HARDOCP - ECS Presentation - ECS Editor's Day 2005

Date:: Monday , August 29, 2005
Author:: Keith Dugger
Editor:: Kyle Bennett
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ECS Editor's Day 2005

ECS recently invited us to participate in their first Editor’s Day. Of note, ECS answers the SLI call and promises motherboard upgrades without replacing the motherboard itself! Read on to learn all about the “New ECS.”

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ECS Presentation

Back at the hotel, ECS continued the day with the CEO’s opening speech, an ECS overview, and a product sneak preview.

Opening Speech

See See Lo, CEO of ECS USA, announced the merger of ECS USA and PCChips. She detailed the reorganization into two business units that allow ECS to provide a level of product specialization the company had not previously seen.

See See Lo also marked this event as the introduction of the “New ECS.”

ECS Overview – Company Profile

Adam Chou, Senior Manager of Marketing, then presented a brief company profile including a short marketing video.

ECS employs approximately 10,000 people around the world and strives to be the world’s leading supplier. To meet the demand of the “New ECS” push into the enthusiast market, ECS is building a new headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan (currently schedule to open in 2006).

Current market research data provided by ECS shows the company to be one of the top two motherboard suppliers in the world. ECS products account for approximately 15-20% of the global market. To lower costs, all products are manufactured in China using Just-In-Time manufacturing and shipped to other locations for assembly and final shipping.

ECS manufacturing is currently running at 2.2MM motherboards per month out of a 2.5MM capacity and expects to hit a target of 20MM motherboards for 2005. In addition to motherboards, ECS is also currently shipping 250,000 notebooks per month.

ECS products are divided into three lines: Motherboards, notebooks, and systems.

In the motherboard realm, ECS now offers the Extreme line for the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) enthusiast. The branded ECS line is for the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and System Integrator (SI) and the PCChips line supplies the clone market.

ECS Overview – Product Sneak Preview

Joe Chang, Director of Product Marketing, gave us a preview of two key technologies coming out of ECS research and development.

The first technology is the Scalable Dual Graphics Engine (SDGE) designed to bring dual graphics cards to the mainstream market. The second technology is EliteBus and SIMA Card (introduced in the PF88 Extreme series), which, when combined, offer the ability to upgrade a motherboard to a new CPU and North Bridge technology without replacing the motherboard.

SDGE-enabled boards offer two PCI Express x16 slots and a slot to accommodate a separately purchased module that enables the dual graphics card support on the SDGE motherboard. This dual graphics card support is similar to NVIDIA’s currently available Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology and ATI’s soon-to-be-released Crossfire technology. However, the ECS technology offers a lower-cost alternative to the mainstream dual graphics card market. According to ECS, SDGE is not meant to compete with the higher-end products such as SLI or CrossFire.

The above two slide show graphical examples of AMD and Intel motherboards with the optional SDGE Module installed. Notice how the module intercepts the North Bridge to South Bridge signal and re-routes this it to the module’s own Hypertranport chip. This enables the board to use both graphics cards.

The above slides show the specifications for an Intel and AMD SDGE solution.

Next was the introduction of the PF88 Extreme Hybrid series. The above slide is intended to show ECS’ reasoning behind this series. Of note is the fact that South Bridge technologies are added and/or improved at a much slower pace than North Bridge. ECS hopes to counter this issue with the PF88 Extreme specification.

The PF88 Extreme Hybrid offers the ability to upgrade the CPU, North Bridge, and memory technologies on a motherboard without replacing the motherboard itself. This is done through the addition of a SIMA card (a PCB add-on that offers the support for the CPU, North Bridge, and memory) into the new Elite Bus slot.

The unique thing about this technology is the ability to move from an Intel to an AMD processor or even to a mobile technology without purchasing a new motherboard. This is intended to protect one’s original investment and provides relief from being tied to a single technology. The SIMA card is expected to cost approximately US$40 and is purchased separately.

The PF88 Extreme Hybrid is an Intel platform supporting the LGA775 socket. It is currently slated to have a SiS 656/FX+965 pair of chipsets that will support the motherboard prior to the SIMA upgrade. As the two slides show, the PF88 Extreme Hybrid offers plenty of features.

Here is an example of the AMD SIMA A9S card. It is designed to fit in a standard ATX case and will occupy two card slots.

The SIMA card is currently slated for an AMD model supporting the 939 socket (A9S), an AMD model (A4S) supporting the 754 socket, and an Intel model (I9S) supporting the 479 socket for Intel’s Pentium M processor.

Per ECS testing, an upgrade using the SIMA technology on a PF88 Extreme Hybrid does little to hurt performance. The chart details their test results.

The benefits of the Elite Bus and SIMA card technologies are expected cost savings and flexibility. ECS even promises that no operating system re-installation is necessary. However, I respectfully reserve judgment on that claim until we can see the SIMA card in action.

Here is a simple slide showing where ECS stands on SIMA card development.

Here is a sneak peak at what a motherboard with the SDGE module installed will look like.

In addition, here are a few pictures of two SIMA cards (I9S in the first picture; A4S in the second and third pictures) as well as a SIMA card (A4S) installed on a PF88 Extreme Hybrid board.