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Gigabyte GA-8S655FX Ultra SiS655FX Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-8S655FX Ultra SiS655FX Motherboard - PCSTATS
Today we're going to be checking out Gigabyte's new GA-8S655FX Ultra motherboard which is based on the hot new SiS 655FX chipset.
Filed under: Motherboards Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: Gigabyte Sep 22 2003   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Motherboards > Gigabyte GA-8S655FX Ultra

Intelligent Arbitration

As with life, not all computer transactions are created equal. SiS is a bit vague describing Specific Stream with Prioritized Channel, but it seems with the HyperStreaming, the data that is most critical to the system will be computed first while less essential data will have to wait. For instance SiS claims that HyperStreaming will give access higher access to high bandwidth, low latency programs such as video/audio (which can suffer sync problems) and internet accesses.

All priority transactions are tagged with an isochronous bit and then get to pass through the isochronous channel while the rest of the non essential transactions like keyboard strokes, printer commands and mouse movements run through the non isochronous channel.

Think of it as an express highway with its own exit points. The express data doesn't run any faster than the collectors (non iso), but as it's less congested, the pieces of data end up getting to their final destination faster.

When HyperStreaming begins to work with another architecture based on different protocols, efficiency and transition between the two becomes very important in order to avoid redundancy. The first part of Smart Stream is Intelligent Arbitration. This feature prioritizes streams according to their data types and readies the data to be sent.

Non-post and response request are higher up on the food chain than Post requests because non-post and response requests use more aggressive insurances and directly reduce the wait state of the processor and other devices.

Smart Stream allows for a higher cache hit rate and if that fails system memory hit rate is also much higher. HyperStreaming allows for two levels of intelligent arbitration to schedule commands and data, and improves bus utilization and efficiency.

Smart Flow Control is used to improve transfer rates between the processor and chipsets/devices. With HyperStreaming, no matter how complex the commands are they only use one cache line. There is more to HyperStreaming than the basics we've touched upon, but that is beyond the scope of this article. Up next, we take a look at the GA-8S655FX Ultra's BIOS and overclocking features.

Overclocking the GA-8S655FX Ultra

To be frank, SiS chipset-based motherboards have never really been the best overclockers in the past, and so expectations weren't especially high for the Gigabyte GA-8S655FX Ultra.

With mediocre voltage options at hand, we were not able to overclock the motherboard even 1 MHz FSB higher. If we did the system would hang during the 3D intensive benchmarks such as 3DMark, Quake III Arena or UT2003.

I guess SiS is trying to get themselves settled in the mainstream market before moving over to the enthusiasts. At any rate, the board is still plenty good at stock speeds, as you're about to see for yourself.

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Contents of Article: Gigabyte GA-8S655FX Ultra
 Pg 1.  Gigabyte GA-8S655FX Ultra SiS655FX Motherboard
 Pg 2.  Layout and RAID
 Pg 3.  What is HyperStreaming?
 Pg 4.  Key Technologies of HyperStreaming
 Pg 5.  — Intelligent Arbitration
 Pg 6.  The motherboards BIOS
 Pg 7.  System Spec's and Benchmarks
 Pg 8.  Benchmarks: Winbench 99, SiSoft Sandra 2003
 Pg 9.  Benchmarks: PCMark2002, 3DMark2001SE
 Pg 10.  Benchmarks: Quake III Arena, UT2003
 Pg 11.  Springdale has some real competition

 
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