MSI Announces New MS-6589 Motherboard with Support For Upcoming AMD Opteron™ and Eighth-Generation AMD Athlon™ Processor-Based Platforms

Taipei, Taiwan -- 6/3/2002 -- MSI today announced the MS-6589 motherboard supporting AMD Opteron™ and eighth-generation AMD Athlon™ processors. The MS-6589 is designed to provide excellent chipset performance and scalability for the new AMD platforms. Utilizing the AMD architecture with x84-64 technology, performance of this motherboard can easily meet the requirements of both high-end PCs and workstations. Providing performance competitive with products currently on the market, the MS-6589 should be an important product for the second half of 2002.

The MS-6589 is based on the newest AMD chipset including AMD-8151™ AGP3.0 Graphics Tunnel and AMD-8111™ HyperTransport ™ I/O Hub. The eighth-generation architecture provides a Socket 754 CPU, different from previous AMD Athlon technology, and will allow users a chance to experience the next generation of PC performance. AMD Opteron and eighth-generation AMD Athlon processors will also integrate a DDR memory controller into the CPU to provide enhanced system performance.

"With HyperTransport technology, the upcoming AMD Opteron and eighth-generation AMD Athlon processors and MSI motherboards will provide customers with improved performance, eased integration and increased graphics and data throughput," said Larry Wu, Sales VP, MSI. HyperTransport will also help alleviate memory bottlenecks, improve bandwidth and diminish latency."

“AMD and MSI are using open, industry-standard technologies including HyperTransport and x86-64 to create innovative, high-performance systems,” said Rich Heye, vice president, platform engineering and infrastructure, AMD’s Computation Products Group. “Customers will be able to optimize 32-bit performance while gradually evolving toward a 64-bit environment.”

The MS-6589 and AMD-8111 HyperTransport I/O Hub will utilize AGP 3.0 technology (AGP-8X), and will also be backward compatible with earlier versions of AGP (2.0, 1.0). MS-6589 memory supports 2 DDR 333/266 memory modules (PC2700/2100) and allows a maximum support of 2GB DDR SDRAM. AMD-8111 HyperTransport I/O Hub will also provide ATA133 and USB 2.0 support. The combination of these state-of-the-art technologies dramatically enhances system performance.

The cost of setting up a LAN system can be greatly reduced with (optional) internet connectivity at a rate of 10/100Mbps. As far as expandability is concerned, not only will this motherboard provide 6 USB 2.0 ports, but also IEEE1394 for user upgrades. With the MS-6589, the user is offered many upgrade possibilities without the need for changing peripherals.

To satisfy power users’ desires for high-end audio quality, the MS-6589 integrates 5.1-channel audio (optional) and allows the user the option of setting up a 6-speaker system for surround sound, allowing for a home-theatre environment. Users also experience increased audio quality for DVDs or gaming. The MS-6589 will support 1 AGP 8x port, 5 PCI slots and 1 CNR slot. As well, users have the option of taking advantage of MSI in-house features such as D-Bracket (optional), Live Update 2, Fuzzy Logic 4, PC Alert III and others, giving users high-end system performance.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. HyperTransport is a trademark of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium.