backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 39 comment(s) - last by Flapper01.. on May 17 at 10:22 AM

Gigabyte "Churchill"

Prototype mini DTX chassis
Gigabyte announces "Churchill" mini DTX motherboard for AMD's Live! Home Media Server platform

Gigabyte today announced the first mini DTX motherboard catering towards home servers – Churchill. The new Gigabyte Churchill mini DTX motherboard serves as a base for AMD’s Live! Home Media Server platform. AMD’s Live! Home Media Server platform allows home users to have their own server for data storage, media streaming, communications and home control tasks.

The new Churchill motherboard supports AMD’s Socket AM2 Athlon 64 and Sempron single and dual-core processors. Gigabyte equips Churchill with a SiS761GX north and SiS966 south bridges. The SiS761GX features an integrated Mirage 1 graphics core with DirectX 7 support. Other notable features of the Churchill motherboard include one PCIe x1, one PCI, six SATA 1.5 Gbps/sec ports with support for native command queuing, eight USB 2.0 ports and high definition audio support. Gigabyte also equips Churchill with a header for an optional TPM chip for security purposes.

“We are proud to see the development of the world’s first motherboard in the Mini DTX form factor for the home server platform,” CEO and president of SiS Daniel Chen said. “With the solid performance of the SiS761GX/SiS966 chipset implemented in this ground-breaking home server platform, home users are now able to access their data much more easily and enjoy the flexibility afforded by a high-performance PC processor in an always-on home appliance.”

Expect Gigabyte to release the motherboard in July. Pricing of the mini DTX motherboard is undetermined. SiS has been gaining traction in the small form factor market lately, with Intel preparing its SiS-based D201GLY mini ITX motherboard.

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
DTX?
By MatthewAC on 5/15/2007 2:19:58 PM , Rating: 2
Anybody care to mention to dumb old me what DTX stands for?




RE: DTX?
By noirsoft on 5/15/2007 2:23:29 PM , Rating: 4
It's like ATX, but substitute "Dinky" for whatever the "A" stands for. ;)


RE: DTX?
By killerroach on 5/15/2007 2:23:30 PM , Rating: 2
As far as I can tell, DTX is just DTX... unlike most other form factors, DTX and ITX seem to just be terms, not acronyms.


RE: DTX?
By marvdmartian on 5/15/2007 2:31:13 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, pretty sure it was just the next letter in the alphabet. ATX & BTX are common, think I remember hearing that Intel had fooled around with a format they called CTX, so DTX was next.

Those ITX guys just jumped the gun, is all. ;)


RE: DTX?
By protosv on 5/15/2007 3:09:20 PM , Rating: 2
IIRC, ATX = Advanced Technology eXtended, BTX = Balanced Technology eXtended, but it seems like ITX and DTX are just a bunch of letters, and don't stand for anything in particular.


RE: DTX?
By Visk on 5/15/2007 2:30:19 PM , Rating: 2
I guess D stands for "Discrete"


RE: DTX?
By AstroCreep on 5/15/2007 6:24:22 PM , Rating: 2
It stands for "aDorable", but since they can't use 'A', they went with the next letter.


RE: DTX?
By TomZ on 5/15/07, Rating: 0
RE: DTX?
By soydios on 5/15/2007 8:16:07 PM , Rating: 2
If it lets you use desktop processors and RAM, then yes it is.


RE: DTX?
By Talcite on 5/16/2007 1:10:16 AM , Rating: 5
The reason DTX was introduced was because current SFF providers have a hard time exploiting economies of scale. The current ITX mobo does not use the industry standard PCB size efficiently. DTX improves on that, because it splits one master PCB into 4 equal parts with no waste. There's an article somewhere on AT about this.


RE: DTX?
By FredEx on 5/16/2007 11:45:34 PM , Rating: 2
That is correct, no PCB waste. Existing PCB equipment can easily be used to make the boards. Also the boards will mount in an ATX case, no need for a system company to buy a special case for the mobo or for an individual to buy a special case. If one builds a multi drive server using the DTX board you will want a case larger than what is shown in this article...you can simply use an ATX case with enough drive space. Try and find an ITX case that can hold more than a couple HD's.


6 sata?
By Screwballl on 5/15/2007 2:37:39 PM , Rating: 2
What is the point of having 6 SATA drive ports on a small FF board when the small cases may have an SATA hd and disc drive using 2 ports?? This is something that could cut a few dollars off production and pass the savings onto the end user.




RE: 6 sata?
By erwos on 5/15/2007 2:40:51 PM , Rating: 2
File server using eSATA headers?


RE: 6 sata?
By MDE on 5/15/2007 2:41:52 PM , Rating: 2
I'm sure a few of them could be routed to the back panel for e.SATA drives.


RE: 6 sata?
By Screwballl on 5/15/07, Rating: 0
RE: 6 sata?
By Anh Huynh on 5/15/2007 2:53:14 PM , Rating: 2
The PCIe x1 slot is to the left of the PCI slot.


RE: 6 sata?
By hellokeith on 5/15/2007 3:19:44 PM , Rating: 2
Where is the 6th SATA port? External?


RE: 6 sata?
By mezrah on 5/15/2007 3:39:57 PM , Rating: 2
if you open up the picture you can clearly see the eSATA port labeled


RE: 6 sata?
By mezrah on 5/15/2007 3:39:57 PM , Rating: 2
if you open up the picture you can clearly see the eSATA port labeled


Looks Great!
By AmpedSilence on 5/15/2007 3:28:07 PM , Rating: 2
I can so seeing me putting a cheap X2 3600+ and a gig of ram on this thing and five drives in RAID5. throw the new Windows Home Server on there and tuck it away in a closet somewhere.

Price it right and my money is yours!




RE: Looks Great!
By Dactyl on 5/15/2007 3:49:35 PM , Rating: 2
and a gig of ram

Which will be very easy to install, because they have thoughtfully color-coded the RAM slots, so you don't get them mixed up.


RE: Looks Great!
By Homerboy on 5/15/2007 3:49:52 PM , Rating: 2
yes but as it stands, you wont be able to buy WHS as a standalone OS (its currently pegged for sale with OEM hardware "devices" only. Obviously that could change in the future.