Continued:

SIMA (daughter-card)

Features wise, you can expect four DIMM slots for DDR2-667 memory, 1066MHz system bus, GigaLAN, Firewire, SATA2 and other latest features that are standard these days. The Intel board will be based off of SiS656 northbridge with a shared SiS959 southbridge to share the peripherals support between the two platforms. The daughter-card will be based off of SiS756 chipset with support for socket-939 microprocessors, two DDR400 slots and HT2000. ECS claims that the PF88 Extreme motherboard will support dual-core chips from both chipmakers.

Motherboard in action...

Interestingly enough, ECS has managed to answer numerous questions that further peak our interest in the PF88 Extreme motherboard. After a number of people claimed that it was just a proof-of-concept and would never make it to retail, ECS claims that the board will be ready for shipment in mass quantities soon. The price of the board will actually be similar to what its current line of Extreme motherboards cost, which is competitive to tier-one motherboard makers such as Asus, Abit and DFI. ECS also said that there would be no discrepancy in performance numbers from standalone boards to a hybrid such as the PF88 Extreme. The Elite Bus, also known as the daughter-card, is designed for a direct connection between the northbridge and the southbridge; the board uses serial busses to avoid data loss, and since the connections aren’t split, there’s no logical reason for performance loss.

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