As we reported form Computex, the talk of the show was ATI's new Crossfire dual-video solution for AMD and Intel. Part of that talk was the development work done with ULi on the ATI South Bridge and the cross-compatibility of the ULi South Bridge using the ATI chipset. ULi is what remains of the ALi chipset division of Acer, and this now independent chipmaker has been very busy in several arenas. In addition to South Bridges which can work with the chipsets of other manufacturers, ULi also makes single-chip and dual-chip solutions for Athlon 64.

ATI certainly had the spotlight with their new chipset, but one of the newest and most interesting chipsets introduced at Computex was also from ULi - the M1695 HyperTransport PCI Express Tunnel Chip for AMD Athlon 64 platforms.

Just a month after the Computex launch, ULi has provided a Reference Board for their new chipset based on the M1695 coupled with a M1567 South Bridge. This combination is significant because it provides a full x16 PCIe video slot with an AGP 8X slot. ULi tells us that this is a full-performance AGP slot without compromise. We have seen others try to provide AGP support (ECS, Biostar) on a PCIe board by deriving the AGP from PCI, but these solutions were 50 to 60% the performance of a true 8X AGP, negating much of the reason for the AGP slot. This ULi solution, however, is a full-performance AGP 8X, combined with a full-performance x16 PCIe.

The ULi M1695/M1567 is really even more as it also supports PCI graphics. With this ULi chipset, you can simultaneously use PCI Express X16, AGP 8X, and PCI graphics. As ULi puts it in their Press Release:
"M1695's innovative HyperTransport tunnel architecture integrates non-blocking symmetrical HyperTransportTM 2.0 links which enables motherboard manufacturers and system integrators to pair up M1695 with other high performance HyperTransport-based chipsets and bridge devices either natively or via the HTXTM connector. When coupled with ULi's M1567 south bridge, the combination offers motherboard manufacturers the unprecedented capability to support PCI Express x16, AGP 8X, PCI graphics cards simultaneously on the same mainboard. Such capability makes it possible to create a fully surrounding virtual reality environment using multiple high resolution displays driven by the three graphics technologies residing in the same computer system."

ULi M1695 Chipset
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  • jpkomm - Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - link

    In reference to the comments on ASrock's making of this board, I got word back from their US sales division as to when their board will actually be released in the US market. They said they have no plans on selling the "939Dual-SATAII" motherboard in the US region. Oi that bites. Anyone know of other companies planning on producing these boards? The ASrock board looks and (from the reviews) performs great, but I'm not going to hold out for the chance that it never comes to the US market.
  • justly - Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - link

    quote:

    They said they have no plans on selling the "939Dual-SATAII" motherboard in the US region.

    Are you actually surprised by this? I would probably do the same thing since most Americans will only purchase a product surrounded by marketing hype.
  • ElJefe - Monday, August 22, 2005 - link

    the dual sata 939 will be sold in the US. asrock said it, asrock america sales said it too................

    (just in case anyone reads this thread... but the real discussion is in the 2nd, newest article here at anandtech)
  • hazeldene - Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - link

    I wonder if you would be able to use an ATI AGP X-Series card as a Slave with an ATI X-series crossfire in the PCI-express slot... that would be the cheapest Crossfire / SLi upgrade ever !!!
  • mistersnail - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link

    http://www.hkepc.com/hwdb/m1695-uli-1.htm

    Crossfire can be done on this board
  • val - Sunday, July 17, 2005 - link

    #65 last but not least. Suyin is usually the very last thing company does. So buy it until you can. We loves all of you who look to only syntetic tests and benchmarks, we have cheap intel cpus - thanks to you .
  • val - Sunday, July 17, 2005 - link

    #65 if you have in your room already 35, than there is something wrong with your room planing. No pcs can change it if you are still running heating or teaching in stove. And saying it last, do your math and learn what percents and thermall loss means. The difference to AMD platform is in percents of complete amount of heaters in room small and thermal loss increases exponentialy.
    However, world proves that some heating issues cannot change the fact that no "fanatic - glad of self punishment" admin would install room of amd systems.
  • mino - Saturday, July 16, 2005 - link

    #62 it was not mentioned exactly anywhere (no one knows it actually) but rough estimate is 4 to 8 weeks. I believe it will be much closer to the seconf number.

    #63 One think I forgot something. Do you really believe it is technically feasible to guarantee 38C ambient temperature when the is about 35C in the room ?
  • mino - Saturday, July 16, 2005 - link

    1) Actually I read tom's since they make some unique test sometimes. They are one of(many) relatively goog sites.

    2) Cooler classroom _will_ help mostly better learning/teaching, I said that.

    3) Actually I like AMD's approach. However where bussiness is concerned only facts matter. I bought many Intel systems recently, but they were chosen because of their better suitability then. This is not the case here (meaning almost whole [prescott lineup).

    4) actually in the room is normally running _single_ central heater. You forgot that rooms are not allways build in separate building. In this case only contacts with the outside are windows. Also remember the radiation form of heating causes lower temperature than convection at the sam output. The out pu t during the day should be around ~200W/machine(incl.LCD) + 1kW of lights make ~7kW which is close to your number. This however considers idle state, but there are working people about 50-70% of time so real average would be about 8kW for prescott room.

    5) Anobody saying idle Prescott PC+LCD will consume about 100W of power is either mislleading or has no idea what he is tlaking about. This figure however fits our Newcastle's nicely.

    6) Yes anybody could suck any number of any claims out of its finger anytime. Nothing new here.

    What matters to me our academic society could work in these new classrooms without major health issues and having to abuse IT staff for what they bought.
    That is what make me happy no matter what you think.
  • val - Saturday, July 16, 2005 - link

    #60: it is whole crap.
    You are reading too much toms hardware. Intel is not throttling when you install cooler properly.

    Cooler classroom will not help to admin when he have to spend there every day one hour.

    You are talking like typical AMD fanboy, using untrusted claims which nobody would ever believe. Trust me, that 5100W running 8 hours a day will not heat up to 30° when outside is -10 with "any" isolation.
    And even if it would, it would not heat it much more than 3000W using any power saving PC.
    I can suck out of my finger 20 claims like that one you posted - if you want, so save your time writing stories.

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