Hardware First Look: Enthusiast System Architecture

I can see this whole thing end in misery by early 2009. As soon as Intel and AMD come out with intergated CPU/GPU processor.

 

Have you seen Intel's roadmap? There are no plans for an integrated CPU/GPU die for the immediate future. Fusion hasn't been heard of since early in the year. And more to the point, what the heck does it matter if there is an integrated G/CPU? The standard still has application with the CPU, RAM, Motherboard (N/S-bridge), PSU, chassis fans, etc etc.

Loosing one component as it gets merged with another doesn't make the system any less effective or useful - it just has one less component to monitor and adjust.

 

This seems to be a great idea, but i can just see the mess of cable it could produce. If everything has an extra cable coming out of it, it will put about 50% more cables in the case.

 

It's interesting that the case shot shows 3 GPUs... (page 1)
ESA looks nice, but will surely make parts more expensive.

 

And they look like 8800 ultras too, power consumption would be interesting!

 

There are a couple of problems i can see with this:

1. im going to run out of USB ports. Again.
2. all these cables attaching to every part of my pc is going to make cable routing a nightmare.

on the plus side i think its a good idea (so far).

Lets hope they make some nice open source and/or a managed driver for the software for us devs to play with

 

Which is why they're looking at the chassis makers to add a purely internal USB hub into their cases.

If they have these things powered from the USB as well, it'll be a better solution, so you only have 1 cable snaking around per device, rather than 2 (Or more). Of course, the power available over USB may not be enough for some devices (Large fans, etc), so that could be a problem too.

Amen to that!

 

Seems to be a lot of confusion over this (not least from me).

I don't think it'll make the components that much more expensive.
Each device doesn't need an IC, there's a single IC controlling all devices (like a USB Host controller).
Most stuff like gfx cards etc already have temp sensing/fan control/dynamic OCing/volt control etc.
Each one needs to be controlled by firmware and/or drivers.

Manu's could reuse the same code for controlling everything about the card and just set different settings for each model.
ie, 770MHz for the GT, 830MHz for the GTX and so on.
In theory it could make it easier for them in future and lower the prices of the equipment.

I think their main concern will be that it gives so much power to the user, they may try to whack their gfx cores to 4000MHz and wonder what the burning smell is...

Not sure what you mean?
Do you think just because they CPU+GPU are on one die that AMD/Intel will not bother to build in temperature/voltage control?
Of course they will, and it will likely be in a register that's readable and possibly alterable by software.
If this takes off they'd be mad not to cater for it in their future releases.
And even if they don't, the mobo likely will.

As for cable routing, it will obviously make it slightly harder.
However, as it's based on USB, there's no reason you can't daisy-chain devices so for instance, if you have two GFX cards in SLi, you could connect one to the other (nvidia could even integrate the link in the SLi bridge thing) and have a single cable back to the controller IC.
Also, if we implement power over it and case/PSU makers cater for it, there's no reason why they couldn't up the wattage provided over it to power bigger fans etc.

I think, once the teething troubles are ironed out and some enterprising software writer makes a good app for overall control of everything, it'll be awesome.

 

Each device has its own microcontroller, which is responsible for reporting data to the software application; in theory, this could result in more expensive components... but I doubt the increased costs are going to be massive as the only increased cost would be for the microcontroller (which I'm told is relatively inexpensive). We're going to have to wait and see on that front - ESA-enabled components are coming, but I have no firm date on them yet, nevermind pricing forecasts.

The data has to be collected and sent in a certain way by the microcontroller so that the software can understand it - it turns the devices into fairly smart objects, instead of otherwise dumb objects that don't know what's going on around them. However the kicker (as I've mentioned several times) is that there is no standard for making sure the data is at least accurate to some degree - there just has to be data.

The vision in the long run is a smart PC, where you'll have pre-OS control (either automatic or manual) of these devices and, should you want to, the components will be able to control themselves within a set of parameters set out by the user. I think there's a long way to go before we get to that stage, but there is the potential for something like that in the future if the standard takes off.

 

D'oh, so I was speaking rubbish then...

 

About data accuracy...
For PSU there is CE + EMI .... Now also the "85%" Eff. thing
Perhaps for this ESA we will have an "5%" +- accuracy certified thing <-- make 5% as little as you like.

I really find interesting plugging all yer fans/pumps in your PSU (where the power is drawn) and having them monitored/altered from the OS (via a single ESA chip on the PSU) and leave the mobo/SpeedFan just to handle cpu/mem/etc... powering fans from mobo.....frightening.

Humm... better yet, fans/pumps via an LCD/VFD but cheaper than MatrixOrbital/Crystalfontz+SCART and even MCE/MythTV functionality like SoundGraph's Imon/Thermaltake/Silverstone's VFD/LCDs

 

Wrong measurements can be corrected on the software-side. If only someone makes databases of the errors of different hardware, you can account to that with your monitoring software. You just select the hardware that you use from a list in monitor-software's settings and the program makes the corrections automatically.

 

Hmmm, one thing with this though, what happens if some virus maker decides to up your voltages? Or uber-clock your components, burning smells galore.
Other than that, its a good idea and I can see the usefulness.

 

Hehe, good point ratchet.
Though most virus makers want your PC working fine so they can use it to make money with spam and DDOS attacks.
They might make a stinger though, like if they lose control of their botnet they all self-destruct?

Scary...