ECS Scalable Dual Graphics Engine (SDGE) with KN2 SLI Extreme 2/3
Bluetooth 5 Sep 2005

SDGE

So what is SDGE Scalable Dual Graphics Engine ?  We have heard so much about DGE, dual graphics engine which allows you to hook up to 4 monitors in surround view using a mix of AGP, PCIe graphics card. So what does SDGE mean?

SDGE is scalable but it only works on with the PCIe based solutions. What ECS wants is to be able to support Dual PCIE X 16 Slots and support up to 4 displays using various combinations as follow :

1. PCIE X 16 + PCIE X 4
2. PCIE X 8 + PCIE X 8
3. PCIE X 16 + PCIE X 16

In fact, the first two solutions are quite common on SLI solutions for both AMD and Intel platforms. The third solution is something that is more interesting. Current solutions with Dual 16x are available but only support the Opteron S940s and are based on NF4 Pro 2200 chipset. These are costly solutions and it does not support the Socket 939 as yet.

With that in mind, ECS has a solution. As NF4 chipsets are practically the same and support PCIe x16 per chipset, why not hook up two chipsets to make it a North South pair. Since they can run on Hypertransport, that makes it a feasible solution.

ECS introduces the first duo PCIe x16 board - ECS KN2 SLI Extreme. This board supports a single PCIe x16 but upgradeable to support Dual PCIe x 16. Based on the diagram above, it can be easily seen that when the DUO-N card is inserted, it turns the board to support Dual PCIe X 16.

With the upgrade module (DUO-N card) which consists of a Hypertransport compatible chipset e.g. NVIDIA C51D, this chipset will be responsible for the 2nd PCIe slot and it will be run in 16x mode. The 1st PCIe slot will also operate in PCIe x 16.

With the newer NVIDIA drivers, this solution should work out quite nicely.

Discuss in Forum

Next >>>

(C) Copyright 1998-2009 OCWorkbench.com