Wikipedia
BTX may refer to:
- Bildschirmtext, an interactive videotex system launched in 1983 in West Germany
- BTX (chemistry), a mixture of benzene, toluene and xylenes
- B't X, a science fiction manga and anime television series created by Masami Kurumada
- BTX (boot loader), the standard boot loader for FreeBSD
- BTX (form factor), a form factor for PC motherboards
- Backstreets Magazine, also known as BTX, a popular Internet forum for fans of musician Bruce Springsteen
- Batrachotoxin, a neurotoxic poison that blocks sodium channels
- Botulinum toxin, the most potent neurotoxin known
BTX (for Balanced Technology eXtended) is a form factor for motherboards, originally intended to be the replacement for the aging ATX motherboard form factor in late 2004 and early 2005.
It was designed to alleviate some of the issues that arose from using newer technologies (which often demand more power and create more heat) on motherboards compliant with the circa 1996 ATX specification. The ATX and BTX standards were both proposed by Intel. However, future development of BTX retail products by Intel was canceled in September 2006 following Intel's decision to refocus on low-power CPUs after suffering scaling and thermal issues with the Pentium 4.
The first company to implement BTX was Gateway Inc, followed by Dell and MPC. Apple's Mac Pro utilizes some elements of the BTX design system as well but is not BTX-compliant, rather using a proprietary form factor.
In the petroleum refining and petrochemical industries, the initialism BTX refers to mixtures of benzene, toluene, and the three xylene isomers, all of which are aromatic hydrocarbons. The xylene isomers are distinguished by the designations ortho – (or o –), meta – (or m –), and para – (or p –) as indicated in the adjacent diagram. If ethylbenzene is included, the mixture is sometimes referred to as BTEX.
The BTX aromatics are very important petrochemical materials. Global consumption of benzene, estimated at more than 40,000,000 tons in 2010, showed an unprecedented growth of more than 3,000,000 tons from the level seen in 2009. Likewise, the para-xylene consumption showed unprecedented growth in 2010, growing by 2,800,000 tons, a full ten percent growth from 2009.
Toluene is also a valuable petrochemical for use as a solvent and intermediate in chemical manufacturing processes and as a high octane gasoline component.