Sapphire Technology is pleased to announce that the new high end, 125W Phenom CPU’s just released by AMD (Model numbers 9750 and 9850) are fully supported across the latest range of SAPPHIRE mainboards, including the high end PC-AM2RD790 - PURE CrossFireX 790FX, the new mainstream CrossFire board PC-AM2RX780 - PURE CrossFireX 770, and the microATX Hybrid CrossFire board with integrated graphics, PI-AM2RS780G - Hybrid CrossFire 780G.

The PI-AM2RS780G and PC-AM2RD790 will require a BIOS update to recognise the new CPU ID’s correctly. The new BIOS are already posted in the driver section of the SAPPHIRE web site www.sapphiretech.com

Of particular note is that SAPPHIRE has full support for these new CPU’s on its 780G product, PI-AM2RS780G. This is NOT the case for the majority of competing 780G designs as they have used a far less capable configuration for the power sections and will only be able to support the earlier 95W CPU’s. (9500, 9550, 9600, 9650)

AMD's new RS780 integrated graphics chipset. The north bridge is HT3.0 and AM2+ capable, and outputs include HDMI, DVI and even the new DisplayPort (with HDCP encryption to boot). Avivo support has been upgraded and should also mirror the capabilities of the latest Radeon HD 3000 series graphics cards.

 VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced the VIA VT6047 Pico-ITX form factor reference design, the smallest full-featured x86 mainboard in the industry designed for a new world of ultra compact embedded PC systems and appliances.

The Pico-ITX form factor is the latest advance in VIA's proven record on platform miniaturization. The Mini-ITX mainboard, at 17cm x 17cm, which recently celebrated its 5th anniversary as an industry standard form factor with wide market adoption, was followed by the Nano-ITX form factor at 12cm x 12cm, exactly 50% of the size of the Mini-ITX. Now, the Pico-ITX, at 10cm x 7.2cm and 50% of the size of the Nano-ITX form factor, truly embodies VIA’s "Small is Beautiful" technology design strategy of shrinking the form factor to drive the x86 platform into ever smaller systems and whole new device categories.

Leveraging VIA's extensive expertise in miniaturization at the silicon level through major advances in power efficiency, thermal management and feature integration, the VIA VT6047 Pico-ITX mainboard was designed to be powered by one of VIA’s energy efficient processor platforms, such as the VIA C7 or fanless VIA Eden processor in the 21mm x 21mm nanoBGA2 package, combined with feature-rich VIA system media processors to enable the board to pack a performance punch in a tiny, low heat, low power package.

"The Pico-ITX represents VIA's commitment to spearhead x86 innovation through our proven technology leadership in driving down the platform size," said Richard Brown, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "As with the Mini-ITX and Nano-ITX form factors before it, this new platform has raised the excitement level among enthusiasts and customers alike, firing the imagination an almost unlimited range of what were previously impossibly small systems."

More details about the Pico-ITX form factor and the VIA VT6047 Pico-ITX mainboard reference design may be found in the "VIA Pico-ITX Form Factor" white paper, available for download from the VIA website at: www.via.com.tw/en/initiatives/spearhead/pico-itx/

The VIA VT6047 Pico-ITX reference design has been successfully demonstrated during international trade shows this year, including during CES, CeBIT Germany and Embedded System Conference West. The VIA Platform Solutions Division will announce the first commercial mainboard based on the Pico-ITX form factor shortly.

The ASUS P5NT WS is built on the NVIDIAC55+MCP55PXE chipset structure which supports a LGA775 Socket for running Intel Dual-core™/Quad-core™ CPUs and two NVIDIA SLI graphic cards with Dual x16 speeds on the same platform. This allows the user to enjoy the best CPU and graphics for the system build. With the addition of the PCI-X interface, the P5NT WS motherboard provides much more options in I/O configurations for SOHOs and power users to custom-build their ideal working or entertainment environment.

High Quality Solid Aluminum Capacitors

The ASUS P5NT WS motherboard is fitted with solid Aluminum capacitors and a conductive polymer to help secure perfect system stability. These high quality materials also help ensure that the motherboard will have a longer product life time.

New PCI-X Structure for More Efficiency

The PCI-X Structure of the P5NT WS motherboard is a newer, higher speed version of the conventional PCI standard. It is also fully hardware and software backward compatible to previous generations of PCI. These new standards keep pace with upcoming advances in high-bandwidth business-critical applications such as Fibre Channel, RAID, networking, InfiniBand™ Architecture, SCSI, and iSCSI.

Effective Heat-pipe Thermal Solution

The innovative Heat-pipe Thermal design of the P5NT WS motherboard effectively directs the heat generated by the chipsets to the heatsink near the back IO ports – where it can be dissipated by existing airflow from the CPU fan or optional fans. This unique Heat-pipe design highlights how fanless designs effectively curb the problem of chipset fans breaking down.

Furthermore, it provides options for users to install a side-flow fan or a passive cooler. The Heat-pipe design is the most reliable fanless thermal solution to date.

Cool and Quiet 8-Phase Power Design

The P5NT WS also encompasses an 8-Phase Power Design that reduces input ripple current and output ripple voltages – keeping the CPU and power modules from the risk of high power stress. It also provides reliability under heavy-loading and overclocking by

stabilizing output current and voltages. All this effectively lets components attain longer lifespans and allows them to operate at 15 $B!k (JC (36 $B!k (JF) lower than conventional solutions – resulting in lower fan speeds for quieter operation.

ASUS AI Clock Skew – Reliable Overclocking

This helpful feature automatically skews the memory clock signal timing to improve memory overclocking capabilities by 10 to 15%. The clock signal can be adjusted to reserve enough

Setup time / Hold time in order to maintain the system stability.

Balance Performance and Quietness with AI Gear

ASUS $B!G (Js AI Gear allows users to choose from profiles to adjust the CPU frequency and voltage. This allows a balance for both system performance and quietness. Having two modes: High Performance for running heavy loading applications and Max Power Saving for minimizing system noise and power consumption; AI Gear provides Real-time adjustments under the OS to suit varying needs.

AI Nap – Powersaving and Noise Reducing

With AI Nap, users can instantly snooze the PC without terminating any tasks. The system will continue operating at minimum power and noise till reawakened.

Files will continue to download and applications will be run in the quietest state while the system is in AI Nap mode. The system will swiftly wake up in a matter of seconds with a simple click of the keyboard of mouse.

P5NT WS SPECIFICATIONS

- LGA775 Socket
- - NVIDIA Dual SLI x 16 Chipset (C55+MCP55PXE)
- Front Side Bus 1333/800/533 MHz
- DDR2 800/667/533
- 3 x PCIe x 16 (supports NVIDIA SLI™ technology)
- 1 x PCI-X
- 2 x PCIe X1
- 1 x PCI 2.2
- 2 x Gb LAN
- RealTek ALC888 8-CH HD Audio

For more information on the P5NT WS Motherboard, please visit the company homepage at sg.asus.com