Computex 2000 Coverage Day 3: More Motherboards

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We mentioned in our Day 1 Coverage that only one manufacturer would be producing an Athlon board based on ALi's upcoming DDR chipset. That one motherboard manufacturer happens to be Iwill, and above you can see a mockup of their KA266-R. The board they had at Computex wasn't functional but they expect to have it up and running by September.

No word yet on when you might be able to buy one, but Iwill was estimating that it will take at least another 3 months after the release of the ALi chipset (final revision) for the VIA DDR Athlon chipset to be complete. Whether or not that is true has yet to be seen.

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Here we have the ALi M1535D South Bridge sitting alongside the AMI MG80840 ATA 100/IDE RAID controller.

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The three 184-pin DDR SDRAM slots look just like the 168-pin SDRAM slots we've been used to, but if you want a DDR Athlon motherboard there's no easy upgrade other than to purchase new memory. Not to say that it can't be done, it's just that no one has announced plans to include 168-pin SDRAM slots on a DDR Athlon motherboard.

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Another picture of the PCI slots, South Bridge and AMI controller.

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And finally we have the ALi North Bridge on the KA266-R.