Computex 2006: 300W GPUs, Conroe, HDMI Video Cards and Lots of Motherboards
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 5, 2006 10:24 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
ASUS' Concept Motherboard
ASUS showed us something we honestly can't believe we hadn't seen up to this point from any other motherboard manufacturer: a concept motherboard.
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| Click to enlarge |
The ASUS Pluto Concept motherboard was designed to showcase technologies that ASUS is conemplating using on future production motherboards.
The first feature of the concept, which has already been done by some of ASUS' competition was an audio riser card to help separate the audio circuity from noisy components on the motherboard:
The next feature of this concept motherboard is an electroluminescent rear IO panel to help you figure out where to plug things in, while in the dark:
There's also a POST diagnostic display on the rear of the motherboard that is a bit more verbose than most diagnostic displays that you sometimes find on motherboards themselves:
Despite being able to display more text, the debug display is still not as verbose as we'd like in order to use it for anything more than a very high level diagnostic tool. We do commend ASUS for the creativity and putting in the effort to do something new with its products.
There is also a water cooling element to the concept, however we weren't able to get a shot of it running in time for publication. We may be able to bring you more coverage of the concept later this week.
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ceefka - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Just when Intel has attractive numbers on power consumption and also AMD aims again for lower numbers these GPUs negate all their effort and have you on the look out for an even bigger PSU or an additional PSU. How can ATI or NVIDIA justify this? I'd like a good reason.phusg - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
I think you've already given the only reason (CPU's using less). I won't call it a 'good' reason, but all the same.sri2000 - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
When I read that line about 1000-1200 watt PSU's, all I could think of was Doc Brown in Back to the Future yelling "1.21 Gigawatts!?!"... (yeah I know - kilowatt != gigawatt... but still).Griswold - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Who knows, maybe ATI/Nvidia bundle plutonium batteries (as seen in deep space probes) with their cards in the future? Not only to feed the cards but mainly to power your cooling equipment...segagenesis - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Exactly my first thought. The concept of a seperate external supply for a graphics card is already ludicrous to me, if this becomes standard then I would hate to see future progression from there. Does anyone remember the Taco Town SNL skit? I desire better video as much as anyone else, but I draw the line when I need a nuclear power station to run it. ATI/nVidia must have forgotten that electricity DOES cost money.Needless to say... impressive Conroe boards, for a premium.
Stele - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
All in all an excellent article, good coverage and of course lovely photos :PThe Asus Pluto board is interesting indeed, especially the audio riser card. By the way, anyone noticed that the riser card is nicknamed Charon? For the uninitiated, Pluto was the Greek god of the Underworld, separated from the living world by the river Styx. Charon was the boatman who ferried the dead across that river to Pluto's domain. The two have hence been generally closely associated with one another. In astronomy, Pluto's moon is also named Charon, for the same reason. Nice bit of humour on Asus' side :P
punko - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Actually, Pluto is the Roman name for the Greek God Hades. Charon was indeed the ferryman of the Underworld, but the river wasn't Styx, but Acheron. I believe that there were four famous rivers in the Underworld, Lethe was another, but I can't remember the fourth.Stele - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
It is another Greek name for Hades (from Greek ????t??, Plouton), but it was adopted by and hence much more commonly associated with Roman mythology.
Oh heh! Styx was the popular misconception... forgot about it. Thanks for correcting me! There were five rivers of Hades: Acheron (the river of sorrow), Cocytus (lamentation), Phlegethon (fire), Styx (hate) and... Lethe (forgetfulness). I guess that explains why you remember Lethe but forgot the others! ;)
DigitalFreak - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Didn't really see anything new here.Audio on a riser card - DFI has been doing it for awhile now.
Lighting around the I/O shield - Been done before.
Debug code readout - Been on numerous boards for quite some time. Asus just made it viewable from outside the case.
Stele - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
No, I wasn't saying that anything was new in the industry, but new at least to Asus. IMHO the concept motherboard was an interesting exhibit, even if it isn't the only one of its kind.More to the point, what's noteworthy is that Asus - along with other manufacturers as well, hopefully - is considering following DFI's Karajan module concept. That can only be a good thing, as long as the manufacturers sincerely mean to improve noise immunity and not just throw it in as a gimmick to charge a premium for.
As for the other ideas... interesting but not terribly unique, as you've already pointed out.