Standardization has a long history, and not only in the IT industry, either. It’s not a strategy that only came into use in the early 20th century with the advent of the industrial age. Instead, attempts to unify measures and to create standards date back as far as the 17th century. At the time, units of measurement varied as widely as the length of the limbs of the various noble rulers on which they were based. It should go without saying that this approach led to a more than a few misunderstandings.

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For the computer industry, it is absolutely essential for the manufacturers to agree on norms and standards. However, even the existence of said standards does not guarantee that devices made by different manufacturers will be compatible with one another. A good example is WiFi technology. Even today there are still problems, such as the access point of company A not working with the WiFi card made by company B. The same goes for Bluetooth headsets and mobile phones.

Unlike the comparatively young mass-market technologies such as Bluetooth and WiFi, the components found in a standard PC today all comply with old and mature standards. The majority of PCs consists of core components based on the ATX standard (Advanced Technology Extended). This standard was created in 1996 and is still being refined today, adapting it to new technologies and innovations. But when are the limits of this refinement reached? When does the point come when a new form factor makes more sense?

Intel already tried to go this route once with its BTX (Balanced Technology Extended) – and failed, as the number of BTX systems is still negligible today. ATX cases that can be converted to BTX are an option, although no users have yet had to make use of such features. One thing that is clear though is that the standard PC could easily shrink in size do to the continuing integration of functions, components, and interfaces. Could the DTX form factor created by AMD be the next evolutionary step, despite the existence of microATX and mini-ITX? In this article, Tom’s Hardware looks back on the development form factors have taken over the years and takes a closer look at AMD’s DTX concept.