AMD heeft een nieuw Athlon reference bord ontwikkeld dat dankzij 4-layer technologie goedkoper is te produceren. De nieuwe opper-moederplank is voorzien van een verbeterde revisie van de Irongate chipset, die - zoals eerder aangetoond door c't - een hogere performance haalt dan de huidige Irongate revisies:
AMD has produced a new reference Motherboard: "Shinner", the succesor of Fester. I have received a prototype motherboard from DIGICOM, and I will be testing it soon.The DIGICOM PRO 2000 slot A board is a 4 Layer motherboard, with much smaller voltage regulators, as small as a ring . It contains the new AMD 751 Northbridge rev. C5 which should make it slightly faster than the Fester based motherboard (Fester: rev. C3). One of the new features of rev. C5 seems to be a "bypass mode", allowing a better management of the queues (I am trying to find out what this exactly means ; ).
But the main purpose of introducing the "Shinner", seems to be reducing manufacturing costs. The DIGICOM PRO 2000 and other 4-layer slot A motherboards should make Slot A motherboard prices dive to 100$ and less (A ASUS K7M now cost about 165$). This should make the Athlon more attractive to "upgraders" and OEMS. I am working on a huge Slot A motherboard tests, so if you got a motherboard to review, feel free to contact me ! We hope to offer you a comprehensive and in-depth test next month.