Taipei, Taiwan, October 27, 2009 – GIGABYTE Technology CO., LTD., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced seven new P55A-series motherboards that feature GIGABYTE 333 onboard acceleration. This thrilling trio of technologies includes USB 3.0, Serial-ATA Revision 3.0 (6Gbps) and a 3x boost in USB power, and redefines the highly successful P55 platform.
“GIGABYTE is excited to be able to introduce our latest 333 onboard acceleration technologies on our market leading P55 platform,” commented Tony Liao, Associate Vice President of Marketing at GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. “Through close cooperation with several industry leaders including NEC Electronics Corporation, Marvell, and Seagate, GIGABYTE is able to provide our customers with several next generation data transfer and storage technologies that will have a far reaching impact on how people interact with their digital media for many years to come.”
The GIGABYTE P55A-series motherboards were designed to offer a stable, high-speed platform for delivering amazingly fast data transfer via the GIGABYTE 333 onboard acceleration technologies. Featuring the world’s first USB 3.0 logo certified host controller uPD720200 from NEC Electronics, the P55A-series allows users to take advantage of super fast USB transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, delivering 10x faster data transfer compared to USB 2.0.
“We are confident that GIGABYTE’s choice of NEC Electronics’ USB 3.0 controller is a testament to their commitment to quality and performance,” said Masao Hirasawa, general manager of the SoC Systems Division at NEC Electronics Corporation. “We fully expect SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to quickly pick up traction as the industry’s foremost high-speed plug and play interface, thereby adding significant value to GIGABYTE’s motherboards in the PC DIY upgrade market.”
Utilizing the industry’s first Serial ATA Revision 3.0 solution, the Marvell® 88SE9128 controller, GIGABYTE P55A-series motherboards offer support for next generation high speed data storage devices with data transfer speeds of up to 6 Gbps. Coupled with RAID 0 (Stripe) mode, SATA Revision 3.0 enables a data transfer boost of up to 4x the speed of SATA Revision 2.0.
“Marvell is pleased that GIGABYTE has chosen our Marvell SmartTM SATA 6 Gbps technology for the P55A-series of motherboards,” said Alan Armstrong, Vice President of Marketing for the Storage Business Group at Marvell Semiconductor. “Today’s digital consumers have an insatiable need for storage – whether it is for images, video, music or other multimedia files. GIGABYTE is consistently regarded as an industry leader when it comes to fulfilling those consumer needs while leading the market in integrating the latest technologies onto motherboard products.”
"Seagate is pleased to be working with GIGABYTE to help satisfy the world's demand for faster systems as users generate more bandwidth-hungry content," said Dave Mosley, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Seagate. "The recent introduction of Seagate Barracuda® XT, the industry's first hard drive to support the new SATA 3.0 (6Gb/s) interface, and today's announcement of the GIGABYTE P55A-series motherboards mark the beginning of the shift to the next generation of computing speed as Seagate teams with leaders like GIGABYTE to double the storage bandwidth of desktop computers."
In addition, GIGABYTE P55A-series motherboards introduce a unique hardware design with lower resistance fuses for ensuring lower voltage drops and providing more stable and plentiful power delivery. All USB ports also benefit from a 3x power boost for better power delivery to power hungry USB devices.
Supporting the latest Intel® Core™ i7 and Core™i5 processors for the LGA 1156 socket, GIGABYTE P55A-series motherboards set a new standard in high performance computing. With the memory controller integrated directly into the processor die, GIGABYTE P55A motherboards support 2 channel DDR3 memory for blazing fast memory performance up to 2200MHz and above. GIGABYTE’s memory performance on the P55 platform currently holds the world record for the highest memory frequency of 3459.6 MHz from the GA-P55-UD6 motherboard.
(Based on the CPU-Z website on 2009-10-09 http://valid.canardpc.com/records.php)
USB 3.0 Support
The GIGABYTE P55A-series motherboards support the latest generation SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology made possible through an onboard NEC uPD720200 host controller. With superfast transfer rates of up to 5 Gbps, users are able to experience an almost a 10x improvement over USB 2.0. Additionally, backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 assures users of long term use of their legacy USB 2.0 devices. The onboard NEC SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology also provides new power management features that include increased maximum bus power and device current draw to better accommodate power-hungry devices.
SATA 6 Gbps Support
Yet another onboard feature of GIGABYTE P55A motherboards are Marvell’s new SE9128 chips for high-speed SATA Revision 3.0 compatibility, delivering superfast 6Gbps link speeds for twice the data transfer rates of SATA Revision 2.0 (3 Gbps). When used in RAID 0 (Stripe) mode, GIGABYTE P55A series motherboards offer even faster data transfer rates of up to 4x the speed of current SATA interfaces.
3x USB Power Boost
GIGABYTE P55A-series motherboards feature a 3x USB power boost, delivering greater compatibility and extra power for USB devices. GIGABYTE’s unique USB power design is also able to efficiently regulate output over the full voltage range, which greatly enhances USB device compatibility. In addition, dedicated lower resistance fuses ensure lower voltage drops, and provide more stable and plentiful power delivery.
GIGABYTE P55A Series Motherboards
| GA-P55A-UD6 | GA-P55A-UD5 |
GA-P55A-UD4P |
GA-P55A-UD4 |
GA-P55A-UD3P |
GA-P55A-UD3R |
GA-P55A-UD3 |
GA-P55MA-UD4 |
*Available features vary by model. Please visit the GIGABYTE website to see a complete listing of motherboard model features.
For additional information about the GIGABYTE P55A series motherboards, please visit the GIGABYTE website at: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/WebPage/mb_091020_333/tech_091020_333.htm
Products photos are available at Official GIGABYTE Forum http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,734.0.html
