ASUS give AM3+ boards Thunderbolt support




/ 12 years ago


The lack of Thunderbolt support on the AM3+ platform has now been fixed by ASUS. At Computex 2012 ASUS has been showing off 990FX AM3+motherboards with Thunderbolt connectivity. The “New” motherboards are simply old boards with added Thunderbolt support, these include the Crosshair V Formula-Z (990FX + SB950), M5A99FX PRO R2.0 (990FX + SB950), Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 (990FX + SB950) and M5A99X EVO R2.0 (990FX + SB950). What all these motherboards have in common, is a header labeled “TB_HEADER,” which connects them to ASUS’ Thunderbolt EX add-on card.

The ASUS Thunderbolt EX card is driven by Intel’s Cactus Ridge 2C Thunderbolt controller. The TB_HEADER is a low-level connection between the motherboard and the add-on card, which transacts power state, signaling, and device hot-plugging events to the system BIOS.Some of ASUS’ recent 7-series LGA1155 motherboards can be retrofitted with Thunderbolt the same way, and feature the same header. The card has a nice EMI shield running the entire length of its PCB. Its rear panel has one full-size DisplayPort, which is actually an input from your graphics card, and one Thunderbolt + mini-DP output.

Source: TPU | VR-Zone



Support eTeknix.com

By supporting eTeknix, you help us grow and continue to bring you the latest newsreviews, and competitions. Follow us on FacebookTwitter and Instagram to keep up with the latest technology news, reviews and more. Share your favourite articles, chat with the team and more. Also check out eTeknix YouTube, where you'll find our latest video reviews, event coverage and features in 4K!

Looking for more exciting features on the latest technology? Check out our What We Know So Far section or our Fun Reads for some interesting original features.

eTeknix Facebook eTeknix Twitter eTeknix Instagram eTeknix Instagram
  • Be Social With eTeknix

    Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Reddit RSS Discord Patreon TikTok Twitch
  • Features


Send this to a friend
})