Computex: Intel 21:9 aspect ratio AiO system with tiny motherboard

The widescreen display has since long conquered the computer monitor and TV markets, but apparently we haven’t gone wide enough. After 16:9 comes 21:9 which is pretty much cinema aspect ratio and now the first computer products using this even wider aspect ratio are starting to trickle through.

At Computex Intel was showing an all-in-one system it had collaborated with LG display, Celestica and a few other companies on which sports a 21:9 aspect ratio 29-inch display with a 2560×1080 resolution. It looked amazing for videos and the trailer for 300 was looping on the machine and it’s hard not to want something like this in the bedroom, as lieu of a second TV, however as a PC, it’s less exciting.

The problem is that the display is so wide that it becomes nearly impossible to take advantage of all that screen real-estate in a sensible manner, as a humans eyes just aren’t set wide enough apart when you sit up close to a display like this.

Some other cool features of the prototype system includes a wireless keyboard that charges wirelessly when placed next to the front of the system, the option to fold the screen flat on its back, although in this case this would be more useful for wall mounting the entire system rather than being able to use interact with it this way, as it’s not a touch screen.

As you can see from the pictures, connectivity options were fairly minimal with only a few USB ports, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port and a couple of audio jacks, but keep in mind that this is a prototype and not something that is likely to go into production as is.

There is one other pretty cool feature of this system though and it’s the Celestica made motherboard, if you can call it that. It’s more of a PC on a module with the CPU, chipset, two memory slots, an mSATA slot and a display interface on a tiny PCB.

Kitguru says: In theory this would allow for very easy transition between platforms for the manufacturer and it’s a feat of engineering in its own right. Clearly this system isn’t targeting power users, but it shows what is possible and potentially it also shows where the consumer PC is heading.

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