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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.
Hexus seems very excited about this, and I guess if I were a hardware reviewer that was benchmarking chips it would be pretty handy to have an apples-to-apples comparison by using the same motherboard between AMD and Intel chips. Beyond that, I don't see many end users implementing this.
I'm a big tall mofo.
I do wonder who is actually gonna buy this board in place of their usual favorite
I suspect this isn't aimed at DIY types. Instead, it lets manufacturers and stores offer a range of configurations in both AMD and Intel without having to create two separate PC lines and without having to increase their inventory.
I don't know about the rest, but my experiences with ECS boards (K7S5A mainly, a hidden gem) have been very positive. Nice prices aswell; if they price this one right it could sell like hotcakes among OEM sellers.
For the rest (end users who build their own systems), it's a fix to a problem that doesn't really exists.
Great, so two irrelevant branches of an obsolete architecture are once again pin-compatible. But what about better architectures? What I would like to see is an architecture-independent motherboard so I wouldn't have to lock myself in the world of endless register spilling (do they have four general purpose registers already?) and 16-bit bootstrap process from the stone age every time I buy a half-decent motherboard. What I would like to see is a good implementation of MMIX with 256 general-purpose 64-bit registers that each can hold either fixed-point or floating-point numbers, i.e. a real 64-bit platform, not a fake one like those from Intel and AMD. That is something I will pay some extra $$$ for. (Do you hear me, Intel? Do you hear me, AMD? I said extra $$$!)
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
OEMs have plenty of reason to like this board. Now you can offer both AMD and Intel systems and don't have to bother about buying separate motherboards in bulk for both - with separate support.
I think they've made one crucial mistake in their implementation.
Look at the pictures in the article and you'll notice something annoying about the position of the AMD daughterboard slot.
It blocks the top PCI slot, turning it into useless space when there is an AMD CPU mounted on the board.
I wonder why they didn't make the AMD daughterboard slot the uppermost slot on the board?
His name is Robert Paulsen...
Really? The AMD CPU sits out on a large seperate daughter-board. With a selection of daughter boards, you could probably plug a Z80 into this thing -- but only the Intel chip is going to be "native".
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
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.
The problem is that by the time you'd want to upgrade your processor and want to have the choice between AMD and Intel, both will have changed their socket designs and u'd need a new mobo anyway.
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It would be a waste of engineering time and money. The effort needed to make the thing work would not be worth it, IF they could get it to work reliably and fast enoguh.
If i buy Intel, i get the daughter card in addition? Well personally I can only see the advantage of easy upgrades, but a less savvy buyer who buys intel will wonder: What is this thing, and why did i pay for it?
I fail to see the allure.
As an OEM, I would want to have seperate models for my AMD offerings versus my intel ones for many reasons.
1. AMD chips are 64 bit.
2. Customers who prefer one manufacturer over another do not get confused.
3. Don't accidentally ship the wrong chip. I mean if someone was looking for a 64 bit chip and was accidentally shipped the Intel one, that could get problematic.
The OEM will want to make obvious destinctions between AMD and Intel offering just so that they ship the right processor to the right customers. Once you have to make that point, the idea that an OEM would want to streamline thier system to the point where you could use the same motherboard would seem pointless.
I miss the Karma Whores.
Great idea! We can dedicate chips to graphics coprocessing, sound tasks, network relating things, input/output. I hope they build this soon!
It's a very interesting design which seems to work well, but the main problem is, it's made by ECS. Unless they try to prove they are a reputable manufacturer or license the technology (do they need to do that?) to another company that's more reputable (such as ASUS) and have them manufacture them. Everytime I hear about ECS it's "God damnit, my ECS motherboard failed again!" or "Not again!! The damn capacitors on my ECS board exploded again!"
sounds like a good deal for those who do benchmarks. wanna benchmark processors? do like we did with the Socket 7 days.. just take identical machines, and swap processors.
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/