Asus on Wednesday announced the upcoming arrival of its AM1M-A and AM1I-A motherboards. Both are packed with a number of Asus exclusive features including 5X Protection and the company’s own flavor of the UEFI BIOS. Both also make great “value” choices for desktops and home theater PCs.
The details surrounding these two motherboards are next to nothing for the moment. However the company reveals that its 5X Protection feature safeguards components from short-circuits, electrical surges and other potential risks. This solution includes high-quality, solid-state capacitors, electrostatic-discharge (ESD) guards, overcurrent protection that prevents short circuits from damaging DRAM, and the ASUS DIGI+ voltage-regulator module.
“USB 3.0 Boost with UASP Mode accelerates the already-fast speed of USB 3.0, intelligently optimizing transfer commands so that more data can be sent and received in shorter times than is possible with other motherboards,” reads the company’s press release.
Both motherboards also sport the company’s UEFI BIOS that allows users to create shortcuts and favorites for quick access to the options they use most. The boards also come loaded with the AI Suite 3 software, which provides an exclusive dashboard-style control panel for tweaking the motherboards for the best balance between efficiency, stability and performance.
On Tuesday AMD announced that a number of motherboard manufacturers, including Asus, will offer a range of next-generation desktop motherboards based on socket FS1b. These boards will support the latest in USB 3.0 and SATA 3 (6 Gb/s) specs for Athlon and Sempron-series APUs for the AM1 platform.
“The AM1 platform gives us a great opportunity to deliver a flexible infrastructure environment, and provides a multitude of options for consumers and system builders looking for upgradeability packed into an extremely affordable solution,” said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD.
According to AMD, the availability of “Kabini” desktops and components are slated to be on-shelf in select regions beginning early April, with global availability expected on April 9.
