AMD and Intel CPUs Supported On Same Motherboard

Kez writes "We haven't seen AMD and Intel CPUs since Socket 7, but ECS have created a motherboard sporting both Intel LGA775 and AMD 939 sockets. An Intel chip will sit in the board itself, whereas an AMD chip can be used through a daughterboard. HEXUS.net has the scoop from CeBIT." While this is pretty slick, I do wonder who is actually gonna buy this board in place of their usual favorite, since it's not like people are swapping their processors around every chance they get, unless they don't actually use the computer they've built.

Comments

Er... that's not one motherboard.

[MetaPhyzx]

That's a decieving blurb. I was pretty excited at first. Bad slashdot =)

That's two motherboards, not a board and a processor daughtercard. Reminds me of Apple with the "DOS Compatibility Card". If pretty much EVERYTHING I need for AMD64 is on the "daughtercard" it's a motherboard in itself. Not to mention that the article doesn't say whether or not that card is a buy-in add-on, which it probably is.

So, you'll shell out X for the Intel board, and X for the AMD sub/conversion/daughter-board.

I can see how it's cool technology, but who's gonna adapt this? And how hard would it have been to intergrate and TRULY have one board?

Re:What's the point?

[n0dalus]

The point is, when you upgrade your computer and if you decide to change from AMD<->Intel, you can save money by not needing to buy a new motherboard.
If all the new motherbaords start coming out with this as standard in a few years, then computer upgrades will be less restritive for the same cost.

Re:Who cares?

[WillerZ]

By the way: Athlon-64 has 16 64-bit GPRs, not 4.

There are a lot of alternatives out there, and your inability to find/use them is not a problem which AMD and Intel are overly concerned with. For instance, here are a few of your options:

64-bit RISC:
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/pseries/
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/
http://www.pegasosppc.com/tech_specs.php
http://www.apple.com/powermac/
http://www.sun.com/servers/index.html
http://www.hp.com/products1/servers/HP9000_family_ overview.html
http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/index.html

64-bit CISC:
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/
http://www.hp.com/products1/servers/integrity/inde x.html

Now why would Intel/AMD want to make it any easier than it already is for you to switch?

Phil

Re:Eh.. ECS?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahum, ECS factories is where ASUS boards are made... more than half of all the boards in the world come from ECS's facilities. Can't be that bad...