If broadwell is taking the south bridge on-chip...it seems like motherboards are going to be getting a lot "dumber". All that's left are the slots, sockets, ports, some voltage regulators, capacitors and resistors and maybe Audio and the random 3rd party controller, and BIOS/EFI. Audio seems simple enough that it could get brought on-chip pretty readily as well. That saves a big chunk of space on board and should make routing traces quite a bit easier. What does this mean for motherboards? Are they going to get cheaper?
I wish someone would work on the power connectors, those things are huge and unsightly. How is there not a better standard for that 1 inch thick bundle of wires that most PSUs come with.
My hope is that we can finally see a round of legacy free up to date boards.
My Dream Legacy Free Board
Board layout:
-CPU socket
-DDR4 x 4 (maybe 8 if there was a less bulky DIMM socket, maybe use SODIMM)
-EFI x 2
-PCIe 3.2 x16x6 (why put in smaller slots in if you can use x1,x4,x8 cards in a x16 slot)
-Audio (if not integrated)
-Bluetooth 4.1
-Wireless ac
-slimmer updated power connectors placed in smarter locations (i.e. top right edge of board horizontally, port facing parallel with board plane)
-all solid state components (caps etc)
Backplane:
-Thunderbolt x 6 (DP compatible so that's all your display and fast peripherals)
-USB3.1 x 8 (for 'slow' peripherals and general purpose connectivity, maybe use the mini or micro version even if you wanted to save more space, but you'd need to make sure they lock in more securely if you use smaller ones)
-M2 (SATA Express?) x 6 (for fast "internal" storage)
-Digital coax or Optical Output and maybe 1 headphone and 1 mic port (but really why not use a usb headset or bluetooth headset)
-10Gb NIC
- Antenna port for WiFi ac antenna(s)
-PCIe slots
I wish someone would work on the power connectors, those things are huge and unsightly. How is there not a better standard for that 1 inch thick bundle of wires that most PSUs come with.
My hope is that we can finally see a round of legacy free up to date boards.
My Dream Legacy Free Board
Board layout:
-CPU socket
-DDR4 x 4 (maybe 8 if there was a less bulky DIMM socket, maybe use SODIMM)
-EFI x 2
-PCIe 3.2 x16x6 (why put in smaller slots in if you can use x1,x4,x8 cards in a x16 slot)
-Audio (if not integrated)
-Bluetooth 4.1
-Wireless ac
-slimmer updated power connectors placed in smarter locations (i.e. top right edge of board horizontally, port facing parallel with board plane)
-all solid state components (caps etc)
Backplane:
-Thunderbolt x 6 (DP compatible so that's all your display and fast peripherals)
-USB3.1 x 8 (for 'slow' peripherals and general purpose connectivity, maybe use the mini or micro version even if you wanted to save more space, but you'd need to make sure they lock in more securely if you use smaller ones)
-M2 (SATA Express?) x 6 (for fast "internal" storage)
-Digital coax or Optical Output and maybe 1 headphone and 1 mic port (but really why not use a usb headset or bluetooth headset)
-10Gb NIC
- Antenna port for WiFi ac antenna(s)
-PCIe slots
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