MicroATX, a motherboard form factor from Intel, is a natural extension of the traditional ATX form factor. Intel designed it to address new trends in the PC market as well as the advent of new technology. As the name suggests, microATX motherboards are smaller than ATX motherboards, allowing for the production of smaller computers.
Physical Features
A microATX motherboard must be no larger in size than 9.6 inches by 9.6 inches. For comparison, an ATX motherboard may be up to 9.6 inches by 12 inches in size.
Intel claims that this reduction in size also comes with a corresponding reduction in required power supply size. The company notes that this reduction also provides for a lower overall system cost.
Compatibility
The microATX format is specifically designed to be fully backwards-compatible with the traditional ATX format. The boards utilize the same mounting points as the traditional ATX boards, meaning that a microATX board may be used in any standard ATX tower. In addition to the mounting points, microATX boards also share the same I/O panels, the same power connectors, as well as the same chipsets with ATX boards. MicroATX boards are compatible with AMD, Intel, and VIA CPUs (See Reference 3).
Expansion
A microATX board supports no more than four expansion slots. In order to make up for this lack of expandability, manufacturers often include integrated peripherals to bypass the need for additional PCI or PCI-E cards. These peripherals often include integrated sound chips, integrated Ethernet ports, as well as integrated graphics adapters (See Reference 2).
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