If you remember on 26 December (see News Archive for December) we told you that ASUS decided to develop their own brand new slot for two-in-one controller add-in cards combining Ultra160 SCSI (Adaptec chip) and 10/100Mbit Ethernet (3Com chip) controllers. At that time, we didn’t know any details that’s why all our analysis was based on the pictures posted.
Today we finally got some information proving our suppositions. The slot we are talking about is a combination of two PCI slots. ASUS developed this slot (now it is know as ASUS Proprietary Expansion Slot) in order to help user save some space inside their PC cases. Besides the already discussed ASUS CUSL2-LS mainboard, this slot will be also implemented on ASUS CUV4X-LS based on VIA Apollo Pro133A chipset. Both board belong to ASUS LAN/SCSI series.
CUV4X-LS mainboard will have the following specification:

• Socket370/FC-PGA CPUs;
• 4 DIMM slots for up to 1.5GB PC100/PC133 SDRAM;
• 1 AGP Pro slot;
• 5 PCI slots;
• 1 AMR slot;
• 4 USB ports.

Here are the specs of the ASUS SCSI/LAN controller card, which goes together with the mainboard:

• Adaptec 7899 dual-channel SCSI controller;
• 3Com 3C920 100/10Mbps LAN controller;
• Two independent channels, each with maximum 160MB/s data transfer rate;
• Channel A has 50-pin and 68 connectors;
• Channel B has both internal/external 68-pin connectors;
• Two channels for up to 30 SCSI devices;
• Supports 68-pin Low Voltage Differential (LVD) and Single-Ended (SE) connectors;
• Supports Y-type connection;
• Backward compatibility.

We would also like to say a few words about the CUV4X-LS package. It will contain:

• CUV4X-LS LAN/SCSI mainboard;
• Add-in LAN/SCSI card, which is compatible with all ASUS LAN/SCSI series mainboards;
• 2 User’s manuals;
• 2 SCSI cables;
  • 68-pin internal LVD SCSI cable with terminator;
  • 50-pin internal SE narrow SCSI cable;
• 1 CD disk with the software;
• 3 floppy disks with the software.

Well, all this looks very interesting, however, we don’t think that this solution will become very popular. It could be much simpler to integrated both controllers onto the mainboard rather than introduce a separate card. What do you think?