Tyan Tiger K9HE S3970 Preview

Board Layout:

Starting by looking at the motherboard in the upper right hand corner are eight 240-pin DDR2 slots. These DDR2 DIMMs support ECC Registered modules and speeds up to DDR2-667MHz. There were some speculations that the new Socket F processors would initially support DDR2-800MHz but that does not seem to be the case, though with a later revision we will likely see this support added. Likewise, it was also believed by some that Socket F would bring the integration of FB-DIMMs on the AMD front, but we have yet to see this Fully Buffered DIMM support. If you will recall from our article and tests with FB-DIMMs on the Intel Bensley Platform, fully buffered RAM does bring a host of benefits, including the ability to upgrade to DDR3 without the need of a new processor or motherboard. Above the memory is an 8-pin EPS12V power connector.

Below the DDR2 memory is the first of two CPU sockets. Advanced Micro Device's Socket F brings an entirely new design to the table compared against their current Socket 940 Opterons. This new socket boasts 1207 pins and is considered the same socket generation as Socket AM2, which was announced last May and covered here at Phoronix. Socket F is also AMD's first LGA (Land Grid Array) socket. Intel had adopted the LGA-775 socket for use with the Prescott's back in 2004, and has brought their server line to LGA motherboards/processors with the LGA-771 interface. Looking at the LGA-1207 Socket F on the K9HE, it is quite similar to Intel's LGA-775 design, and it uses a similar retention frame for keeping the processor in place. The adoption of this new socket also brings changes to the heatsink mounting. Socket F is also compatible with AMD's quad-core Opterons. The first quad-core Opteron, Deerhound, is expected in the second half of 2007 and will feature shared L2 cache (similar to Intel's Conroe and its Smart Cache) as well as using a 65nm process.