[Kal-EL]

Foxconn P55 Inferno Katana and P55A Motherboards Pictured
Foxconn is ready with a socket LGA-1156 motherboard under its high-end Quantum Force series, a product line that includes popular models such as X58 Blood Rage for the Core i7, and X48 Black Ops for Core 2 series. This full-featured board is expected to pack a companion NVIDIA nForce 200 bridge chip alongside the Intel P55 chipset, which expands the board's PCI-Express capabilities by providing two PCI-Express x16 slots. The second x16 slot can divert 8 lanes to a third (black) PCI-Express x16 slot, giving this board 3-way SLI capability.

The CPU is powered by a 12-phase circuit. Four DDR3 DIMM slots support dual-channel DDR3 memory, while an additional NVRAM slot provides support for Intel Braidwood platform technology. Its six internal SATA II ports are wired to the P55 PCH, while additional controllers drive an IDE connector, and two eSATA ports. Gigabit Ethernet, Firewire, and 8-channel audio make for the rest of the mix. The board lacks display outputs, and hence doesn't support Intel Flexible Display Interface.

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[Kal-EL]

"Intel Braidwood Tech"
Remember the unusual NVRAM slot we've been seeing on 'Ibex Peak' P55 and H57 boards here at COMPUTEX? Well, we've tracked down Intel and confirmed that the slot is indeed used for Braidwood memory technology - confirming that Braidwood will be made available later this year with the launch of its Core i5 processors, codenamed Lynnfield.
So, what's Braidwood and why does it matter to you? Well, as mentioned previously, it can be thought of as Turbo Memory on steroids and it provides dramatic I/O acceleration to speed up all-round system performance. Think of it as a super-quick cache, acting if you will like a board-mounted SSD to provide rapid access to files and applications.



The Braidwood flashy memory module, pictured above, will slot into NVRAM slots found on Intel's Ibex Peak boards - beginning with P55 later this year. Intel isn't yet quoting capacities for its Braidwood modules, but we're led to believe they'll reach up to 16GB in size.
We're looking forward to mainstream Nehalem as much as the next guy, but Braidwood - we reckon - will provide the performance boost most will recognise. SSD-like performance isn't to be sniffed at, and we'd expect Braidwood to make its way into Core i7 boards somewhere down the line, too.


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