Thanks to Israeli website IOpanel.net, we learned of an upcoming MSI motherboard for soon-to-launch Core i5 700 series and i7 800 series of processors.
MSI's "Big Bang" motherboard or MS-7582 v0.8 would be your typical multi-GPU P55-based motherboard if there wasn't for an interesting dual-chipset configuration. Intel P55 chipset is actually just a single chip, but MSI joined it with Lucid's Hydra chip [company was originally named LucidLogix, but recently went through a renaming process]. Originally, the slot would be occupied by nVidia's 200 SLI-enabling chip, but MSI decided that the time was right to try out the Lucid Hydro series, in order to be well prepared for 2010, when Hydra is expected to become a multi-GPU technology of choice for Intel's upcoming Larrabee part. After all, Intel Capital is one of heavy backers of Lucid.
Lucid's Hydra 200 series chip occupies a spot just below the processor.
Lucid's chip occupies the position usually taken by the Northbridge chip, such as Intel X58 IOH [Input Output Hub] on Core i7-900 and i9-1000 series processors. The Hydra chip carries a mark LT24102, is in its A0 revision and was manufactured in 24th week of 2009, e.g. just a few weeks ago. According to the markings, this should be Hydra 200 series, which is yet to be announced.
In theory, Hydra chip should enable 3D rendering by both ATI and nVidia graphics cards at the same time, claiming to enable linear scaling in rendering performance. We're not exactly certain how that would work, though - since until now, Lucid used GPGPU cards such as nVidia Tesla in order to process the cards
According to our information, this is the second product that features Lucid's Hydra chip, with first one being ELSA's HPC rack chassis. Long story short, head over to IOPanel.net to see more pictures and you can expect to see this board in store during the coming month. Somehow, we have a feeling that IDF Fall 2009 will feature this baby in a very prominent position.
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