Computex 2006

6/11 - Motherboards based on Intel, NVIDIA, & ATI core logic were on display at Computex this past week. Other trends were visible as well, such as the power needs of next generation graphics processors.

It would seem that GPUs have gone the way of CPUs: that in their quest for greater and greater performance, power requirements are going way up, too. Does the following scenario sound familiar: "in their intense competition with one another, [chip manufacturers] have let power consumption get out of hand"?

When DirectX 10 hardware hits the shelves, expect to see power supplies at 1000W and higher. Either that, or additional power supply modules that can fit in a spare drive bay. And you thought CPUs were bad.

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) is coming along, as part of graphics cards. And along with it, HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection), for protecting the digital output. Audio is part of the HDMI specification, so expect to see connectors and cables for running sound from your sound card or sound output through your graphics adapter.

Intel released a 965 chipset at Computex. Intel used to release its chipsets in high-performance / mainstream pairs--the 875 / 865, 925 / 915, 955 / 945, for example. It has taken a while, however, to release a companion chipset to the 975X. The main thing about the new chipset is that it is designed for Core 2.

The hype surrounding Core 2 has been so great, however, that motherboard manufacturers have not waited for a 965 chipset and have steamed full speed ahead, making motherboards for Core 2 using 975 and even 945 chipsets. However, because of voltage regulator module requirements, "no current LGA-775 motherboards will work with the new processor".

The new chipset will not work with ATI's CrossFire dual graphics technology. No Intel chipset currently offers support for NVIDIA's competing SLI either. However, Intel's 975X supports ATI's CrossFire. This makes the 975X more interesting. On the one hand, it does state of the art dual graphics. On the other hand, it uses the older ICH7R (I/O Controller Hub), as opposed to the newer ICH8 or ICH8R, which a 965 chipset uses. A 965, on the other hand, may support a more "advanced" hard drive subsystem, but not dual graphics. "CrossFire is currently not supported on 965 (Broadwater) platforms".

Motherboard manufacturers are ramping up for Core 2 and possibly a glut of other Intel chips following aggressive price cuts. Intel is the largest chip manufacturer in the world, so it should come as no surprise that more motherboards ship for Intel CPUs than the competition. Even so, motherboard makers expect the proportions "to shift even further in Intel's favor by the end of this year".

Given the preparations being made for Core 2, concern over the availability of Core 2 CPUs is understandable. If Core 2 is sparse, motherboard companies may have alot of unsold inventory on their hands. OEMs are expected to snap up the lion's share of Core 2 processors.

AMD recently launched its Socket AM2 CPUs. Reception of the new chips has been less than enthusiastic, because, while the chip conserves lots of power, it also gains little in performance. Performance is still what counts the most to most people. Limited availability of Intel's new CPUs is good news to AMD. "It's availability that AMD is counting on to dull the impact of Conroe's launch".

Intel debuted its 915 / 925 chipset pair way back in 2004, and DDR2 is still not the predominant type of memory today! It looks like it's going to take a popular DDR2 chip and chipset to make DDR2 predominate. The biggest reason why DDR2 has been so slow to catch on has been the enormous popularity of AMD's chips, which used the older DDR memory. If AMD's Socket AM2 becomes more popular, it could be the predominant driver to DDR2.

Both AMD's Socket AM2 and Intel's P965 Express Chipset offer support for up to DDR2-800. The P965 Express is "the first Intel chipset to officially support DDR2-800".

Nevertheless, DDR2-667 appears to be the sweet spot for now. DDR2-800 is still too expensive.

The largest memory maker in the world, Samsung, is already thinking DDR3.

Intel is thinking no parallel ATA (PATA). Its ICH8 and ICH8R strictly offer SATA ports and don't "support any PATA ports natively".

Intel's decision to eliminate support for PATA from its core logic primarily affects companies that manufacture optical drives, since there are not alot of SATA DVD drives on the market today. BenQ, for example, expects "less than 5% of its drive shipments by the end of this year to be SATA".

That being said, motherboard makers can always use a third party chip to add PATA support, which is what they're doing. The industry is not quite ready to do away with PATA just yet.

BenQ's optical Blu-ray drives play both Blu-ray discs and traditional DVDs (but not HD DVDs). At Computex, BenQ exhibited "the first two Blu-ray drives that will debut later this year".

AMD is moving to a LGA (Land Grid Array) socket in the server space. Intel has been on a LGA socket on the desktop since the debut of the 915 / 925 chipset for, oh, about two years now.

ASUS' Socket-F motherboard for servers features a CPU by AMD, NVIDIA core logic, and PCI-X from Intel! "Who would've expected an AMD server board with a NVIDIA chipset and an Intel PCI-X controller".

Some of the motherboards at Computex had eSATA connectors. There's PCIe and eSATA, and in each case the "e" stands for something else. The ASUS P5B Deluxe has an eSATA port that can be used with an external hard drive. You "get the same performance as an internal SATA hard drive".

Another cool thing about ASUS' P5B Deluxe are riser cards for front panel, USB, FireWire connectors. Only someone who has struggled for hours to get these tiny connectors right on a motherboard can truly appreciate this. You connect the tiny little connectors to a riser card, "then easily seat the riser on the header pins on the motherboard".

What is the difference between a high-end PC and a workstation? PCI-X, that's what.

Dual-core technology--in some way, shape, or form--puts two processing cores in a single CPU, effectively doubling a processor's capacity for work. Consequently we shall soon see dual-core, single processor workstations, where dual processor, single core workstations had been. You will soon be able to "achieve a level of processing power never before thought possible without going to a much more expensive workstation".

So what distinguishes a desktop from a workstation, now that the CPUs are equal? 1S in this context stands for single socket. The main difference between a desktop and workstation motherboard is now PCI-X, "otherwise you've basically got 1S desktop motherboards".

Another observation made at the recent Computex was "the popularity of passively cooled motherboards has gone up tremendously".

MSI, for instance, "insists that you can adequately cool Intel's chipsets without resorting to more expensive heatpipes".

And ECS' passively cooled P965 motherboard "proves that you can now get passive cooling at all price points of motherboards".