BTX, SATA, 64bit. Oh my.

[Cander]

What other new techs we have coming that is about to make everything obsolete?



Looking to start building a new system, but want to know what to expect as far as new keywords when ordering stuff in the coming months.

[Edneeis]

You might want to wait for PCI Express which uses the BTX form factor. That will effect all of your components.

[Cander]

Any new memory name changes?

[VisionIT]

Originally posted by Cander
Any new memory name changes?

Can't remember any!

[NoteMe]

Can anyone elaborate on what BTX is? I guess SATA is some sort of controller or something?

[Ideas Man]

SATA (Serial ATA) is to replace parallel ATA. Sposed to offer much higher transfer speeds, but currently, they are the same. Easier to connect though, no jumpers required. BTX sounds like a new type of power supply.

[NoteMe]

I suessed that SATA was that. Thanks...and for me BTX sounds like a new "standard" for the size and layout of the mother board and other cards in a tower...

[Ideas Man]

That makes more sense actually. Look on the Intel website for more info about it, i remember seeing it there somewhere.

[NoteMe]

You where right....

Balanced Technology Extended (BTX) is a new interface specification that provides a common, flexible foundation, based on standards that can be used to build innovative desktop systems. Systems need to incorporate the latest performance technologies, yet still meet increasing thermal, power, structural, acoustic, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements. The BTX specification provides new tools and design space (Figure 1) for developers to lay out desktop systems, whether designing small, compact systems or very large, expandable systems. BTX is also optimized for the newest desktop technologies, including PCI Express* and
Serial ATA.

http://www.intel.com/update/contents/dt10031.htm

[Ideas Man]

In what way?

[NoteMe]

In what way about BTX or that you where right about beein an article at intel.com....you where at least right about the second thing...

[Ideas Man]

LOL, ok.

[Cander]

Right. BTX is a new form factor to replace ATX.

[made_of_asp]

Regarding BTX, this might be interesting:

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1876&p=4

[NoteMe]

Wow:

x16 PCI Express implementation that offers 8GB/s of bandwidth.

Actually how fast is a AGP slot?

[Ideas Man]

Supposed to be faster than that i think, it will eliminate the need for an AGP slot.

[DiGiTaIErRoR]

I don't know if the AGP idea will become fully obsolete, atleast there's room for revision, and offering multiplied speeds, as AGP has always been designed for. Sadly though the current AGP will become basically obsolete, only partially will it be supported by ATI. But perhaps we'll see a video card port based on HyperTransport technology. And PCI-Express isn't as flexible as InfiniBand, and doesn't have the bandwidth that HyperTransport does, which means PCI-Express isn't as well suited for communication with the RAM.

Hypertransport on a 64 bit system allows 12800 MB/s, compared to PCI-Express, which would be 500 MB/s, taken times the multiplier(16x for example would be 8000 MB/s).

For example, want to know why nVidia boards are fast? There are some that utilize HyperTransport, and they can be implemented transparently to the standard system.