Stealth PCs all the rage

Chin, a technology writer in Vancouver, British Columbia, had just gotten a tiny motherboard from a Taiwanese chipmaker, and he had been growling that he could not find a similarly small case so that he could build the computer he had promised to a friend's daughter. Then his eyes fell on a blue plastic Ikea breadbox--the "perfect marriage of cheap modern art, chintziness and utility," he said.

The fully functional breadbox PC that he then built and described on the Web was among the first to spring from an idea that has become a raging obsession in a far-flung community of electronic do-it-yourselfers: the stealth computer. Across Europe, the United States and the Far East, hobbyists have been stuffing the works of personal computers into toasters, humidors, biscuit tins, lampshades, even a plush E.T. doll.

"It's tiny, it's wonderful, it's all integrated, it's extremely low power, and it fits almost anywhere," said Chin of the Mini-ITX motherboard at the heart of his breadbox computer, which measures about 10 inches by 14 inches by 6 inches. The little computer that could. But the Mini-ITX is not just an object of obsession. The stealth builders are the extreme flank of an assault against the status quo by the originator of the Mini-ITX boards, Via Technologies. Via, which is based in Taiwan, wants to make the little computer the next big thing

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