A prototype of an industrial x-ray source based on low-inductance vacuum spark discharge was designed and tested at the P.N. Lebedev Institute of Physics in cooperation with the Institute of Precise Machinery (Zelenograd, Moscow region). The micropinch (hot-spot) formation effect in the discharge (maximum current of 120 kA, current rise time of 0.6 mus) was used to achieve the high-density (similar to 10(22) cm(-3)), high-temperature (similar to1 keV) metallic plasma in a local (40X200 mum) area. This plasma emits a short burst (similar to3-10 ns) of x-ray line radiation corresponding to the transitions of L-shell electrons in the ionized atoms, with an efficiency approximate to1% with respect to the stored bank energy (500 J). The repetition rate of the source can be set from 1 to 10 Hz. Applicability of the source to x-ray lithography is studied, and effective size of emitting area (deviation of micropinch position from shot to shot) together with x-ray yield jitter are discussed. The engineering problems of power supply and vacuum pumping, as well as x-ray source reproducibility, optimal operation mode, and operation life are also considered.