Serial ATA gets serious

Computex, the largest IT show in the Far East, is where Taiwanese companies launch their new products, many of which never reach Europe. This year's show was the biggest yet, although smaller than Comdex or Cebit.

Among the most interesting new products was a low-cost Savage XP mid-range graphics chipset from S3 and Via, which also launched its first 1GHz processor based on a C3 core. Launch partner for the chipset was, unexpectedly, Tyan, which is best known for high-end server and workstation motherboards but has branched out into graphics cards.

Vacuum tube gives cleaner sound Here's something you don't expect to see on a computer motherboard ... a thermionic valve. Audio buffs have long claimed that valves give a better sound quality than solid-state amplifiers. Aopen has included one in a motherboard sound system, to provide outstanding sound quality. Listening to the setup on the stand at Computex was bliss. This is a motherboard of choice for the audiophile.

Via also launched a new laptop chipset, the Alphachrome, with integrated graphics, and announced a chipset for AMD's imminent 64bit Hammer CPUs. IC Ensemble, which produces high-end audio chipsets, is owned by Via and has actively started to market its products under the Via name. You'll already find them in products from Midiman, Terratec and other high-end music card manufacturers.

Gigabyte's Maya range of ATI Radeon-based graphics cards were on show too. These include a 128MB version with video input.

Several graphics card manufacturers boasted samples of products built using ATI's RV250 and R300 cards. Via ran a sample R300 card in a couple of motherboards to show off the AGP 8x compatibility of its new chipsets. But when ATI discovered this was happening it insisted that the pre-launch cards be removed.

There seems to be a fair amount of support for ATI's Radeon IGP integrated-graphics chipsets for AMD and Intel processors, although they show up more in notebooks than desktop motherboards.

Moving into the motherboard arena, MSI showed off a range that includes optional low-cost Wifi and Bluetooth add-on boards. Expect the Bluetooth add-on board and Bluetooth USB adaptor bundle to sell for around £60-£70 in the UK. Epox was also offering boards with a Bluetooth option at a similar price.

Some MSI motherboards were using the next-generation Nvidia Nforce chipset, as well as a couple of Hammer designs. The company also produced some graphics cards based on Geforce4 chipsets with built-in TV tuners, which are similar to ATI's All-in-Wonder products.

Gigabyte's range of motherboards for both home PCs and servers house a Pentium 4 with the i850E chipset and ICH4, which supports the new fast USB2 link.

On the laptop front, Aopen is planning a wide range of products, which will be sold as OEM systems to system integrators worldwide.

Asus unveiled its new range of laptops, covering everything from super-thin low-power Pentium III systems to the ultra-high-end Pentium 4s. It also launched a Pocket PC handheld using a 400MHz Intel Xcale processor.

Looking to the future Soyo and DFI demonstrated systems including Serial ATA, the next-generation link that will replace hard-drive ribbon connectors with thinner leads, improving airflow and making the motherboard more accessible. Serial ATA is due to be launched towards the end of this year on motherboards from a wide range of manufacturers.

Out-front design Abit has taken to heart the fashion for making features accessible on a PC's front panel. This Media XP design for its motherboards has USB2, Firewire and audio jacks, plus readers for Secure Digital, Compact Flash, and Memory Stick modules. It also has a Bluetooth aerial

Bluetooth and wireless networking were among the most popular products at the show. Most were from vendors unknown in the UK, though many of their products are probably rebranded here.

Behind closed doors AMD ran some demos of upcoming products, including a system using four of its forthcoming 64bit Opteron processors in parallel.

Manufacturers of cooling products are realising that the noise emanating from PCs is currently a hot topic, and are starting to take this issue into consideration as they develop low-noise systems.

For instance, Akasa, famous among overclockers for its high-end CPU coolers, is trying to cut down fan noise with noise dampening mats. These are made from a rubber material that doesn't absorb heat in the same way that foam or plastic would. Speed fiends will be pleased to hear that several optical drive makers launched 48-speed CD-RW drives, many of which have rewrite speeds of up to 16 or 20-speed. And finally, many memory producers showed both PC1066 RD-Ram and DDR400 memory on the show in conjunction to larger Flash memory cards and USB memory dongles. China goes for IT
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