Asus boss Jackie Hsu reveals X79 plans

On 19th October, KitGuru and Pro Class TV were invited along to a private technology seminar – held behind closed doors in the heart of London. We managed to catch up with one of the company's most senior executives, Jackie Hsu, as well as a number of product managers and engineers. According to the various non-disclosure agreements in place, we will reveal all in a ‘nice and gentle manner'. KitGuru primes part one.

When four of Acer's top engineers left in 1990, they were driven by the idea of creating a component manufacturing company that would soar like the mythical winged horse, Pegasus. Unfortunately, the horse's name begins with ‘P' and these guys had their marketing wits about them. Aiming for the highest alphabetical listing possible, they lost the ‘peg' and kept the Asus. Smart.

So how big is Asus?   Well, some industry rumours say that over 50% of the mainboards we're likely to buy in 2012, will now originate in an Asus-controlled plant. The CNN money team shows Asus revenues for last year of more than $18 Billion globally, which is around 3x the size  of chip giant AMD. Big.

OK. Enough background. What was the event, who was there and what was shown?

This was a major Asus European Technical Summit – driven by the imminent launch of Intel's X79 platform. Inside the venue, Asus has divided the space into separate areas, so its engineers and product managers could rotate the journalists present – giving each aspect of the new platform's design and technology a showcase of its own.

.
When the LGA 2011 socket arrives, there is no doubt that the world of high-end performance computing will be changed for ever. As widely reported, Intel's new processors will bring a wealth of instruction-bashing performance to the table – with greater throughput than ever before.

With the launch of the original Extreme series Core i7 processor, Asus monopolised the market with its P6T design – and the Rampage II Extreme Black Edition is widely regarded as a benchmark for all X58 designs. Right now, it looks as though it's going to require a big effort from Asus' rivals to prevent that from happening again with the revised high-end chips.

While Jackie Hsu was warm and welcoming, he also had the calm assurance of a VP who knows that his job is about to get much easier.

KitGuru says: We will be bringing you more information, videos and analysis, right up to – and through – the launch of Intel's new platform. We genuinely can't wait to see just how badly all of the existing records for X58 performance are about to get shattered. We're going to take 3 quick breaths and a long one, while we lay down in a quiet room and contemplate a smoother, faster future.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

Become a Patron!