Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.
Yes, it's a word- "irregardless" means "I am illiterate, please disregard everything I say."
That's a lot for one word to mean, and it usually doesn't fit wonderfully with the sentence structure around it, but that's what it means. If that's not what you mean then don't use the word.
Technically, irregardless is a composite word, and it's a double negative. ir = not, less = without. So irregardless in long form would be "not without regard". If you would not use a double negative, don't use it. More commonly you would use "with regard".
There are several other composite word containing double negatives, but they are mostly used as counters for positions of opposition. Composite words are more common in germanic languages, which is the group my native tounge fits in ;) Linguistics and filology are fun hobbies, especially when you're on your way to becomming a polyglot :)
Interesting. I've never seen anyone on anandtech comment on something linguistic. I agree with your notion, because studies descriptive linguistics show that the canonical and widely accepted form will always be preferred. Everyone else who deviates from that are really just precriptivists sounding more pedantic than anything.
Btw, the "who" vs "whom" distinction is being lost!!!
Language changes fast, and at the control of no single person. "Regardless" of what I say, this will probably change nothing and the flame war will ensue =D.
Sorry, let us get back to talking about the article =P.
But what if the purposes for taking up the first page with linguistics were intense, and they were the only intense purposes in the comments? Then it would actually also be for all intensive purposes :P
As Anandtech's readership contains a lot of nerds and geeks, comments on linguistics are inevitable, and once they occur the probability of replies and elaborations is high.
While spoken languages may be allowed wide variations and frequent changes, the written languages have syntaxes and dictionaries (word sets) from which you can tell if something is allowed or not. Semantics and Pragmatics are also important to avoid misunderstandings. If a language's syntax allows composite words, and the composite word is semantically sound from it's parts and context, the composite word is allowed.
Irregardless is a composite word, and it's a double negative. ir = not, less = without. So irregardless in long form would be "not without regard". This emphasizes there is not a lack of regard. An alternative is to cancel the negatives and use the more common "with regard". Double negative composite words are typically used to describe counter/opposition to a negative composite word, emphasizing the lack of negative.
The first sense of gruntle was of a repeated grunt, especially the noise that pigs make in company. An example is in The Life and Death of Mr Badman, by John Bunyan, of 1680: “After this his speech went quite away, and he could speak no more than a Swine or a Bear. Therefore, like one of them, he would gruntle and make an ugly noise, according as he was offended, or pleased, or would have any thing done.” It is rarely used of humans, but an example occurs in a 1922 book, The Covered Wagon, by Emerson Hough, “They dismounted. The two Indians, short, deep-chested, bow-legged men, went to the packs. They gruntled as they unloaded the two larger mules.” Gruntle appeared in the fifteenth century; by the end of the next century it had begun to be used to mean grumbling or complaining. I imagine it as old-retainer mumble, the noise that someone fed up with their condition will make under their breath all the time.
If we put the intensifier and the frequentative together in one word, disgruntled has its current meaning, which the Oxford English Dictionary describes as a state of “moody discontent, sulky dissatisfaction or ill-humour”."
wouldnt one possible way to make the motherboard a reality would be to have pretty much two motherboards together, only sharing the i/o pane and power inputs? the i/o panel would have some sorta built in kvm switch on the motherboard. 8 sata3 for each socket, 3 sata6 for each socket. each socket has its own memory.
> it provides the interesting idea of something that might be possible in the future: You want to upgrade your machine to the latest chipset and processor. Rather than throw your old processor away or sell it on, you could buy a motherboard that lets you harness the power of the old processor and a new processor together, in some form of chimerism.
that's NOT what they're attempting
rather it lets you buy a board now that will support your old CPU and then when you're ready for a new cpu, plug it in without buying a new motherboard. This disables the old CPU. At no point are both CPUs running at the same time.
It truly is 2 motherboards glued together, which has to be the stupidest idea a manufacturer has presented since headcasting.
No, your wrong. Read the "Concept Motherboard" sign they stuck on the board. It explains that you can use BOTH at the same time. Don't correct people blindly.
I was thinking the same thing; two sockets, but not simultaneous.
I have to disagree that this is the "stupidest idea a manufacturer has presented", in fact, it's something I've been looking for to some degree.
Whenever I upgrade something, I essentially build a high-end new box and keep it for a few years til it's time to build another new box. Instead of building highends, I could build a mid-end until the high-end proc prices come down and then upgrade to that, instead of the whole box. Instead of missing phases of releases, I can have continual upgrades.
Example: use my 1366 now, when 2011 prices drop, buy it and plug it in. In a couple years get a new mobo with a 2011/next-gen dual socket, still using the 2011 and hopefully that next-gen will come down a few years later.
Depending on prices and time of releases, it could save quite a bit, considering decent mobos are around $300 these days.
Well, that all comes down to price. If this board costs 1.75x-2x what a normal board costs, then there's not a whole lot of advantage to buying this with a 1366 'midrange' CPU in 2012 and then a new CPU in 2013, vs two CPUs and two motherboards, aside from convenience of not having to swap the boards. Also, the extra upfront cost of the dual socket board may very well cover you getting a socket 2011 sooner.
With two sockets AND two chipsets, it's probably not going to be cheap. Another disadvantage is the ability to select features; for example you may be willing to do a mid-grade upgrade now, with a more value-priced set of motherboard features, and later when you drop the socket 2011 in you may want the features that a $200-300 motherboard may provide.
"rather it lets you buy a board now that will support your old CPU and then when you're ready for a new cpu, plug it in without buying a new motherboard. This disables the old CPU. At no point are both CPUs running at the same time."
got any evidence? your view of the concept requires the existence (and availability) of a future chipset when you buy the current chipset which makes no sense at all.
I really hope this becomes a reality. I've been dreaming of fusing two motherboards in one case for years. i remember having two 350Mhz k6-II and wishing there was some way to combine their power.
besides the difficulties already outlined, it seems like software support would be so low that it would be hard to take advantage of a setup like this. i'm remembering how few programs took advantage of x64 and dual core or MP back when each was introduced.
although with today's use of Mult-threading perhaps the additional CPU could be used as just more threads with some creative drivers.
by the time any part of a PC needs upgrading, the rest of it also does. Plus, in the Intel world, each new CPU requires a new socket; and in the AMD world, you don't get new CPUs ^^
2) The LGA1366 CPU and LGA2011 CPU can work together at the same time
3) They talk to each other via QPI, and you need the LGA2011 CPU to talk to the X79 via DMI. So if the LGA1366 CPU wants some SATA or USB action, it has to make a call via the other CPU.
4) PCI-Express comes from the LGA2011 CPU.
The LGA1366 CPU is just there as a workhorse. It's not an ideal, native Intel platform but it's the first, working dual-CPU board with at least one LGA2011 socket ;-)
ASUS shows off this stuff to say "Hey, we can do it, we like to experiment" - who else does these days? No one moans at F1 cars because they have no luggage space. :-P
Do you mind if I ask what your sources are? :) Because if what you say is true this is even more interesting.
I would say that whether or not this is buy-able will depend on the amount of PCIe lanes available and the scaling with the 1366 cpu not being able to directly access PCIe, specifically SLI scaling on such a setup.
If ASUS designs this motherboard for AMD chips, and that they are able to function efficiently, imagine how much MORE monry we can save on building a new AMD rig XD
I could see a high demand for this type of product in the future.
Imagine this :
1/4 Motherboard "ARM" handling all the HDDs + Network + Video (We are talking about 10 watts total) kinda like a NAS/Router with some browsing capacity.
3/4 Motherboard with a "Normal CPU, Normal GPU etc etc etc" and the HDD+Network are accesseded PCI Links.
By default you turn on the "ARM" part, hence very low power usage but more than enough for "browsing and multimedia and office work". And when needed you can turn on the "big boy".
The "ARM" then acts just like a NAS/Router providing the access to the HDDs and Network.
I remember (probably asus again) did this with ATOM+775.
Of course with Optimus & Speedstep this is now "not very useful" but there is a lot of room here. (Think about Android/Window hybrids, with the Android part beeing a tablet via USB)
My understanding of the board you've posted is that it allowed you to use a new processor socket but only one processor at a time whereas this Asus board theoretically allows both your old and new processors to be in use at the same time.
I can't see it having massive demand. While to some extent it would be nice to keep the old CPU around for a little extra performance in the few apps that actually benefit from more cores its not worth much to me.
Unless Windows is smart enough to never use it unless the Ivy bridge cores are maxed out its not really a good idea because one CPU is potentially a lot slower than the other.
The dual technology concept isn't new, but like previous examples of coupling two different technologies, there are always trade-offs in performance or features. Usually the trade-offs are enough to prevent most people from buying the boards.
Remember the Apollo Pro133A that VIA produced in the early 2000's with support for Slot1/Socket 370? Tyan's Trinity 400 was quite popular, but couldn't match the BX-based boards for performance or overclocking. They were also taking advantage of Intel's disastorous decision to embrace RAMBUS.
And it's not been that long ago that ASRock was making its mark with other VIA and ULi chipsets that supported PCIe/AGP or DDR1/DDR2. In both cases, however, they were slower than their Intel or AMD counterparts.
With VIA/Centaur focusing on their processors and ULi being absorbed by NVIDIA, there's no longer anyone even interested in producing alternative chipsets for either AMD or Intel, let alone being legally able to do so.
There were Full Tower Chasis that could fit an ATX + mini ITX. What about an ARM + x86 mobo that are independandt of each other, but fit on the same ATX mobo?
This would work better with AMD, since AMD maintains better socket compatibility between generations.
I love the concept. I don't want to throw away my i7 920 and 6Gb of ram. If I upgrade, it would be to a 12/16 cores, which will not be much faster than the i7 on single threaded software. So upgrade only makes sense when there is available a lot of massively parallel software, able to take advantage of many cores. Then, 4 old cores will not be something to look down.
Concept cars can really be out there, but at least most concept cars actually function and are possible.
So they glue a whole bunch of shit together that will never happen and it gets the press they hoped for.
This is kinda stupid really, to even be reporting on it. They should have a functional item even if it is buggy in order for it to be news. I mean I can go into the garage and solder a bunch of junk together that does not work will you report on it?
This would actually make sense if we were talking about an ARM CPU to quickboot and a real CPU for power applications and productivity. Both have access to all your data. And you have something like a bigger better asus transformer or better yet Acer iconia W500/A500 combo.
Although the usefulness is debatable, the idea of using multiple chipsets, with discreet channels to multiple sockets isn't necessarily new. Although the implementation is a bit different, Tyan did this quite successfully with the Thunder K8WE. Each CPU had its own chipset, with separate buses and independent RAM. Effectively, the board segregated each CPU with it's own graphics slot and RAM. Obviously, this is different, but not completely out of the realm of possibility.
Let’s not forget the Gigabyte EP45 board that could run DDR2 or DD3 or the old AGP/PCIe boards from ECS. Again, not sure about the utility of such things.
I agree that this is a publicity joke not even worth reporting. Why did AT waste my time?
If Asus mobo designers have so much free time, I wish they would fix the fan speed selection ranges in the Rampage Formula BIOS. The existing ranges are ridiculous (down to 16 degC!) with steps so large as to make them useless. Three years and they haven't fixed this.
FWIW, "irregardless" is simply poor English, and no amount of using it will improve things. The OED gives a first reference as a dialect dictionary in 1912.
I think its a good idea overall. But need some tweaking here. To put it as it can become a single mdb for both Intel and AMD, isnt it? U got the option to use any cpu or chipset u like on this board without upgrading it or getting confuse which cpu and chipset to go for. Well Done Asus.. Thumbs up
Why throw a motherboard to change over system or upgrade them? Save wastage save enviornment.. Afterall more than 90% of the components are similar on every mdb.
You can restructure the old monolithic vs. packaged arguments that Intel and AMD had when they first rolled out dual core and quad core chips.
Technically, it may not be as high in terms of raw performance as a truly unified board, but you could use some of the interconnect technologies in cloud and distributed computing (Fibre-channel, inifiband, messaging, queuing, etc.) to connect both board segments and make them work together. The software/firmware effort of course would be tremendous, but you could pull it off and make two discrete PCs/servers appear and behave as one. Why you would invest the R&D cost to do so is another question.
Personally, I think resources would be better utilized in designing a more modular, component based system where the "motherboard" is really just high speed lanes for storage, memory, compute and graphic subsystems. We've already taken some steps in the high-end server area with daughterboards and add-in cards, but to design a motherboard from the ground up as just I/O interconnects for the various subsystems just makes more sense. You want to upgrade your CPU from a single socket 2011 to dual socket, drop in a new compute board. Need more memory - add another daughterboard.
Imagine a time when the motherboard is just thousands of I/O lanes that you simply drop modules into. That would certainly take the pain out of upgrades. You only upgrade what you want to upgrade instead of having to worry the entire system. Certainly big changes, such as memory standards (DDR2 to DDR3) would require two new add-in boards, but at least it's modular and reusing/repurposing components is far more sensible than throwing away an entire system because one part of it is obsolete.
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joex444 - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
You were looking for regardless.cbgoding - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
THISyyrkoon - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.Websters dictionary dot com.
jensend - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
Yes, it's a word- "irregardless" means "I am illiterate, please disregard everything I say."That's a lot for one word to mean, and it usually doesn't fit wonderfully with the sentence structure around it, but that's what it means. If that's not what you mean then don't use the word.
mindless1 - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
You may not like the word, but most words do start out used by the people before some dictionary adds it.pvdw - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
Yup, like "txt spk" - do you really want dictionaries to have "m8" and other such nonsense in them just because people start using them?Alexvrb - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
lawlbutts lawlbuttsGullLars - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Technically, irregardless is a composite word, and it's a double negative.ir = not, less = without.
So irregardless in long form would be "not without regard".
If you would not use a double negative, don't use it. More commonly you would use "with regard".
There are several other composite word containing double negatives, but they are mostly used as counters for positions of opposition.
Composite words are more common in germanic languages, which is the group my native tounge fits in ;)
Linguistics and filology are fun hobbies, especially when you're on your way to becomming a polyglot :)
nitenichiryu1 - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
Interesting. I've never seen anyone on anandtech comment on something linguistic. I agree with your notion, because studies descriptive linguistics show that the canonical and widely accepted form will always be preferred. Everyone else who deviates from that are really just precriptivists sounding more pedantic than anything.Btw, the "who" vs "whom" distinction is being lost!!!
Language changes fast, and at the control of no single person. "Regardless" of what I say, this will probably change nothing and the flame war will ensue =D.
Sorry, let us get back to talking about the article =P.
Shadowmaster625 - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
For all intensive purposes, the entire 1st page is taken up by this stuff.BioHazardous - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
It's "intents and purposes" not "intensive purposes". Just because a lot of people make the same mistake, that doesn't make it right.GullLars - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
But what if the purposes for taking up the first page with linguistics were intense, and they were the only intense purposes in the comments? Then it would actually also be for all intensive purposes :PGullLars - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
As Anandtech's readership contains a lot of nerds and geeks, comments on linguistics are inevitable, and once they occur the probability of replies and elaborations is high.While spoken languages may be allowed wide variations and frequent changes, the written languages have syntaxes and dictionaries (word sets) from which you can tell if something is allowed or not. Semantics and Pragmatics are also important to avoid misunderstandings.
If a language's syntax allows composite words, and the composite word is semantically sound from it's parts and context, the composite word is allowed.
Irregardless is a composite word, and it's a double negative.
ir = not, less = without.
So irregardless in long form would be "not without regard". This emphasizes there is not a lack of regard.
An alternative is to cancel the negatives and use the more common "with regard".
Double negative composite words are typically used to describe counter/opposition to a negative composite word, emphasizing the lack of negative.
StormyParis - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
but it is fun ! use of almost-real words makes me gruntled.Mr Perfect - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
You know, it's about time someone was gruntled around here.SilthDraeth - Sunday, June 5, 2011 - link
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-dis1 dot htm"The verb gruntle is the frequentative of grunt.
The first sense of gruntle was of a repeated grunt, especially the noise that pigs make in company. An example is in The Life and Death of Mr Badman, by John Bunyan, of 1680: “After this his speech went quite away, and he could speak no more than a Swine or a Bear. Therefore, like one of them, he would gruntle and make an ugly noise, according as he was offended, or pleased, or would have any thing done.” It is rarely used of humans, but an example occurs in a 1922 book, The Covered Wagon, by Emerson Hough, “They dismounted. The two Indians, short, deep-chested, bow-legged men, went to the packs. They gruntled as they unloaded the two larger mules.” Gruntle appeared in the fifteenth century; by the end of the next century it had begun to be used to mean grumbling or complaining. I imagine it as old-retainer mumble, the noise that someone fed up with their condition will make under their breath all the time.
If we put the intensifier and the frequentative together in one word, disgruntled has its current meaning, which the Oxford English Dictionary describes as a state of “moody discontent, sulky dissatisfaction or ill-humour”."
JWade - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
wouldnt one possible way to make the motherboard a reality would be to have pretty much two motherboards together, only sharing the i/o pane and power inputs? the i/o panel would have some sorta built in kvm switch on the motherboard. 8 sata3 for each socket, 3 sata6 for each socket. each socket has its own memory.jonup - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
Exactly what I was thinking. But is it worth it? You would need a case that is twice as large; and, on the high end, cooling might become an issue.tynopik - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
> it provides the interesting idea of something that might be possible in the future: You want to upgrade your machine to the latest chipset and processor. Rather than throw your old processor away or sell it on, you could buy a motherboard that lets you harness the power of the old processor and a new processor together, in some form of chimerism.that's NOT what they're attempting
rather it lets you buy a board now that will support your old CPU and then when you're ready for a new cpu, plug it in without buying a new motherboard. This disables the old CPU. At no point are both CPUs running at the same time.
It truly is 2 motherboards glued together, which has to be the stupidest idea a manufacturer has presented since headcasting.
H8ff0000 - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
No, your wrong. Read the "Concept Motherboard" sign they stuck on the board. It explains that you can use BOTH at the same time. Don't correct people blindly.tynopik - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
No it doesn'tparse the marketing speak carefully
'fully utilize your Intel Gulftown when upgrading to the new platform'
by buying their board, you are upgrading to the 'new platform' (socket 2011) but can still use your Gulftown
they are in no way saying you can use a socket 2011 and socket 1366 cpu simultaneously
vol7ron - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
I was thinking the same thing; two sockets, but not simultaneous.I have to disagree that this is the "stupidest idea a manufacturer has presented", in fact, it's something I've been looking for to some degree.
Whenever I upgrade something, I essentially build a high-end new box and keep it for a few years til it's time to build another new box. Instead of building highends, I could build a mid-end until the high-end proc prices come down and then upgrade to that, instead of the whole box. Instead of missing phases of releases, I can have continual upgrades.
Example: use my 1366 now, when 2011 prices drop, buy it and plug it in. In a couple years get a new mobo with a 2011/next-gen dual socket, still using the 2011 and hopefully that next-gen will come down a few years later.
Depending on prices and time of releases, it could save quite a bit, considering decent mobos are around $300 these days.
sor - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
Well, that all comes down to price. If this board costs 1.75x-2x what a normal board costs, then there's not a whole lot of advantage to buying this with a 1366 'midrange' CPU in 2012 and then a new CPU in 2013, vs two CPUs and two motherboards, aside from convenience of not having to swap the boards. Also, the extra upfront cost of the dual socket board may very well cover you getting a socket 2011 sooner.With two sockets AND two chipsets, it's probably not going to be cheap. Another disadvantage is the ability to select features; for example you may be willing to do a mid-grade upgrade now, with a more value-priced set of motherboard features, and later when you drop the socket 2011 in you may want the features that a $200-300 motherboard may provide.
etamin - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
"rather it lets you buy a board now that will support your old CPU and then when you're ready for a new cpu, plug it in without buying a new motherboard. This disables the old CPU. At no point are both CPUs running at the same time."got any evidence? your view of the concept requires the existence (and availability) of a future chipset when you buy the current chipset which makes no sense at all.
jonup - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
^ I'm with stupid. He just beat me to it.tynopik - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
> your view of the concept requires the existence (and availability) of a future chipset when you buy the current chipset which makes no sense at all.no, it won't be available any sooner than any other 2011 boards
the only thing it accomplishes is that it lets you piecemeal upgrade by getting a new motherboard WITHOUT buying a new cpu
as if someone who could afford that board couldn't afford a new cpu at the same time
sor - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
No, no. This could be available next year, so you buy this board and a "cheap" 1366, putting off the upgrade to socket 2011 until prices come down.Solidstate89 - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
This looks like it would go great with the Temjin TJ-12 case I just saw previews on Kitguru.Two examples of extreme engineering, merged into one holy union.
lukewayne - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
I really hope this becomes a reality. I've been dreaming of fusing two motherboards in one case for years. i remember having two 350Mhz k6-II and wishing there was some way to combine their power.besides the difficulties already outlined, it seems like software support would be so low that it would be hard to take advantage of a setup like this. i'm remembering how few programs took advantage of x64 and dual core or MP back when each was introduced.
although with today's use of Mult-threading perhaps the additional CPU could be used as just more threads with some creative drivers.
either way i give a big thumbs up to asus
StormyParis - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
by the time any part of a PC needs upgrading, the rest of it also does. Plus, in the Intel world, each new CPU requires a new socket; and in the AMD world, you don't get new CPUs ^^bobbozzo - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
That's not the point; Your old CPU with it's old socket would go on this board, PLUS a new cpu with it's new socket.Regardless, the costs to make this board probably exceed the depreciated value of the old CPU.
jabber - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
Ahh but you are also limited with the fact that chances are the two sockets are just one generation apart.By the time you require to upgrade from socket 1 to socket 2 on the motherboard, chances are socket 2 will also be obsolete.
Having two generations of socket doesnt really make sense unless you like paying lots of money for dual obsolete socket motherboards.
Its an interesting idea but wouldnt really work as intended. Would cause more problems than it solves.
Bindibadgi - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
1) There's no X58 chipset on the board, only X792) The LGA1366 CPU and LGA2011 CPU can work together at the same time
3) They talk to each other via QPI, and you need the LGA2011 CPU to talk to the X79 via DMI. So if the LGA1366 CPU wants some SATA or USB action, it has to make a call via the other CPU.
4) PCI-Express comes from the LGA2011 CPU.
The LGA1366 CPU is just there as a workhorse. It's not an ideal, native Intel platform but it's the first, working dual-CPU board with at least one LGA2011 socket ;-)
ASUS shows off this stuff to say "Hey, we can do it, we like to experiment" - who else does these days? No one moans at F1 cars because they have no luggage space. :-P
don_k - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
Do you mind if I ask what your sources are? :) Because if what you say is true this is even more interesting.I would say that whether or not this is buy-able will depend on the amount of PCIe lanes available and the scaling with the 1366 cpu not being able to directly access PCIe, specifically SLI scaling on such a setup.
mbf - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
He knows those things because he works for ASUS. :)Oh, and that's not guesswork on my part.
Apart from that this concept seems a bit unrealistic to me. It really is one of those cases of "because we can".
Scyler6411 - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
If ASUS designs this motherboard for AMD chips, and that they are able to function efficiently, imagine how much MORE monry we can save on building a new AMD rig XDdastral - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
I could see a high demand for this type of product in the future.Imagine this :
1/4 Motherboard "ARM" handling all the HDDs + Network + Video
(We are talking about 10 watts total) kinda like a NAS/Router with some browsing capacity.
3/4 Motherboard with a "Normal CPU, Normal GPU etc etc etc" and the HDD+Network
are accesseded PCI Links.
By default you turn on the "ARM" part, hence very low power usage but more than enough for "browsing and multimedia and office work".
And when needed you can turn on the "big boy".
The "ARM" then acts just like a NAS/Router providing the access to the HDDs and Network.
I remember (probably asus again) did this with ATOM+775.
Of course with Optimus & Speedstep this is now "not very useful" but there is a lot of room here.
(Think about Android/Window hybrids, with the Android part beeing a tablet via USB)
Spoelie - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
This idea is nothing new and the implementation was far better before:http://www.asrock.com/mb/spec/upgrade.asp?Model=AM...
Johnmcl7 - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
My understanding of the board you've posted is that it allowed you to use a new processor socket but only one processor at a time whereas this Asus board theoretically allows both your old and new processors to be in use at the same time.John
BrightCandle - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
I can't see it having massive demand. While to some extent it would be nice to keep the old CPU around for a little extra performance in the few apps that actually benefit from more cores its not worth much to me.Unless Windows is smart enough to never use it unless the Ivy bridge cores are maxed out its not really a good idea because one CPU is potentially a lot slower than the other.
ggathagan - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
The dual technology concept isn't new, but like previous examples of coupling two different technologies, there are always trade-offs in performance or features.Usually the trade-offs are enough to prevent most people from buying the boards.
Remember the Apollo Pro133A that VIA produced in the early 2000's with support for Slot1/Socket 370?
Tyan's Trinity 400 was quite popular, but couldn't match the BX-based boards for performance or overclocking.
They were also taking advantage of Intel's disastorous decision to embrace RAMBUS.
And it's not been that long ago that ASRock was making its mark with other VIA and ULi chipsets that supported PCIe/AGP or DDR1/DDR2.
In both cases, however, they were slower than their Intel or AMD counterparts.
With VIA/Centaur focusing on their processors and ULi being absorbed by NVIDIA, there's no longer anyone even interested in producing alternative chipsets for either AMD or Intel, let alone being legally able to do so.
liveonc - Saturday, June 4, 2011 - link
There were Full Tower Chasis that could fit an ATX + mini ITX. What about an ARM + x86 mobo that are independandt of each other, but fit on the same ATX mobo?marraco - Sunday, June 5, 2011 - link
This would work better with AMD, since AMD maintains better socket compatibility between generations.I love the concept. I don't want to throw away my i7 920 and 6Gb of ram. If I upgrade, it would be to a 12/16 cores, which will not be much faster than the i7 on single threaded software. So upgrade only makes sense when there is available a lot of massively parallel software, able to take advantage of many cores. Then, 4 old cores will not be something to look down.
PubFiction - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
Concept cars can really be out there, but at least most concept cars actually function and are possible.So they glue a whole bunch of shit together that will never happen and it gets the press they hoped for.
This is kinda stupid really, to even be reporting on it. They should have a functional item even if it is buggy in order for it to be news. I mean I can go into the garage and solder a bunch of junk together that does not work will you report on it?
This would actually make sense if we were talking about an ARM CPU to quickboot and a real CPU for power applications and productivity. Both have access to all your data. And you have something like a bigger better asus transformer or better yet Acer iconia W500/A500 combo.
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compcons - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
Although the usefulness is debatable, the idea of using multiple chipsets, with discreet channels to multiple sockets isn't necessarily new. Although the implementation is a bit different, Tyan did this quite successfully with the Thunder K8WE. Each CPU had its own chipset, with separate buses and independent RAM. Effectively, the board segregated each CPU with it's own graphics slot and RAM. Obviously, this is different, but not completely out of the realm of possibility.http://www.tyan.com/product_board_spec.aspx?pid=15...
Let’s not forget the Gigabyte EP45 board that could run DDR2 or DD3 or the old AGP/PCIe boards from ECS. Again, not sure about the utility of such things.
EH
Arbie - Monday, June 6, 2011 - link
I agree that this is a publicity joke not even worth reporting. Why did AT waste my time?If Asus mobo designers have so much free time, I wish they would fix the fan speed selection ranges in the Rampage Formula BIOS. The existing ranges are ridiculous (down to 16 degC!) with steps so large as to make them useless. Three years and they haven't fixed this.
FWIW, "irregardless" is simply poor English, and no amount of using it will improve things. The OED gives a first reference as a dialect dictionary in 1912.
JoJoman88 - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
Put two SB-E sockets on the motherboard and then we wil talk about it.ruzveh - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
I think its a good idea overall. But need some tweaking here. To put it as it can become a single mdb for both Intel and AMD, isnt it? U got the option to use any cpu or chipset u like on this board without upgrading it or getting confuse which cpu and chipset to go for. Well Done Asus.. Thumbs upWhy throw a motherboard to change over system or upgrade them? Save wastage save enviornment.. Afterall more than 90% of the components are similar on every mdb.
goodsyntax - Tuesday, June 7, 2011 - link
You can restructure the old monolithic vs. packaged arguments that Intel and AMD had when they first rolled out dual core and quad core chips.Technically, it may not be as high in terms of raw performance as a truly unified board, but you could use some of the interconnect technologies in cloud and distributed computing (Fibre-channel, inifiband, messaging, queuing, etc.) to connect both board segments and make them work together. The software/firmware effort of course would be tremendous, but you could pull it off and make two discrete PCs/servers appear and behave as one. Why you would invest the R&D cost to do so is another question.
Personally, I think resources would be better utilized in designing a more modular, component based system where the "motherboard" is really just high speed lanes for storage, memory, compute and graphic subsystems. We've already taken some steps in the high-end server area with daughterboards and add-in cards, but to design a motherboard from the ground up as just I/O interconnects for the various subsystems just makes more sense. You want to upgrade your CPU from a single socket 2011 to dual socket, drop in a new compute board. Need more memory - add another daughterboard.
Imagine a time when the motherboard is just thousands of I/O lanes that you simply drop modules into. That would certainly take the pain out of upgrades. You only upgrade what you want to upgrade instead of having to worry the entire system. Certainly big changes, such as memory standards (DDR2 to DDR3) would require two new add-in boards, but at least it's modular and reusing/repurposing components is far more sensible than throwing away an entire system because one part of it is obsolete.
vvvvssss1111 - Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - link
They could use infiniband to link the 2 cpus together.henhaohenhao - Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - link
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