ASUS have been coming to Computex to sensationalize and dazzle the press with concepts for years, and this year is no different, regardless of whether something is technically feasible or not.  Last year, we saw the ASUS Immensity motherboard concept that was never put into production – an X58 featuring a 5450-type integrated GPU and a Lucid Hydra chip to combine any discrete GPU combination on board.  This year takes a turn for the surreal.

Introducing the Danshui Bay concept:

Simply put, ASUS are wanting to combine two chipsets on one motherboard – the X58 socket 1366, and the X79 socket 2011.  If we completely disregard the technical challenges this faces, it provides the interesting idea of something that might be possible in the future:  You want to upgrade your machine to the latest chipset and processor.  Rather than throw your old processor away or sell it on, you could buy a motherboard that lets you harness the power of the old processor and a new processor together, in some form of chimerism.

As for the technical challenges in producing such a product, I could reel off a whole list.  For a start, chipsets are not designed to talk to each other.  Processors need dual QPI links to talk to each other of the same model – how that would work with different socket processors with different caches and core counts is also a mystery, as with 1366 you would need an appropriate Xeon.  With two chipsets, you’ll have to have a different set of memory for each processor, and possibly getting a mismatch there based on dual/tri/quad channel memory.  Each processor requires its power and a set of PCIe each – unless you disregard the PCIe of one of the chipsets but then you would have to have at least the processor of the other socket in order to run a discrete GPU.  The same goes with SATA ports, I/O connectors, USB headers, and so on.

Obviously, this board presented is a mockup – merely bits and pieces put together.  It’s showing sixteen SATA 3 Gbps and six SATA 6 Gbps for a start, as well as no significant power delivery and an obscene form factor.  ASUS only want to know that if there was a demand for such a product, despite the technical limitations.

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  • joex444 - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link

    You were looking for regardless.
  • cbgoding - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link

    THIS
  • yyrkoon - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link

    Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.

    Websters dictionary dot com.
  • jensend - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link

    Yes, it's a word- "irregardless" means "I am illiterate, please disregard everything I say."

    That's a lot for one word to mean, and it usually doesn't fit wonderfully with the sentence structure around it, but that's what it means. If that's not what you mean then don't use the word.
  • mindless1 - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link

    You may not like the word, but most words do start out used by the people before some dictionary adds it.
  • pvdw - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link

    Yup, like "txt spk" - do you really want dictionaries to have "m8" and other such nonsense in them just because people start using them?
  • Alexvrb - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link

    lawlbutts lawlbutts
  • GullLars - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link

    Technically, irregardless is a composite word, and it's a double negative.
    ir = not, less = without.
    So irregardless in long form would be "not without regard".
    If you would not use a double negative, don't use it. More commonly you would use "with regard".

    There are several other composite word containing double negatives, but they are mostly used as counters for positions of opposition.
    Composite words are more common in germanic languages, which is the group my native tounge fits in ;)
    Linguistics and filology are fun hobbies, especially when you're on your way to becomming a polyglot :)
  • nitenichiryu1 - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link

    Interesting. I've never seen anyone on anandtech comment on something linguistic. I agree with your notion, because studies descriptive linguistics show that the canonical and widely accepted form will always be preferred. Everyone else who deviates from that are really just precriptivists sounding more pedantic than anything.

    Btw, the "who" vs "whom" distinction is being lost!!!

    Language changes fast, and at the control of no single person. "Regardless" of what I say, this will probably change nothing and the flame war will ensue =D.

    Sorry, let us get back to talking about the article =P.
  • Shadowmaster625 - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link

    For all intensive purposes, the entire 1st page is taken up by this stuff.

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