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Gigabyte has announced that its USB 3.0-supporting motherboards will support the UASP protocol – leading to higher data throughput and reducing CPU use.

Gigabyte has explained that, by adopting the USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP), its customers get data throughput gains, reduced load on the CPU and less latency.

"At Gigabyte we have made it our goal to be the leading USB 3.0 motherboard brand and so we are pleased to announce support of UASP across all our SuperSpeed USB products," commented Tim Handley, Deputy Director of Motherboard Marketing at Gigabyte.

Value and importance

"As an increasing range of external USB 3.0 storage devices make their way into the market after Computex this year, we see great value and importance in UASP in driving the performance of SuperSpeed USB to reach its full potential," he added.

Gigabyte is currently selling over 30 motherboards that support 'SuperSpeed' USB 3.0, and current owners need to download the latest USB 3.0 driver from the Gigabyte website.

Perhaps you've fallen into the trap of thinking that a motherboard is just a slab of fibreglass for the all important processor to slot into. Well, it's time to rethink things: the motherboard is the nervous system of your PC.

It provides the essential communication pathways that enable the rest of your machine to do its job, handles the video circuitry and connections to external devices and even resists scrabbling hands trying to rip out graphics cards or rubbing all those essential components. Like all true workhorses, when it does its job, you barely notice it.

Manufacturing them remains a challenge. True, processors have features that are so small that they can't be seen with the naked eye, but the amount of technology at work when building a motherboard is no less impressive.

It's an intensive process – and one that you're about to learn in detail.

1. Raw materials

Like any other electronic item, tracing the motherboard back to its roots leaves us staring at a hole in the ground – or, to be more accurate, a couple of them.

The two dominant constituents of a printed circuit board are fibreglass – which provides insulation – and copper, which forms the conductive pathways, taking us back to their birthplaces in a sand quarry and open-cast copper mine respectively.

Turning sand into glass and copper ore into metal are processes that are hundreds of years old, but what we do with the materials next is anything but ancient.

2. Fabricating copper-clad laminate

Molten glass is extruded to produce glass fibres that are woven to create a sheet of fibreglass fabric. Next the sheet is impregnated with epoxy resin and heated to partially cure the resin; the resulting sheet is called 'prepreg'. Multiple sheets of prepreg are stacked to produce a laminated sheet of the required thickness.

Sheets of copper foil are applied to both sides of the laminate and the sandwich is placed in a heated press. This completes the curing of the resin, making the laminate rigid and causing the layers to bond together.

The result is an insulating sheet of fibreglass with copper foil on both sides: copper-clad laminate. The overall thickness of the printed circuit board (PCB) is typically 1.6mm. This means that, for a six-layer board, the fibreglass laminates will be about 0.35mm thick and the copper foil will be about 0.035mm thick.

The fibreglass is thick enough to provide adequate mechanical strength and rigidity, and the copper is sufficient for good electrical and thermal conductivity.

3. Etching away unwanted copper

A photosensitive material called photo-resist is applied to both sides of the copper-clad laminate, totally covering the copper layers. This is usually a dry film process, in which thin films of solid photo-resist are laminated onto both sides of the board using equipment that's fairly similar to an office laminator.

Now a transparent artwork showing the pattern of the PCB's pads and tracks is placed over the photosensitive copper-clad laminate, and is then exposed to ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet is used rather than visible light so the board can be handled safely in daylight.

Where the photo-resist is exposed to ultraviolet, the chemicals polymerise, forming a plastic. Since the board has two copper layers, each of which has a photo-sensitive coating, this process is carried out twice using different artworks for each side.

Next, the board is immersed in a chemical solution to develop the latent image. The developer washes away the unexposed photo-resist, leaving only material that was polymerised and which corresponds to the pad and tracks. The areas of the copper film that aren't protected by the remaining polymerised portions of the photoresist are etched away.

In an oxidation reaction, metallic copper is transformed into a copper salt, which is water-soluble and therefore washes off during the etching. For quick etching, the board passes through a chamber in which the etchant is sprayed at a high pressure and at a temperature of about 50C.

After etching, the board is washed to remove surplus etchant and the remaining photo-resist is removed using an organic solvent. The insulating fibreglass board now has a pattern of copper tracks on each side that will form the circuit's interconnections. This assembly is called a core.

However, motherboards have a multilayer construction, which means they have more than two copper layers. This means that the above process has to be carried out several times. In the case of a six-layer motherboard, two of these cores will be needed to provide four of those layers. We'll see later how the other two layers are made.

4. Building up a stack

Double-sided cores are now sandwiched together to start the creation of a multilayer PCB. Two cores are used for a six-layer board (a common figure for motherboards), but they can't be stacked directly on top of each other because this would cause the copper tracks on the top of the bottom core to short with the tracks on the bottom of the top core.

To stop this from happening, a sheet of prepreg is placed between them. Sheets of prepreg are also applied to the top and bottom of the stack before it's subjected to pressure and a high temperature to complete the curing of the prepreg and bond everything together.

For a six-layer board, the stack would comprise: prepreg / core / prepreg / core / prepreg. This means that the final result will be: fibreglass / copper / fibreglass / copper / fibreglass / copper / fibreglass / copper / fibreglass.

5. Drilling the holes

Holes are now drilled through the board. First come the mounting holes, which will be used for mechanical fixing (bolting the motherboard into the PC's case).

Second are the holes that are used to accommodate the leads of through-hole components when they're soldered to the board in a couple of steps' time.

Finally, there are the tiny holes that form vias (vertical interconnect access), which make electrical connections between the various copper layers – or will, when we get to routing, testing and QA.

Despite the use of a high-speed, numerically controlled drilling machine, drilling can be a very time-consuming process, especially if lots of different hole sizes are required. For this reason, it's common to stack boards together so that several are drilled at once, saving time and money.

6. Copper and tin plating

Electro-plating would be an obvious choice to make the vias conductive, except for one minor problem: only already-conducting surfaces can be electro-plated. To get around this, the board is immersed in various chemicals that coat its entire surface with a thin layer of copper. It's a slow method and very expensive, but it provides just enough conducting metal to electro-plate over the top.

Electro-plating the entire board would be wasteful because most of the copper would subsequently be etched away to produce the pads and tracks on the outer layers of the PCB. Instead a photo-resist is applied, exposed to UV light through an artwork and developed as when fabricating the copperclad laminate – but with one important alteration.

Here, a different type of artwork is used so that the photo-resist remains in those areas that don't correspond to the pads and tracks of the finished board. Now the electro-plating will only increase the thickness of the copper on the areas without the insulating photo-resist.

The board is finally electroplated with tin, which, once again, only adheres to those areas of the board that will form the pads and tracks. The tin serves three purposes: it prevents the copper tarnishing; it provides a surface that can be soldered to more easily than copper; and it acts as a resist (after first removing the remaining photo-resist) in the next process – etching away the unwanted copper.

We now have a PCB with copper pads and tracks on the outer two surfaces, tracks on four internal layers, and vias making the necessary connections between the various layers.

To complete the bare PCB, a solder mask and component identification are applied via silkscreen printing. The solder mask covers all of the board where solder shouldn't adhere when the components are fixed in place. This prevents unwanted bridges between tracks that could occur during wave soldering in step 9.

The component identification provides a visible labelling of each of the components with their serial numbers. This is useful in manual inspection or board maintenance.

7. Routing, testing and QA

Steps 2 to 7 involved the processing of a panel – a sheet of material comprising several motherboard PCBs. Now the individual boards are separated using a numerically controlled router, which is also used to create any non-plated larger holes and slots that are needed.

The board is then given a going over by a 'bed-of-nails' tester, an automated process that probes both sides of the board to ensure that electrical pathways exist where they are supposed to and that there are no shorts.

Finally, before leaving the PCB fabrication facility, the motherboard is given a QA inspection to ensure it meets its specification in terms of the overall board size, mounting hole tolerances and so on.

8. Surface mounting

The first components to be soldered onto the bare PCB are the surface mountings. Solder paste – a mixture of solder powder and flux – is printed onto those pads on the top surface of the board where the contacts of the surface-mounting components (SMCs) will be soldered. The SMCs are placed on the board using a pick-and-place machine.

The tackiness of the solder paste holds the components in place, but they're not fixed securely and there isn't a proper electrical connection.

The next stage is reflux soldering. The PCB is placed in a reflux oven and heated to over 200C. The solder in the paste melts and then solidifies when the board cools down again, providing good electrical connections and fixing the components securely.

9. Through-hole components

Next the larger through-hole components are fitted, often on a manual production line. Included are the processor socket, the memory and expansion card slots and the various connectors such as keyboard, mouse, audio and video sockets. The components are fitted to the top side of the board with their pins protruding through pads on the bottom side of the board.

The board then enters a wave soldering machine. This contains a tank of molten solder that's pumped across a submerged edge, causing a raised wave of solder. As the board progresses through this apparatus, each part of the bottom side of the board comes into contact with the solder wave. The solder adheres to the board wherever it's free of solder resist, thereby making mechanical and electrical connections between the component leads and the pads.

10. Final testing and packaging

For final testing, processor and memory modules are plugged into their sockets. External PC components such as a hard disk, CD/DVD drive, monitor, keyboard and so on are also plugged into their appropriate connectors. With the motherboard now effectively built into a complete PC, a full functional test involving every socket is carried out.

This is mostly an automated process, although humans do still have a part in the process for areas like audio circuitry. All this is followed up with a 'burn-in' test, which involves running diagnostic software on the motherboard for a protracted time while it's subjected to high temperatures and temperature cycles.

If the board passes this test, which is designed to cause any potentially faulty components to fail, the motherboard is complete. All that remains is for the finished board to be packaged in an antistatic bag and box, and it's ready to take pride of place in a new PC.

Pictures of Asus' hotly anticipated Rampage III Formula have surfaced, revealing plenty of details of this gaming motherboard.

The Rampage III Formula will be part of Asus' Republic of Gamers 'ROG' range and will use the X58 chipset, acting as a cheaper version of the popular Rampage III Extreme.

It will offer SupremeFX X-Fi 2 audio, Digital VRM and Intel Ethernet to improve system performance by relieving CPU load during online gaming.

The gaming world has been waiting for an X58 board that sits somewhere between the high-end offerings, with many features that gamers are not fussed by, and the budget end – and Rampage III Formula is looking to fill this niche.

There are, as you would expect, six DDR3 memory slots supporting 2200MHz and a maximum 24GB.

Asus' board is also offering three PCIe 2.0 x16 slots supporting three-way SLI and CrossFireX, Gigabit LAN from the Intel 82567V Ethernet controller, two SATA 6Gbps, and USB 3.0

MSI has announced that it has updated its OC Genie firmware on its latest P55A mainboards to allow users to unlock the latest socket 1156 Intel Core processors.

MSI is offering its 'Super Unlock' feature on its latest P55A series' BIOS, and believes that this offers major enhancement to overclocking performance.

"To complement Intel's latest Core Processor (Socket 1156) which boasts the "Unlocked" overclocking function, MSI reveals its newest P55A Mainboard Series," states MSI's release.

Super Unlock

"This new mainboard series gives users improved overclocking performance with MSI's unique "Super Unlock" function enabling processors with a 3GHz default speed to boost the clock speed up to 4GHz!

"No more will gamers need to worry about spending extra money to enjoy a more powerful gaming experience!"

The last statement is, of course, a little hyperbolic, but the functionality means that users with the right motherboard and Intel's Core i7-875K or Core i5-655K can press the OC Genie Button to gain access to the unlocked CPU multiplier in the new Intel K-series chips.

"With the latest version of the BIOS, endusers with a MSI P55 mainboard series can upgrade their OC Genie at no extra cost to enjoy improved computing performance and a higher adrenaline rush!" concludes MSI.

So a quick flash of your BIOS will also give existing owners of MSI P55 boards access to the auto-overclocking joy that comes with the Intel K-series.

Running more than one graphics card on a motherboard has always been fraught with problems, not least which cards will play nice together, with MSI's Fuzion line though AMD and NVIDIA cards can now make friends.

We've got hold of a pre-production sample of MSI's P55A Fuzion motherboard, and though it's by no means the finished article it does represent what could be a fascinating change in multi-GPU motherboards.

Until Lucid got on the scene with it's multi-GPU chip things had been very much limited to either only running multiple NVIDIA or multiple AMD cards.

And within that there were further caveats ensuring that only identical GPUs could actually be used in conjunction with each other.

With the Lucid LT22102 chip that's housed on the P55A Fuzion and it's sister board, the AMD chipset-based 870A Fuzion, you can now use non-identical card together, as well as cross-vendor graphics.

Personally I think it's the non-identical part that could really pay dividends going forward.

Of course the key headline grabber is the ability to use AMD and NVIDIA cards together, but there is a lot of brand loyalty in the graphics card market and many of us will stick with the same vendor's GPUs anyway.

The ability to keep your existing GPU plugged into your system when you come to pick up a brand new card, and have even more power at your disposal than if you were operating with your new card alone, is a no-brainer.

The first Lucid-powered board was MSI's own Big Bang Fuzion, a rather pricey P55 board that unfortunately didn't do a lot for Lucid's cause.

The driver set wasn't mature enough to cope with the demands of multiple graphics cards and so compatibility was a massive issue. MSI is now sure though that Lucid is doing enough work with its driver set, and is releasing new drivers often enough to make it worth having another stab at the market.

There are other motherboard manufacturers, such as Asus, that are interested in the technology too.

If more manufacturers actually begin to release Lucid-powered boards then those drivers really will have to be up to snuff.

We saw a pre-production board from Asus, with the Lucid chip displayed proudly on it, at this year's Computex show in Taipei. So it's definitely interested in the tech.

Mainstream

One of the other interesting things about both the 870A AND P55A Fuzion boards is the fact that they aren't the high-end boards in their respective ranges.

The Big Bang Fuzion was the most expensive, and most feature-rich board MSI manufactured in its Socket 1156 lineup. These boards aren't necessarily charging a huge premium for the Lucid chip and I think that's a hugely important step.

With practically every mid-range board now offering multi-GPU capabilities in some form or another it would be tough to have the Fuzion boards standing too far above them in price terms.

The Lucid tech, in such a formative stage as it is, needs to be something people will see as a great bonus rather than the specific reason to pick up a Fuzion board.

Aiming them at the mid-range then is a far smarter move to get the technology off the ground.

There are three modes for multi-GPU in the Fuzion boards. N-mode offers non-identical multi-GPU processing with NVIDIA cards, A-mode offers the same with AMD cards and X-mode offers a combination of AMD and NVIDIA co-processing.

The list of supported NVIDIA cards goes right from the GeForce 9 series, through the GTX 2xx series and up to the current GTX 4xx cards.

On the AMD side the cards from both the Radeon 4 and 5 series cards are listed as compatible.

Both these lists though carry the caveat that dual GPU cards are not supported. The embedded CrossFire or SLI bridges in the single-PCB solutions obviously are at odds with the Lucid tech.

There are inevitably still compatibility issues with certain games too, and the latest Lucid driver comes with a list of compatible games for the three differing graphics modes.

The early signs from this pre-production board though are fairly promising considering the early driver set and BIOS versions in place.

Multi-GPU joy

Obviously right now we're not seeing the sort of percentage increases in performance that you're now getting with SLI or CrossFire, but the fact that we did see performance increases with two NVIDIA cards and no SLI license is positive.

Granted with the twin GTX 480s you'd hope for more than the 16% and 22% increases we saw in Far Cry 2 and World in Conflict respectively, but then this board was originally described as non-functional.

Quite what a fully functional P55A Fuzion will deliver then we'll have to wait and see, but these early signs are promising.

Things weren't so good in the touted X-mode however on this pre-production board. The GTS 250 and HD 5770 combo did not deliver a tangible increase in performance. There was a slight increase in World in Conflict's benchmark, but hardly significant.

In the X-mode though Lucid has almost gone back to the days of the multi-GPU master card, with the card in the primary PCIe slot dictating which vendor's technology to use.

If the NVIDIA card is in the first slot then CUDA and PhysX are available, if it's an AMD card however then you'll have access to the ATI Stream tech, for example, in its stead.

This X-mode though is obviously where Lucid is going to have its work cut out, after all it's taken years for AMD and NVIDIA to get its driver sets to their current, still-flawed, state.

But now we're just waiting on our final production sample of the 870A Fuzion and the P55A Fuzion, then we'll see for sure just how different the future of multi-GPU computing will be if Lucid can emerge as a serious player.

Stay tuned for the full review soon.

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MSI has recently announced the mainstream versions of its Fuzion motherboards.

What's interesting about this line up?

Well, like the Big Bang Fuzion P55 board before it, these 870A and P55A Fuzion boards carry the Lucid Hydra graphics chip.

This wee chippie enables multiple graphics cards to be used on the board, but the difference between traditional SLI and Crossfire boards though is that either AMD or NVIDIA cards can be used in any combination.

That means NVIDIA and AMD cards, like ebony and ivory, living together in perfect harmony, side by side next to this very keyboard. Oh lord, why don't we?

Previously we thought that was a signal the end times where close at hand, like human sacrifices and cats and dogs living together, but MSI is here to prove that wrong.

Currently we're told Lucid is making regular driver updates, at least in line with the sort of driver updates AMD makes in its monthly cycle.

We're also told that the current driver set is almost in line with the actual manufacturer's driver performance, and in some configurations actually better.

Other motherboard manufacturers are working with Lucid at the moment to implement its technology in other upcoming motherboards, but MSI has been at the forefront of this new tech.

We've got a pre-production sample of the P55a Fuzion benching in the test rig at the moment and will get you a hands-on review soon as we've corralled the NVIDIA and AMD cards into the same board.

Til then we'll leave you with the gorgeous hi-res imagery and the glorious possibilities GPU cross compatibility could offer.

Asus has announced what it terms the world's safest motherboards – with Asus Protect 3.0 featuring protection shields, anti-surge features, and system-optimized efficiency.

The company believes that it has set a new standard in 'total motherboard protection' with the launch of the ASUS Protect 3.0 Design which 'helps protect the earth, systems, and users.'

Triple protection

That's because the motherboards are equipped with 'intelligent anti-radiation shielding' which will apparently lower transmission of harmful radiation by up to 50 per cent – that's the bit that protects the users.

Anti-surge protection helps enhance component and system longevity, which is obviously the part which protects the system.

And the boards also include the ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) chip to 'reduce system-wide power consumption by up to 80.23% and to ensure a more environmentally sustainable operation.'

"In fact, 10 million EPU-enabled motherboards can help eliminate up to 207,430 tons of CO2 - equivalent to Australia's annual carbon emissions," Asus' release insists.

Asus has officially unveiled its latest motherboards – with the P7H57D/P7H55 Series bringing the LGA 1156 platform and support for Intel's Core i7, Core i5 and Core i3 processors.

Asus' P7H57D/P7H55 Series consists of three ATX and four mATX models for Intel's LGA1156 platform, and brings USB 3.0 support and SATA 6G technology.

"Featuring exclusive GPU Boost technology, the series delivers a rich visual experience for enhanced HD gaming," says Intel.

Energy efficient

"Built with Xtreme Design features, the P7H57D/P7H55 Series delivers optimized and energy-efficient performance," it continues.

Of course, it's going to be a big year for USB – with the 3.0 SuperSpeed technology arriving and SATA 6G – and Asus' motherboards take advantage of this.

"Users can expect ultra-fast data transfers with the latest bandwidth technology support. A Unique PCIe X4 Bridge Chip delivers true SATA 6G and USB 3.0 performance that maximizes the transfer rates of SATA 6Gb/s hard drives and delivers data transfer speeds ten times that of current USB 2.0 standards," adds Asus' press release.

"Such significant improvements enable users to transfer a 25GB HD movie file in 70 seconds or save a 4MB song in less than 0.01 seconds.

One of the best things about owning a PC is that if you're prepared to open the case up, you can upgrade your system any time you choose.

In addition, because it's a modular design you can concentrate on upgrading the oldest parts, or even add completely new functionality with the addition of a plug-in cards or USB devices.

The heart of this system is the motherboard, into which all your other PC components plug into and communicate with each other.

There's a great deal of choice when it comes to buying a new motherboard, from the type of CPU that it's compatible with, the memory it uses, the size, and even if it has extra functionality such as onboard audio and graphics.

One of the most important decisions about choosing a new motherboard is what processor you want to use, and your choice will dictate how the CPU fits into a socket on the motherboard.

• 9 best PC upgrades for gamers

Choice of two

Intel and AMD are the two processor manufacturers. Their ranges of CPUs use a completely different socket and furthermore each company changes the number of pins that their processors use from time to time, and so there are a number of different sockets to choose from.

Intel has even gone as far as removing the pins from its CPUs, replacing them with contact points and having the pins in the CPU socket instead, which helps to avoid the issue of bent pins that could occur when fitting or removing a CPU.

AMD has included some backwards compatibility in some of its sockets that, while helping some users to use newer or older CPUs in their motherboard, can cause some confusion.

If you're buying a new motherboard then there's a good chance that you'll be buying a new CPU too, unless you really want to keep using your old processor. If you're sticking with your old CPU then of course you'll need to buy a motherboard with a compatible socket.

Intel's most recent CPUs are known as Core i7 and Core i5. Core i3 is due to be released soon.

Slightly older, but still perfectly good CPUs are the Core 2 range; pick from either Core 2 Duo (dual-core) or Core 2 Quad. Core 2 CPUs use a socket design called LGA775.

• How motherboards are made

Core i7 is a very high-end CPU and so Core i5 will be a more mainstream solution, while Core i3 includes an integrated graphics processor. All three of the Core i-series CPUs use the same socket 1156 format, so if you decide to purchase a Core i3 CPU it'll be possible to upgrade to a Core i7 CPU at a later date.

The Intel Celeron is aimed at the budget market, while the Pentium fills the gap between budget and dual-core.

AMD's current CPU range comprises the Phenom, Phenom II, Athlon and Sempron. The Sempron is the budget processor that's comparable with Intel's Celeron CPU and is a single-core, 64-bit CPU aimed at undemanding users. It can be used in AM2 and Socket S1 boards.

The Athlon 64 is AMD's legacy dual-core CPU and is being replaced by the Athlon II. It's available for AM2, AM2+ and AM3 motherboards.

The Athlon II is based on the same architecture as the Phenom, but is aimed at the budget to mid-range market. It has two cores and is only available in AM3 socket format.

The Phenom and Phenom II make up AMD's high-end CPUs. There are two series: the 8000, which are triple-core CPUs; and 9000, which are quad-core CPUs. Phenom CPUs fit Socket AM2+ boards.

Phenom II is the most recent series of high-end CPUs from AMD, available in dual, triple and quad-core iterations and which use the AM2+ AM3 sockets. The main difference is that the AM3 socket versions support DDR3 RAM.

The type of CPU the board supports also dictates the type of memory that it'll use. DDR2 is well established and is the type of memory that most motherboards have used in the past few years.

GRAPHICAL BIOS: Some more advanced boards allow you to adjust your BIOS settings from inside Windows

However, both AMD and Intel's latest CPUs require DDR3 memory, so if you buy a Core i7 (socket 1156) or AM3 board then you'll need to invest in new RAM.

While DDR2 introduced the concept of the dual-channel memory bus, DDR3 brings the option for triple channel. Not all motherboards will offer triple channel, and even if yours does you can still use memory in single or dual channel configurations.

DDR3 is still expensive compared to DDR2, so this does mean you don't have to break the bank on a triple-pack of matched modules. Yet if you do have deep pockets and run a 64-bit Operating System then you can potentially fit 24GB!

However, as this will currently cost you over £1,100 a more sensible amount would be 6GB, although this is still going to cost you a hefty £125 or so. A 3GB kit will cost you a more sensible £65 and can be used with 32-bit OSes.

• The complete guide to upgrading your PC

Sounds good

While virtually all motherboards have built-in audio, some offerings will be higher-end than others. On budget boards you'll get stereo input and output, with connectors on the rear-panel and usually some pins to connect to the audio ports on the front of your PC case.

More expensive boards will include digital output and will usually offer 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound as well. While this may all be built into the board itself – at least on some very high-end boards – a PCI-Express sound card may be included that may offer extra features, such as optical out.

If you're a regular games player then you'll usually want to invest in a dedicated PCI-Express graphics card. However, if your graphic needs are undemanding then why not invest in a inexpensive motherboard that includes integrated graphics?

These aren't suitable for high-end gaming, but will be perfectly acceptable for undemanding games and even some online multiplayer games such as the space-faring epic EVE.

If you decide that you need better graphics at a later date, then so long as your board has a PCI-Express slot, you can simply purchase a more advanced graphics card and plug it in.