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First Looks At PCI-X, BTX, New Chipsets, And More
rsrsharma writes "AnandTech has some early bird Computex 2004 coverage up its sleeve. Included are the first pictures and partial specs of nVidia's NV45, the PCI-X (PCI-eXpress) successor to the 6800 Ultra, and ATI's PCI-X cards. Also shown are Intel's new 9xx line of chipsets and LGA-755 motherboards, BTX form factor (the successor to ATX) motherboards, and much more. I'm definitely looking forward to this stuff." Update: 06/01 01:08 GMT by T : Several readers have pointed out that PCI-X properly stands for "PCI Extended" rather than "PCI Express."
I too got yanked in to the PCI-X =/= PCI-Express dupe. I was looking forward to backwards compatability so that companies could just start spewing forth their wares and normal PCI board users could still use them. Plus current cards would still work. Someone in someone's marketing dept needs to be shot. BTW, 'splain those little slots? They remind me of the failed CNR idea. Better yet, for a transition (though more expensive) they could do what they did with PCI/ISA, double the slots PCI next to PCI-Exp.
While I think your notion headed to a Mac is "ok", I don't think the idea of adding expansion cards is necessarily going to go away. At least the concept of putting them inside the machine.
I think there are a couple of trends that are beginning to develop, both of which I think are exciting.
The first is a move to get USB peripherals up to a speed where they can be really useful. Don't get me wrong, but there has been piles of USB 1.x widgets that were really handy. I just think as USB matures and becomes a higher speed interconnect, we'll see a much broader use.
The second is that we're also moving to systems that sport a much smaller footprint than most machines in the past. I remember there there was a time in the 286-386 era this was popular, too (anyone remember the brick?), but it never seemed to take off. Personally, I think the small footprint PCs have the possibility of creating a HTPC revolution just by their small size, and the fact that they don't look like a pc.
This pic shows the inside of the NV45. Look at the paths on the circuit. Instead of going straight from one chip to another they form different loops, turn around etc. Are they trying to make them longer, or equal distance or introduce picosecond delays or what?
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
They were only showing a picoBTX board. Go read the Anandtech BTX article to see the different BTX sizes proposed. The picoBTX form factor looks about like the small form factor motherboards in Shuttle XPCs. The standard BTX board has the same number of slots as you are used to in normal systems.
Am I missing something? They've replaced the standard ATA-IDE connectors with Serial ATA connectors, gotten rid of all of the PCI slots, but for some reason kept the FDD drive connector and the parallel port? Most newer motherboards support booting from USB flash device. As for the parallel port, there aren't many devices being sold today that use them and there are parallel-USB adapters available for those who want to use their old printers.
I know this is a pico-ATX board so it's understandable that the PCI slots were removed for space-saving purposes, but if a pico-ATX enclosure can't fit an extra PCI card, why leave room for a floppy drive?
the point behind the BTX formfactor was that it's supposed to help enhance airflow in the computer itself. ATX is nice and all, but most chassis these days are crap. (I'd say they blow, but that's a pun I'd like to avoid.) Sure, they worked back when P2s and K6s were the rage, but they're not anymore, and modern CPUs have far more dramatic cooling scenarios to deal with.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
PCI-X, Besides being 64-bit, the specs for PCI-X say it can go up to 533Mhz, although current boards only go up to 133Mhz. So PCI-X and PCI-Express are really about the same speed. PCI-X is also backwards compatable with regular PCI cards(PCI-Express isn't). PCI-Express should be cheaper to implement(fewer pins), which seems to be it's big selling factor over PCI-X.
Gigabit ethernet needs a faster bus than the current PCI. PCI bandwidth is just a hair over 1 Gb/sec.
FreeSpeech.org
I think standard full-size BTX might allow all the same number of expansion slots.
What's sad is that I think most of the things in the BTX format could have done without making people throw out their ATX cases to upgrade. The BTX bolt pattern is actually a screw-for-screw mirroring of ATX, just with a few more options for smaller cases. The problem there is that there are already tiny ATX case standards avalable, as well as NLX.
Better air management? What is to prevent BTX's intake and exhaust ducting and CPU relocation ideas from being used in ATX? Some people even use ducting in ATX, witness some of Dell's cases, and I have a Compaq workstation that also ducts air around the CPU heat sinks, so quieter fans can direct air to the parts that need it most. Actually, the Compaq I have is WTX or extended ATX, not sure which or whether both are the same, just better for dual CPU systems.
Note that the Shuttle XPC requires a proprietary heat-pipe cooling system and a special small, quiet power supply to keep the system cool and quiet. On the other hand, improved cooling and noise reduction are built into the BTX spec. Theoretically, any computer maker will be able to easily build a tiny, cool, and quiet SFF picoBTX machine based on Intel's 6.9-liter reference system.
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Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...