Asustek Computer, the world’s largest maker of mainboards, has unveiled a new series of mainboards that come equipped with a special card that enabled support of Serial ATA-600 as well as USB 3.0 interconnection technologies. Even though there are not USB 3.0 peripherals on the market, it looks like major makers of motherboards have begun using USB 3.0 as a major selling point.

Asus P7P55D-E / P7P55D “Xtreme Design” mainboards are based on Intel P55 chipset support Intel Core i5 or Core i7 central processing units (CPUs) in LGA1156 package, dual-channel DDR3 memory, two PCI Express 2.0 x16 slots for graphics cards, two PCI Express x1 slots for add-in-cards as well as two PCI slots for various expansion cards. The main advantage of the motherboards is bundled Asus U3S6 PCIe x4 card that features Marvell 88SE9123-NAA2 Serial ATA-600 controller as well as NEC D720200F1 USB 3.0 controller.

Asus P7P55D-E/P7P55D family also includes new Xtreme Design innovations – Hybrid Processors, Hybrid Phase Technology and Hybrid OS for optimized performance and enhanced stability. Hybrid Processors enable intuitive, real-time overclocking and automatic performance tuning for users to gain the processing power and speeds associated with a higher-end CPU. For enhanced stability, the P7P55D-E and P7P55D include Hybrid Phase power feature, which combines multi-phase power delivery with real-time phase balancing to improve cooling of active components. Hybrid OS includes well-known Express Gate technology as well as Windows 7-compatible drivers on a DVD supplied with the motherboard.

Asus claims that its expansion bridge design fully unleashes USB 3.0 and SATA-600 transfer rates for both the P7P55D-E Series and the U3S6 expansion card. This specially-designed onboard IC doubles the bandwidth of the PCIe interface from Gen 1 to Gen 2, delivering ten times faster USB 3.0 throughput compared to the previous USB 2.0 standard. Additionally, by eliminating transmission bottlenecks, the expansion bridge increases hard disk read and write speeds by up to 50%, according to the company.

Asus P7P55D-E/P7P55D mainboards will be available shortly. Pricing will vary from region to region. Asus U3S6 add-in card will also be available separately sometime in November.

Tags: ASUS, Intel, Core, USB