Computex Taipei 2005 Pre-Show Synopsis

Of all the computer trade shows around the world, spanning the globe from the United States to Germany to Australia, one of the biggest and longest lasting events occurs every year in Taipei, Taiwan. This year, 2005, will serve as the 25th anniversary for Computex Taipei. Every year, thousands of manufacturers such as Abit, Asus, NVIDIA, Acer, ATI, and Intel exhibit their latest products and concepts for the world to see. In fact, there are over 3,000 booths to be seen at this year's event, making it the world's second largest IT exhibition. The run dates for this year's event is May 31, 2005 to June 4, 2005. Today however, we have a small pre-show synopsis for a portion of the items that will be displayed at this year's show and will be presented here at Phoronix as the day's progress. Continue on as we hit the streets of Taiwan for this un-forgettable event.

Of all the items currently being discussed (in public) on a number of different forums and chat services, one of the most debated items has been NVIDIA's so-called G70 VPU or better known as the 7XXX series. The models currently expected at this time consist of GeForce 7800, GeForce 7800GT, and GeForce 7800GTX. These new cards are expected to deliver TWICE the performance of current generation 6800's. Some of the expected features include a 256-bit memory interface, 430MHz core / 1.20GHz memory, 256MB GDDR3 RAM, 22 or 24-pixel pipeline design, and 10 vertex shaders. These next generation cards are expected to be fabricated using a 90 or 110nm process by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company).

Attempting to catch up with NVIDIA's SLI (Scalable Link Interface), ATI is expected to release its own version of Multi VPU technology, with a reported name of "Crossfire". Differing from NVIDIA's design, ATI's Crossfire is expected to require a "master" card, which will be a new generation card, and a "slave" card, which is expected to be any current generation ATI X800 series card. Also premiering at Computex 2005 will be ATI's R520 (Fudo) VPU. It will be interesting to see who which one of these giants win this round of the graphics solution showdown.

Onto processors, Intel’s Pentium D and AMD’s Athlon 64-X2 should both be in appearance at this year’s show. For those unfamiliar, they’re the latest dual-core processors from both major CPU manufacturers. We also expect to see several AMD Geode LX 800 processors running in different applications. These new AMD Geode processors are x86 architecture-based and require a mere 0.9W of power, eliminating the need for CPU heatsinks. Although we haven’t come across many rumors floating around regarding any of VIA’s processors for Computex, we do suspect VIA of possibly expanding their Eden or C3 line of processors, at this year’s Computex event, to combat AMD’s Geode.

At Computex 2005, our friends over at Tyan will be expanding their line of AMD Opteron motherboards by unleashing an 8-Way AMD Opteron motherboard and barebones server system.

Abit is generally well known to throw a good show at the different events, and this year’s performance is expected to be no different. Their MAX, Fatal1ty, and Guru line of products will be expanded. Some of the speakers at Abit’s 2005 Gaming Technology forum will be Intel’s Chris Tobias, ATI’s Paul Ayscough, Corsair’s Scott Thirlwell, and Jonathan Wendel (Fatal1ty).

This year at Computex, Corsair will be showing off and emphasizing their XMS2-5400UL and XMS2-8000UL, deemed the fasted DDR2 memory currently available. In addition, Corsair is going to be displaying (and possibly expanding) their XPERT and COOL line of products.

Keep in mind, much of the information on this page has been received through the rumor-mill and a very little has been confirmed by the various manufacturers. Check back at Phoronix daily (May 31, 2005 to June 5, 2005) for insider pictures along with editorial comments, exclusive interviews, tours, and possibly some video footage from this year's Computex 2005.

To view the rest of the Computex coverage, please click here.