Rectron has unveiled seven new P55A-series motherboards that feature Gigabyte 333 onboard acceleration - a trio of technologies that includes USB 3.0, Serial-ATA Revision 3.0 (6Gbps) and a 3x boost in USB power.
“The new 333 onboard acceleration technologies on Gigabyte's market-leading P55 platform redefines the highly-successful P55 platform,” says Tony Chiang-Lin, components business manager at Rectron.
The enhancements to the P55 platform are the result of close co-operation with industry leaders, including NEC Electronics Corporation, Marvell, and Seagate.
“According to Gigabyte, this development will provide Gigabyte users with next-generation data transfer and storage technologies that will have a far-reaching impact on how people interact with their digital media for many years to come,” he added.
“The Gigabyte P55A-series motherboards were designed to offer a stable, high-speed platform for delivering fast data transfer via the Gigabyte 333 onboard acceleration technologies.”
NEC Electronics
Featuring the world's first USB 3.0 logo certified host controller uPD720200 from NEC Electronics, the P55A-series allows users to take advantage of super-fast USB transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, delivering 10x faster data transfer compared to USB 2.0.
“We are confident that Gigabyte's choice of NEC Electronics' USB 3.0 controller is a testament to their commitment to quality and performance,” said Masao Hirasawa, general manager of the SOC Systems Division at NEC Electronics Corporation.
“We fully expect SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to quickly pick up traction as the industry's foremost high-speed plug-and-play interface, thereby adding significant value to Gigabyte's motherboards in the PC DIY upgrade market.”
Marvell
Using the industry's first Serial ATA Revision 3.0 solution, the Marvell 88SE9128 controller, Gigabyte P55A-series motherboards offer support for next-generation high-speed data storage devices with data transfer speeds of up to 6Gbps.
Coupled with RAID 0 (Stripe) mode, SATA Revision 3.0 enables a data transfer boost of up to 4x the speed of SATA Revision 2.0.
“Marvell is pleased that Gigabyte has chosen our Marvell SmartTM SATA 6Gbps technology for the P55A-series of motherboards,” said Alan Armstrong, Vice-President of Marketing for the Storage Business Group at Marvell Semiconductor.
“Today's digital consumers have an insatiable need for storage - whether it is for images, video, music or other multimedia files. Gigabyte is consistently regarded as an industry leader when it comes to fulfilling those consumer needs while leading the market in integrating the latest technologies onto motherboard products.”
Seagate
"Seagate is pleased to be working with Gigabyte to help satisfy the world's demand for faster systems as users generate more bandwidth-hungry content," said Dave Mosley, executive vice-president of sales and marketing at Seagate.
"The recent introduction of Seagate Barracuda XT, the industry's first hard drive to support the new SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) interface, and today's announcement of the Gigabyte P55A-series motherboards mark the beginning of the shift to the next generation of computing speed, as Seagate teams with leaders like Gigabyte to double the storage bandwidth of desktop computers."
Unique hardware design
According to Chiang-Lin, the new Gigabyte P55A-series motherboards introduce a unique hardware design with lower resistance fuses for ensuring lower voltage drops and providing more stable and plentiful power delivery.
“All USB ports also benefit from a 3x power boost for better power delivery to power-hungry USB devices,” he said.
“Supporting the latest Intel Core i7 and Core i5 processors for the LGA 1156 socket, Gigabyte P55A-series motherboards set a new standard in high performance computing. With the memory controller integrated directly into the processor die, Gigabyte P55A motherboards support 2 channel DDR3 memory for blazing fast memory performance up to 2 200MHz and above.”
Gigabyte's memory performance on the P55 platform currently holds the world-record for the highest memory frequency of 3459.6MHz from the GA-P55-UD6 motherboard. (Based on the CPU-Z Web site on 2009-10-09 http://valid.canardpc.com/records.php)
USB 3.0 support
“The Gigabyte P55A-series motherboards support the latest-generation SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology made possible through an onboard NEC uPD720200 host controller,” he added.
“With super-fast transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, users are able to experience an almost 10x improvement over USB 2.0. Additionally, backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 assures users of long-term use of their legacy USB 2.0 devices. The onboard NEC SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology also provides new power management features that include increased maximum bus power and device current draw to better accommodate power-hungry devices.”
SATA 6Gbps support
Yet another onboard feature of Gigabyte P55A motherboards are Marvell's new SE9128 chips for high-speed SATA Revision 3.0 compatibility, delivering super-fast 6Gbps link speeds for twice the data transfer rates of SATA Revision 2.0 (3Gbps).
When used in RAID 0 (Stripe) mode, Gigabyte P55A series motherboards offer even faster data transfer rates of up to 4x the speed of current SATA interfaces.
3x USB power boost
Gigabyte P55A-series motherboards feature a 3x USB power boost, delivering greater compatibility and extra power for USB devices.
“Gigabyte's unique USB power design is also able to efficiently regulate output over the full voltage range, which greatly enhances USB device compatibility. In addition, dedicated lower resistance fuses ensure lower voltage drops, and provide more stable and plentiful power delivery,” explains Chiang-Lin.
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