AMD: Flexible Around ISA

 

The slide above gives an example of the new agile/flexible AMD as it applies to the datacenter. Again, we're not seeing ARM, but we are seeing that AMD is willing to be flexible around ISA. In other words, AMD won't be married to x86 if the customer doesn't want it. If I had to guess, it sounds like AMD is talking about offering ARM based SoCs in the datacenter if a customer should want one. 

HSA will also play a role here. It seems like AMD views its flexibility around IP integration in combination with its GPU architecture as its main advantages in the datacenter. Should GPU compute prove to be widely useful in enterprise applications remains to be seen. Clearly highly parallel workloads lend themselves very well to GPUs.

 

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Computex: ECS: Z68 won't be around for much longer

We spoke to a representative from ECS on the trade show floor at Computex today who revealed that it sees no real future in Intel's latest chipset, the Z68.

It did, of course, have its own Z68 board, the ECS Z68H2-M, on display on its stand. However, despite this, ECS said that it was not planning on building many of the boards as it was expecting them to only have a very limited shelf-life.

So what does ECS think is the next big thing from Intel then?

Well, it's putting all its Intel eggs in the forthcoming X79 platform, the spiritual successor to the still dominant X58 chipset.

This quad-channel memory toting varmint is set to be the perfect home for the new Intel Sandy Bridge-E CPUs that are inbound around the end of the year. These chips will need a new socket, the LGA 2,011 shown here.

It's not just a clever name; that is a bigger socket with a whopping 2,011 pins in it.

We've seen a few samples, mostly pre-production ones, of Intel's next motherboard chipset on the stands of the major motherboard manufacturers (like Asus' C1X79-EVO shown here in all its pin-heavy glory), but none are being so bold as ECS to state the Z68 is all but dead in the water.

Related Stories

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• Exclusive: Gigabyte cuts through confusion on P67 mobo
• Buying Guide: Motherboard upgrade: the complete guide
• Computex: AMD launches 9-series motherboards, confirms Bulldozer timings

ECS: Z68 won't be around for much longer

We spoke to a representative from ECS on the trade show floor at Computex today who revealed that it sees no real future in Intel's latest chipset, the Z68.

It did, of course, have its own Z68 board, the ECS Z68H2-M, on display on its stand. However, despite this, ECS said that it was not planning on building many of the boards as it was expecting them to only have a very limited shelf-life.

So what does ECS think is the next big thing from Intel then?

Well, it's putting all its Intel eggs in the forthcoming X79 platform, the spiritual successor to the still dominant X58 chipset.

This quad-channel memory toting varmint is set to be the perfect home for the new Intel Sandy Bridge-E CPUs that are inbound around the end of the year. These chips will need a new socket, the LGA 2,011 shown here.

It's not just a clever name; that is a bigger socket with a whopping 2,011 pins in it.

We've seen a few samples, mostly pre-production ones, of Intel's next motherboard chipset on the stands of the major motherboard manufacturers (like Asus' C1X79-EVO shown here in all its pin-heavy glory), but none are being so bold as ECS to state the Z68 is all but dead in the water.

Related Stories

• Buying Guide: Best Sandy Bridge motherboard: 8 tested
• Exclusive: Gigabyte cuts through confusion on P67 mobo
• Buying Guide: Motherboard upgrade: the complete guide
• AMD launches 9-series motherboards, confirms Bulldozer timings

NEC PA301w: The Baddest 30-inch Display Around

Today NEC refreshed its 30-inch display offering with its latest and greatest, the MultiSync PA301w. We've been playing with and testing a production sample and have the full review ready to go. It's a serious P-IPS monitor aimed at professional use with a host of new features.

Read on for more!

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