Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1898



During the past few weeks, we held live discussions with ASUS and Intel, trying to pose questions that some of you submitted to us. The topics ranged from processors, to chipsets, to power supplies and more. We took the juicy details of our four forums and compiled them into a nice handy guide for those of you who couldn't attend. Enjoy!

You can check out the logs from the:
Nov 14 chat here
Nov 17 chat here
Nov 21 chat here

Introduction

ASUS kicked off the discussion by first answering some of our questions about the marketing acceptance of Intel's push to move to socket LGA-775. Initially when Intel was first introducing the LGA-775 interface, several early images and web posts indicated that there were faulty issues with the new socket. There were also floating reports of several motherboard manufacturers who were also reluctant in supporting the new socket.

ASUS however, indicated that the initial pictures were of another socket. Unfortunately, problems were reported to increase as ASUS said that they noticed an increase in RMA claims with motherboards that were using the new LGA-775 interface. To the socket's defense, ASUS did say that as LGA-775 became more mainstream and more widely accepted, problems were reduced to a minimum.

We asked them if AMD was considering the use of a similar mechanism for securing their processors but ASUS indicated that they had not yet heard whether or not AMD had made any decisions on what interface to use next. It is entirely possible that AMD will develop a similar socket to LGA-775 but be electronically incompatible so as to help motherboard manufacturers develop AMD based motherboards quickly. This was a similar tactic AMD used when Intel had introduced the slot interface.

Intel expanded more on LGA-775 and said that its next-generation Conroe desktop processor will be released for socket LGA-775, along with Cedar Mill and Pressler. Intel also mentioned that the next chipset currently in development will also be supporting LGA-775. In retrospect, socket LGA-775 is turning out to be one of Intel's most successful platforms in terms of acceptance and longevity.

Revolving around sockets, chipsets and processors, we asked ASUS to elaborate more about Intel's upcoming solutions for the market. We asked them about support for Cedar Mill and Pressler and they said:

Only Intel 975/955/945 base board & some 3rd party board can support Cedarmill & Pressler.

However, only Intel's 975 chipset is currently able to support Extreme Edition processors. ASUS indicated to us that Intel had revised some of the pin-outs on Pressler Extreme Edition processors and this caused the incompatibility with 955 and 945 chipsets and was not an issue with motherboard design. While we were in Taiwan a few months back, we were also told that Intel's 865 and 875 chipsets were also capable of supporting dual core processors and ASUS confirmed dual core support for those chipsets in our discussion.

Intel also confirmed in the discussion that its 975X is its current top-end chipset, able to support the latest processors and even next-generation Extreme Edition models. ASUS agreed, saying that the 975X is currently the best performing chipset it uses in developing Intel-based motherboards, especially because it supports ATI's Crossfire graphics configurations. However, Intel did clarify that its 975X chipset will support SLI configurations regardless of graphics card vendor. ASUS raised a question if support for ATI solutions came earlier than NVIDIA was because Intel and ATI had established cross-licensing for SLI technology before NVIDIA but Intel assured that no licensing is required and all that is needed is driver support.

Interestingly enough, NVIDIA just announced that it has entered into an agreement with ULi to for acquisition. The process is currently moving quite steadily and NVIDIA should acquire all of ULi (intellectual property as well as employees) by the end of the first quarter in 2006. During the discussion ASUS continually expressed its support of ULi products and now it seems that they will be using more NVIDIA chipset.

We asked ASUS about its support for upcoming ATI chipsets and ASUS said that they plan to continue to develop motherboards using ATI solutions from RD580 and forward but RD580 is still under evaluation. Some readers asked if there will be support for dual x16 PCIe slots for graphics cards on future motherboards but ASUS said that it is depending on future chipset support from chipset manufacturers. Market movement and acceptance is also a factor to consider. Neither ASUS nor Intel proceeded to comment further on the expansion of PCIe.

Moving forward with future processor supports, ASUS gave indication that support for Intel's Yonah processor will arrive sometime in February 2006 with the 945GM chipset. For those who are not familiar with Intel's 945GM chipset, you may want to take a look at some of our more recent insider articles. 945GM is essentially 945G with support for SODIMM DDR2. A version of 945GM with support for DDR2 dubbed 945GT is also on the way. Delivery dates are still unconfirmed.

Over in the AMD camp, ASUS confirmed with us that they have received and are testing samples of AMD's upcoming M2 socket based processors. ASUS said it has received samples that range from 2.4GHz to 2.6GHz and are based on 940 pins but is not compatible with Opteron processors based on the same pin count. Performance wise, ASUS was unable to comment.



Platforms and Digital Home/Digital Office Technologies

One of our readers asked ASUS and Intel about its support for development of more widespread of HD-Audio and ASUS affirmed that it will continue to support HD-Audio through onboard codecs with no plans for PCIe solutions. However, ASUS also mentioned that they plan to include high-end audio processors directly on motherboards. We are already beginning to see motherboards with Creative's Audigy 2 processor so it will be interesting to see what solutions ASUS and others will be using. ASUS also told us that they no longer plan to use codecs from Sigmatel.

We asked ASUS of the market acceptance of the BTX form factor. ASUS said that while there is a small acceptance of BTX for limited use, it does not believe that BTX will expand beyond 5% of the overall market. ASUS also stated that the BTX form factor was not part of its plans going into the future, at least at this time. However, during a later chat, ASUS did give a hint that it was developing BTX motherboards based on Intel's Broadwater chipset which will debut in 2006.

We moved onto a different topic by talking more about how all of the above solutions will be considered as Intel indicates it's moving more towards being a platform oriented company with a focus on Digital Home and Digital Office solutions. Coincidentally, three years ago Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's CEO also indicated that NVIDIA was transforming into a platform company. Clearly there is a strong direction occurring in the industry to integrate everything together and we don't expect much delay before AMD makes the same transition.

Intel and motherboard manufacturers continue quietly developing the platform called MOD or Mobile on Desktop, which is a specific segment within the digital home called Mini Platforms. Intel expects to be developing solutions flexible enough to be applicable to typical desktop platforms as well as smaller media/mobile platforms. The BTX form factor is part of Intel's grand plan for MOD and ASUS confirmed that they will be making a strong entry to MOD platforms using BTX. We will be seeing a greater focus for MOD platforms in 2006.

ASUS told us that it is also currently developing motherboard solutions that will have integrated 802.11g onboard. With MOD platforms and other smaller applications, having integrated wi-fi networking abilities is becoming a more of a necessity than a check-box feature. ASUS was also confident in telling us that it expects it to be the first manufacturer to introduce integrated wi-fi on motherboards.

With platforms becoming smaller and increasingly modular, we questioned Intel and ASUS about the full scope of PCI Express and its derivatives. In the original specification for PCI Express, there is support for an external version, to which devices could interface with the system using a high-speed PCIe connection. Conceivably devices such as high performance sound solutions could be completely external from the PC in order to shield itself from electrical interference, or large storage devices that require a great amount of bandwidth. Unfortunately Intel declined to comment on external designs of PCIe due to the lack of a qualified PCIe rep in the discussion. With new platforms such as MOD being introduced, a modular system could have many applications for external PCIe -- it would also make adding upgrades to servers less of a hassle since there were definitions for hot-pluggable external PCIe interfaces.

One of the technologies being developed and adopted by many companies, especially for such applications as MOD platforms, is TPM or Trusted Platform Module technology. TPM is a hardware solution that ensures that a piece of software is authorized to run on a system. TPM will be used to enhance security and protect software from piracy. An example of TPM currently in its stages of trial and error is with Apple's transition to the x86 platform. Many know that Apple uses a TPM chip, located on the motherboard, to verify whether or not the system it's being installed or run on is an Apple SDK platform and not simply a generic PC. Intel was unable to expand on details about TPM and its plans involving it.

Stability Concerns

Rising concerns about thermal dynamics inside today's computers, many of the questions that users submitted were focused on how ASUS and the industry in general plan to improve the thermal performance of motherboards. ASUS said that many of its tier 1 motherboards are employing heat pipes now to reduce heat but the design requires several months of R&D. In terms of cost, it appears from ASUS' response that research in the field of heat reduction adds significant development time and cost to the final sale price and availability of a motherboard. ASUS did say however that they continue to look into ways to reduce the cost, while better cooling a motherboard and surrounding components.

With stability being a concern for most users, we asked ASUS about the rising concerns of power supply compatibility with motherboards and ASUS acknowledged that while there is a problem currently, it believes what's needed is needed is strong stability for power lines from the power supply unit and for motherboard manufacturers to design more flexible power supply requirements. ASUS didn't lay blame on any specific company but are aware there are issues.

Final Thoughts

There is a lot of exciting activity in the industry right now from all companies and many of the new technologies will be making their debut in 2006. There's a clear indication of where the industry is headed from its traditional roots and we'll be seeing companies do things that were previously thought belonged in a different market.

Both Intel and ASUS are indicating that collaboration is still going strong among themselves as well as other industry partners. Technologies that define our platforms and their applications are having longer life-lines but without excessive delays.

Intel's next-generation solutions are being developed in full force. Cedar Mill, Pressler and Conroe are all on their way with supporting products from all of Intel's platform partners such as ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ECS, etc. Development is under-way for more compact, user friendly systems (Viiv, MOD, etc.) and there will be significant transitions in both hardware and software.

In late 2006 we will be seeing what Microsoft has in store in terms of Windows Vista which will lead the way in the push for next-generation hardware. NVIDIA and ATI are already shipping solutions which are "Windows Vista Ready" and although we all know that by the time Microsoft actually ships, both NVIDIA and ATI will have their next high-end parts out, a lot of what's going on today will pave the way for solutions and products that are much better for the consumer than those we have today.

CES2006 is also just around the corner and many companies will be showing their latest offerings there. With shows such as CES, we can see the direction towards unifying traditional consumer electronics with computers and momentum will only increase.

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