
It's a kit because, as the phrase goes, there's some assembly required. But according to ECS, it's just six steps from taking it out of the box to the Liva being up and running -- it reckons it's a 40-second process.
Inside there's an Intel Bay Trail-M system-on-a-chip, 2GB of DDR3L RAM and 32GB of storage via eMMC. Port-wise there's Gigabit LAN, USB 3.0 and 2.0, along with HDMI and VGA out. Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11n Wi-Fi round out the rest of the connectivity. It's worth noting that the RAM and storage are soldered in, so it's not technically upgradable in that department.
The two display ports are actually capable of operating independently -- you can connect two separate monitors if that takes your fancy.
Finally, thanks to the Silvermont low-power archicture of the processor and the low-voltage DRAM you can run the whole thing from a battery pack -- the ECS say it only uses "as much power as a light bulb".
At the moment, the Liva only has support for Windows 8.1, but Ubuntu and Windows 7 are apparently on the way, but you have to provide your own operating system.
According to ECS representatives on the stand at Computex, the company sees the Liva as being popular as a low-cost first PC in emerging markets, as well as the PC enthusiast market and as a home theatre PC.
Price is said to be "sub-$200" (£120, AU$215). ECS hasn't said exactly where or when it'll go on sale, and the company website doesn't currently have a purchase option.
On the Liva stand, ECS had a number of example case mods taking advantage of the small size of the PC. Without a doubt, the BBQ was the best...
...but I'd rank the piano a close second.
