June 4, 004

They may not be as sexy as flat-screen monitors, are as cute as PDAs, but the advance in motherboard design has been the key to performance computing, both in the desktop and the server farm.

At Computex Taipei this year, Taiwan motherboard makers are fighting it out for the attention of buyers and enthusiasts, who are looking to source the heart of their next generation system.

The tradeoff for motherboards has always been price versus performance, with MOBO makers having the make strategic decisions on what to put into a system and what to leave out.

The first quarter of this year seems to have seem some success in their understanding of the market, with motherboard shipment volume growing 18% year on year to 34 million units, according to the Market Intelligence Center (MIC) Shipment value also grew 18% to US$ 2.1 million, with the figures showing average selling prices dropping only slightly/

At Computex this year, faster is once again better as front-side bus (FSB) speeds go up and up. USB 2.0 has well and truly become the standard choice for peripheral connections.

Elsewhere, the choices come down to CPU - AMD versus Intel versus VIA?Cyrics, graphics and audio.

Among those hoping to have gone the right combination is First International Computer, (www.fic.com.tw.) . FIC showed off a wide range, many of which are based in Intel chipset solutions. The latest platforms on display were mature motherboards boasting a new level of support for Prescott and Tjeas CPUs, many offering 800 MHz FSB, up to 4GB of blazing fast memory, integrated graphics, Azalia 8 channel audio, and support for PCI Express, according to a FIC statement.

At Asus (www.asus.com) AMD's K8 solution is getting high play alongside AMD's "cool 'n quiet" technology for monitoring and controlling CPU temperature and fan noise.

Another of the names appearing at the show was Foxconn (www.foxconn.com ) the brand name of Hon Hai Precision Industry, which in December 2003 decided to enter the brand motherboard market.

One more company which has managed to survive the banded business is Shuttle Inc. (www.shuttle.com )Shuttle's success has come down to one word, niche. While the others have battled it out for big orders and mainstream functionality, Shuttle made a splash by picking a market niche and catering to it. The small form factor PC sub-sector has taken off thanks to some innovative design and engineering by Shuttle with its XPC series. This year, XPC live on with full PCs, XPC motherboards and accessories.