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http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews...lld19JRD0xMDM2Quote:
Here at CeBIT 2005, you see innovation galore, but at the ECS stand they have something truly special that stands out as being one of the hottest products of the show. HEXUS brings you the ECS PF88, the first mainboard to support both Intel P4 AND AMD Athlon 64 processors.
http://img.hexus.net/v2/internationa...88_1_small.jpg
As ideas go - its quite a clever one... i'm surprised Asrock havent come up with something similar before with their cross-amd and cross-intel technology boards...
oooh......cross pollenation...good plan :)
I think this is a great idea, although I would like to be able to use an intel AND an amd at the same time...
big concern about fitting heavy cpu blocks on this - The load support is all on the interface socket by the looks of it.
Stick a thermalright 120 on there or something else large and heavy and you may just hear a snap.
Would like to know how they plan to support it for the weight.
Aurhinius - I too thought that upon seeing the pic of it with a HSF mounted.
We've got to remember that is a rev A sample... so it's far from finished. I suspect we'll see it attack to a backplate in the case to help support it further, perhaps with some extra support struts, or metal bars along the PCB edges to prevent bending. Of course, this remains to be seen.
oh my :o amazing.
WOW first post :)
I'm wondering...
the pic shows a Socket 939 expanstion card... but the test wehere done using an Sempron 2200 !! so is there's a s939 version of it or there's another Socket 754 expansion card ???
another thing... is that PCIe connection to the southbridge or some sort of another SiS NB-SB bus thats it used in both Intel NB and AMD NB ( HT-PCIe Tunnel ) ???
It is a 939 CPU - I believe it is an AMD ES CPU.....
We will check out about the PCI-E link
Looks kewl that. David u still at cebit? :)
Yes at the press centre right now :)
Got too many meetings!
If you have a chance take a look at the real machines stand ;)
How about come up with a AMD-AMD, Intel-Intel add on to make it a dual CPU system so that you don't need to throw away the old one if you wanna upgrade?Quote:
Originally Posted by mort-uk
I suspect the PCIe style connector is just for wiring and isn't actually a PCIe implementation. It might be though... will have to see what David comes back with.Quote:
Originally Posted by Athlon™ eX
I wouldnt be surprised if it was kez as its probably got enough bandwidth to copy with the cpu stuff? :)
Fair point! However I look at that mobo and see it as two mobos in one - just the right hand side of the board can be directed to the daughterboard, effectively. Let's not forget that the NB for the Intel side is disabled when the AMD board is in... and if that connector WAS PCIe, you'd be using a PCIe interface to connect to other PCIe interfaces... which doesn't seem seem to add up.
Actually it does, remember before the designers came up with dedicated north bridge to southbridge links a few years ago, they were linked via the PCI bus, and thats why it slowly became the case the link wasnt fast enough as it was saturating the lowly PCI data capability.
I also draw you to this quote regarding ATI's Radeon Xpress 200 chipset:
"It is interesting that communication between North and South bridges (RX480/SB400) is handled by 2 additional lanes of PCI Express. "
Ace!
Could it not be a hypertransport™ bus as 1.) AMD is the major cpu manufacturer behind it 2.) this is what it is intended for by design
would that not make even more sense? I mean who would go with a bus designed by your biggest competitor when you are involved in one that is as good if not better :shocked2:
seems like they took ASRock™'s idea a bit farther
:Oops:
how did they fit a sempron 2200+ on that socket???
hte discussion about the bus is more than how on the hell this sempron plugged on that Socket 939...
David, I think the socket thing is related to NDA :D
any way (amanz) the one that used on the ASRock solution is HTT for sure. as what u can see from the design it self there's no NB chipset in the dougther board and it just include the memory slots and the power circute only.. while the ECS solution uses a northbridge...
thats an ordinary solution for both companies coz :
1- the ECS solution is designed for diffrent platforms so the NB used on each platform doesn't support the other platforms CPU, that why they need to put the NB on the daughterboard it self...
2- as what you can see from the design.. both the P4 platform and the K8 platform uses an SiS chipset... and we all know that SiS use it's own NB/SB bus.. I think is the same between the both platform and the SB is fully compatible also with the both platforms... so the slot used on the ECS solution is SiS's own NB-SB bus...
3- as with ASRock.. it's just uses to type of buses... the first one is the HTT bus wich used in the 754->939 upgrade solution... and the other one is the ordinary VIA's own NB-SB bus wich used in the Socket A-754 upgrade... as what you can see the 754->939 does not use a NB but the 462-754 solution use it as the K7 and K8 platforms are diffrent and thier chipsets are diff. also... you can also see that the K8 upgrade solution ( 754-939 ) doghterboard is supported on two mobos each using diff chipset ( ULi vs VIA ) and we know that ULi uses the HTT bus as NB-SB bus ( unless they change there mind ) and the VIA one uses it's own N-SB bus... so they are not compatible... but the point is that All K8 CPU's use the same HTT link to connect to th NB... so the daughterboard in this solution ( K8-K8 or 754-939 ) uses the HTT link just to connect both CPU's to the chipset... the diff. is just when you plug the doaghterborad the link between the original socket and the NB will be disconnected and the NB will go to the doaghterboard...
Upgrading from 754 to 939 for a small price ? Now theres a good ideaQuote:
Originally Posted by amanz`
what the hells the point?
your either goign to have one or the other, and having the capability to have either in one board seems like a kludge at best.
There is a huge point to this board. From an enthusiast point of view who can never decide what they prefer AMD or INTEL you can swap and change within reason to your hearts content.
There is countless people out there for one reason or another they wish to change mid way during the life time of a socket. Whoever has the fastest chip wins for some. Saves a lot of money not having to switch mobo's. At the very least it gives some people the chance to sample the other side who have been curious.
So yeah I think there is a big point to this board.
Hi guys,
Hopefully I can answer some of your questions, but please keep in mind I myself have yet to see this board and am just going on a brief conversation I have had with our headquarters in Taiwan.
The reason behind having the Intel board convert to AMD is that with AMDs Cool N’Quiet technology and low(er) heat output the AMD heatsinks do not need to weigh very much to keep the processor cool and therefore can be easily supported by the card. There maybe versions of this system that allow for mounting bracket which will support heavier heatsinks but at present I only have information about the prototype shown above.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurhinius
The slot used by the CPU Card, named the ‘Elite bus’, is a PCI-E 16x bus which takes all the data from the South Bridge bus, CPU and Memory form the Card and the second PCI-E 16x slot. The South bridge bus is routed from the elite bus by a switch which determines which North bridge to use depending on whether the card is installed or not. Unfortunately the information available is fairly sparse due to the system being patent pending. But hope this clears things up a little.Quote:
Originally Posted by Athlon™ eX
Cheers
Jon
This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. What would be even more amazing would be if you could use 2 processors at the same time.
How about a dual core intel and a dual core amd for quad core system.
This isn't the first time this has been done.
Even cooler still would be support for the upcoming socket m2 amd processors by the use of a future add in card.
I'd like to second Iggy's post: what is the point of this? I can't see it really being marketed to people who can't decide which processor they prefer. Surely that market is tiny, or the proportion of it with money to burn on two processors is.
This appeals because it give people the option of a very very cheap upgrade path. hey you could buy a cheap dual core pentium and then later on with the addition of a cheap riser card you can upgrade your processor to whatever you want (i.e. an amd dual core which will be very expensive when first released) at very minimal cost.
I think it's more of a novelty item than anything.
Wish they'd do something like this for socket 478 to 775 rather than AMD / intel
I got the board and expansion card yesterday, and while I've not had the time to work on it properly, I've had a think about who'd buy it and I'm really struggling to figure it out.
The mechanics of the implementation are pretty puzzling, too (heatsink weight and mounting for the AMD socket).
Certainly one of the hardest products to properly consider that I've seen in quite some time. I'll have fun with it though, I'm sure. I'll get round to looking at it fairly soon.
Possibly I'm being dumb, but wouldn't the cooler on the Athlon overhang the PCI-E slot somewhat?
And, like others have said, I'd worry about moving a PC with that in around due to stress on the card carrying the Athlon fan!
There's a PCI Express 16X slot on the other side of the board, that's just for the SIMA card.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hiroaki
And you're right, a heavy heatsink on the S939 chip is an absolute no-no. I've just passed the review over to Tarinder, so look out for that soon. He's taking it off my hands so I can fit in a graphics card review that's fairly important :iloveyou:
*grins* It's a hard life.