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Technology

A Look Inside the Labs of Asus 119

Posted by CmdrTaco from the there-be-geeks-in-them-there-labs dept.
Kez writes "While in Taiwan, we had the rare opportunity to take a look around the Research and Development labs of ASUSTeK, well known motherboard and graphics card manufacturer. They had their latest dual chip 6800GT and 6800Ultra cards on the test beds (only two boxes full of which had passed quality control at that point,) and so grabbed some benchmarks while we were there."
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A Look Inside the Labs of Asus More

A Look Inside the Labs of Asus

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  • The article appears a little short on details for such a tour. I mean.. just two pages? They don't even mention which cities the headquarters are in.

  • Hey, they have this neat power strip with each outlet has its own switch. You can see it real well in the upper-left corner of the third picture ("testbed.jpg"). Where do I get one of those? It would be real useful for lab testing (like Asus is doing, duh). The closest I've seen are those under-monitor jobs, but those take up too much room and can't be wall-mounted. What I see here could be.
    • Are you serious? Just about every office/computer/electrical store here sells boards like that. I picked one up the other day with 8 individually switched sockets + surge protection for AU$29...
      • "Are you serious? Just about every office/computer/electrical store here sells boards like that."

        Of course I'm serious. If they were readily available, I wouldn't have asked. I haven't seen anything like that in any of the stores I frequent. Those include CompUSA, BestBuy, Circuit City, Staples, and OfficeMax. I also haven't seen them at either the local PC sales shows or the local hamfest. Of course, I didn't know such a thing existed (although it seems obvious now), so I wasn't asking after it in pa
      • They don't sell them in north america. At least I've never seen one in regular hardware/home stores.

        N.
    • These are very special tools only supplied to special electrical appliances shops, and usually not available within handreach from your chair unless you actually have raised your lower part to get out and buy one (watch out for cars - they are dangerous and you have only one life).
      • "These are very special tools only supplied to special electrical appliances shops, and usually not available within handreach from your chair..."

        If they were readily available, I wouldn't have asked. I haven't seen anything like that in any of the stores I frequent. Those include CompUSA, BestBuy, Circuit City, Staples, and OfficeMax. I also haven't seen them at either the local PC sales shows or the local hamfest. Of course, I didn't know such a thing existed (although it seems obvious now), so I wasn't

        • Re:I'm serious (Score:1, Offtopic)

          by djdanlib ( 732853 )
          If you actually enter a Staples store, you'll see a certain kind of surge suppressor with individual switches on the plugs. Also, they are on the website. Tell me which store you went to so I can pass this along to their management?

          On the http://www.staples.com/ [staples.com] website, look under: Technology / Power Protection / Surge Protectors - Monitor

          I don't know if this will work, but: http://www.staples.com/Catalog/Browse/class.asp?Pa geType=3&ClassID=141969&bcFlag=True&bcSCatId=3&bcS CatName=Te [staples.com]

          • Re:I'm serious (Score:3, Insightful)

            by StikyPad ( 445176 )
            I'm pretty sure he explicitly stated he wasn't looking for the under-monitor variety. The photo in the article clearly shows a power strip with switches next to each socket. As not-very-useful as I might find it, the OP does have a point; I've never seen one like that before.

            • Re:I'm serious (Score:1, Offtopic)

              by djdanlib ( 732853 )
              Oh. Well then, I'm sorry for trying to help.

              I've seen these monitor ones mounted under a desk for non-computer-related purposes, so I thought I could suggest them.
        • Well I can only advise you to visit Tokyo even if just for that, there're tons of them in Akihabara, as well as of plain ones, so this is not because of law. They are helpful for tons of chargers and adapters you usually have if you don't want them to drain energy all the time - but probably in US just no one cares.
    • You could get some of these [lowes.com] at the hardware store and creating your own switched power strip.
    • I noticed that powerstrip too. Some time ago I made something like this primarily because my soldering iron doesn't have an on/off switch. I got a few parts from Lowe's and made this: http://www.ikeweb.net/switch.jpg [ikeweb.net]

      The night lights serve as visual indication of whether that section is on or off, or they can be unplugged to give extra ports.

      It actually has been very useful in testing things but something like what is in that picture would clearly be better...

  • "Research" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Bender_ ( 179208 ) on Sunday June 19, 2005 @09:28AM (#12855880) Journal


    I honstely doubt that ASUS does anything that could be dubbed as "research", especially not in the graphics card section. Testing different variations of the reference design and altering fans is hardly even development.
    • So combining two graphics chips, the required memory , power circuitry and an SLI bridge onto a single PCB isn't R&D? OK then.

      • Re:"Research" (Score:3, Insightful)

        by wfberg ( 24378 )
        So combining two graphics chips, the required memory , power circuitry and an SLI bridge onto a single PCB isn't R&D? OK then.


        Yes. It's just D, not R, seeing as how it's been done before multiple times in the exact same way in consumer products from different vendors.

  • This is not news. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Crimson Dragon ( 809806 ) * on Sunday June 19, 2005 @09:32AM (#12855890) Homepage
    This is not news in the slightest. Regardless of the details or lack thereof, this architecture nears the end of its life. While extremely powerful, the power draw and heat generation is positively killer for the average system, and an annoying hurdle to jump for the serious custom PC builder. I had to fully watercool every 6800 I have owned just to keep the operating temperature at something that wouldn't be worrisome.

    Let's be fair, the X800 is no slouch on power draw either. I am not trolling in the slightest.

    What I am saying is that the future architectures that are down the pike, while designed for greater performance, also give much consideration to power draw and heat generation. The X850 series with its liquid metal cooling stock is a step in considerations of heat generation and power consumption. Nvidia's new core uses significantly less power if I read the latest buzz correctly.

    This is the next great fight in the graphics card market: power and heat vs performace. Round 1, fight.
    • The significant fight as i would see it , will be in the laptop sector.
      With the rise in popularity of SFF PCs and the growing abundance of laptops which are also used for Games ,i can see the rush being towards as you say , reducing power requirements and heat .
      Laptop graphics chips have come on leaps and bounds , Lets hope the trend continues .
      I really do not like large loud systems , Not that i do much Gaming on a PC or Mac these days but when i do i want to be able to have it at an enjoyable level withou

    • Mod the parent poster Insightful. While striving for ever-faster processors and graphics chips, designers seem to have forgotten about power and heat. I think too often these days, the attitude is "Oh, throw a bigger sink on." OK, so it allows cheaper, faster, and more plentiful. But surely this can't go on! It's just not practical to have a computer with more fans than Michael Jackson --- every moving part is a candidate for early failure.

      Chip makers should focus on getting the power requirements down, a

      • More fans or more occultists? ;)

        Seriously, let's be careful not to limit innovation. While I understand the sentiment "2.0GHz is enough for anybody, especially with 2Mb of cache", there are increasing needs for speed increases on all fronts. Before the PPU gets more done in the R and D department, the CPU will still handle all the non-graphical tasks.

        I propose innovation on power and heat as well as the speed and size of clock, transitors, cache, datapath, and so forth.
      • Hey, at least your PC's fans are smarter than Michael Jackson's.
      • While striving for ever-faster processors and graphics chips, designers seem to have forgotten about power and heat.

        Designers are extremely aware of power and heat. Fast processors get hot. Fast processors with very small feature sizes don't get as hot as those with large feature sizes. Air flow makes a difference. More efficient alloys on the metal layers make a difference. Less power also means less heat.

        The problem is that clock speeds are increasing at a rate faster than that of materials techno
    • I had to fully watercool every 6800 I have owned just to keep the operating temperature at something that wouldn't be worrisome.

      You must be doing something seriously wrong. I was an early adopter of the 6800 (I've got a 6800GT with 256 megs), currently its sitting at a "cool" 59 deg C (according to the docs its shutdown temp is 120 deg C). The hottest I've ever seen it get was after playing several hours of hl2 it got up to 72 deg.
      • Oh no, I got the same numbers. I just don't like my GFX's being able to cook eggs.

        My cooling solutions keep it at about 40 degrees celsius at full load. I truly don't mind the stock in the sense that it is designed to operate at those temperatures. I realize, however, that design or no, electronics die faster at that temperature, no ifs ands or buts about it.

        That is the point. Electronics that run that hot simply aren't designed to last as long as devices that run cooler. 6800s line the dead parts bi

  • The Hexus.net article is just an advertisement... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Sunday June 19, 2005 @09:42AM (#12855923) Homepage

    The Hexus.net article is just an advertisement, with links to places to buy the cards that were reviewed. The writer didn't have any technical insights because he apparently has no technical knowledge. For example, read this sentence, "35A from the two 12V rails on the ASUS PSU keep things ticking over." First, it says on the label, which is clearly visible, that the maximum is not 35A times 12V = 420 Watts, but 324 Watts. Second, neither the graphic card nor the motherboard nor the hard drives require that much 12V power.

    Manufacturers make so much money from taking advantage of the technical ignorance of customers that it has in some cases corrupted an area of the industry.
    • Second, neither the graphic card nor the motherboard nor the hard drives require that much 12V power.

      No, they don't require that much power. But what particularly a video card does require is CLEAN power. HDs spin up and down, so their power usage varies... and since there's no such thing as a 'real' voltage source, the voltage supplied by the PSU does vary (however slightly) with amps drawn.

      Putting your HD+Mobo and Videocard on a seperate rail prevents these fluctuations from affecting the stability
    • How exactly are you supposed to review a product at the labs of the manufacturers?

      The article is a series of photos from inside the labs of Asus, along with some benchmarks to give you an idea of the performance of the cards.

      For Hexus to do a proper review they'd need it on their own test systems with their own test software and without an Asus guy staring over their shoulder, and given the article remarks about the QC passed parts going out to media around the world, I expect that's what we'll see in

    • First, it says on the label, which is clearly visible, that the maximum is not 35A times 12V = 420 Watts, but 324 Watts.

      Not to mention, I'd like to see anyone get 35 Amps out of a standard home or commercial outlet. Most houses in the US are wired with 14guage wire, and are designed to handle 15A comfortably, which is usually the size of the breaker. Commercial outlets usually are 20 amps, using 12guage wire.

      If anything in your computer used 35 amps, it would require a dryer-type NEMA plug and a dedic
  • Now I understand why all of those pretty lights are being put on to hardware that gets locked up in my fully opaque case - so the testers have something nice to look at while the hardware is on the bench!
  • The engineers at ASUS completely missed the idea behind a faraday cage [wikipedia.org]!
  • Who read the title as "A Look Inside the Labs of Anus"?

    I guess it's what you get for reading /. with a hangover....
  • After seeing all the cooling that the boards need and the small fan, I get the feeling these boards come with complementary earplugs.
  • Where's the oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and various probes required to test designs? Not much of an "R&D" facility really. This looks more like a product-test bench. A stage that occurs far after the "R&D" portion.
  • I use Abit.

    I also suspect that I own the last board put out by anybody which still had an ISA slot. Last one out the factory door in a long, long while. I needed it for my trusty scanner's proprietory card.

    It was that, or trying to get a decent scanner with a viewing bed larger than a sheet of typing paper. Sheesh.


    -FL

  • It sucks! Ever tried downloading drivers from them? I spent an hour trying to find the latest drivers/BIOS for my motherboard recently. I had to try servers in several countries before I found one that wasn't down for "database resyncronization" or something like that. And then I found two versions of "beta BIOS" (whatever the hell that is) that both claimed to be the "latest version".

    Also, my motherboard came with a utility that will check for the latest version of the drivers and BIOS from the web

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