Intel IDF Report #4 - Wrap Up

Low profile PCI/AGP

To help make some of those concept PC's more feasible, a new initiative is on the way to provide low profile PCI and AGP cards. There's nothing particularly special about low profile PCI/AGP - it's simply a new spec from the PCI SIG (Special Interest Group) that defines a "shorter" PCI or AGP board targeted at low profile PC's. The new boards will fit in traditional PCI/AGP slots, as the slots themselves have not changed. The only requirement for a low profile board to fit in a standard case is that the back plate be changed.

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Diamond/S3's big splash at IDF was with the Viper II DVI LPF. As the name implies, it's a low profile version of the Viper II with an onboard DVI interface that can be used with digital flat panels or standard analog monitors.

ATI had a low profile version of the Rage 128 Pro AGP in addition to a low profile version of their upcoming HDTV decoder card. This follow up to the TV-Wonder, in conjunction with the Rage 128 series' support for iDCT decode in hardware, can efficiently decode HDTV signals using a PC for display on your monitor or output to a TV. The solution will be considerably cheaper than an external HDTV decoder box that most HDTV setups require at the moment.

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Communications/Networking Riser - CNR 1.0

In order to help keep the cost of new PC's down, Intel has introduced the CNR 1.0 spec to support low cost/integrated network adapters. It's much like the AMR we have today in that the key components for support are located on the motherboard, while the physical layer support is on a small card. Again, just like AMR, it is designed for OEM's only and not as a retail upgrade path. CNR will comprise everything that is included in the AMR spec and essentially supercedes it. So we'll see CNR cards with modems, sound, and networking all on one card. That networking support can come in the form of standard Ethernet, HomePNA phone line networking, or both.