14 DAY TRIAL // ASL, a Chinese hardware maker, has just released the first pictures of an upcoming FM1 socket motherboard which was specially designed in order to support AMD's not-yet-launched Llano accelerated processing units (APUs).
The ASL motherboard uses the micro-ATX form factor and seems to be targeting entry-level systems as it features a pretty simple layout which includes only two DDR3 DIMM sockets.
Taking a look at the rest of the motherboard configuration also seems to support this idea since ASL has decided to pair its latest creation with a basic 3+1 phase VRM with no sort of active or passive cooling, while the number of SATA 6Gbps ports has been limited to four.
This decision is a rather strange one as the Hudson D3 chipset (also known as the A75 platform controller hub), which the board is based on, supports no less than six such ports and none of the two extra connectors have been routed to the back of the motherboard to provide it with eSATA capabilities.
Furthermore, the number of PCI Express expansion slots is also severely limited and users only get a pair of PCI-E x1 slots and a full-length PCI Express x16 slot for a standalone graphics card.
Moving to the back of the board, we get to see that ASL hasn't included all that many connectors, although we still get a pair of USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI video output.
Llano APUs are based on the K10.5+/Husky x86 architecture and the quad-core desktop chips will be paired together with a BeaverCreek on-die GPU that can pack 320 or 400 stream processors while the dual-core models come with the WinterPark graphics unit that features 160 stream processors.
The chips also sport an integrated dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, a PCI Express controller, up to 4MB of cache and select processors pack AMD's Turbo Core 2.0 dynamic acceleration technology as well as a Hybrid CrossFireX graphics support.
The first AMD Llano accelerated processing units are expected to arrive on June 1, at the Computex 2011 fair. (via Sweclockers)
