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PC Hardware
Brazos 2.0 brings A68 chipset
A few minor changes
Brazos 2.0 is not a great leap forward, it’s an evolution of the 40nm dual-core Zacate processor and the only thing that can get you excited might be the new A68 FCH chipset.
The new chipset brings support for 3 SATA 6Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 as well as eight USB 2.0 ports. This chipset replaces A45 FCH that comes with six SATA 3Gb/s support and 14 USB 2.0 that will reach an end of its life in late Q4 2012.
The new chipset will support faster hard drives as well as USB 3.0 which implies that the reference design kit for small computers based on Brazos 2.0 will get a bit cheaper and faster with USB 3.0 and SATA 6 Gb/sec on board. However, unlike the A68M, the desktop version does not appear to support RAID.
Previously support for USB 3.0 was possible via third-party chips that cost money. Support for faster hard drives as well as SATA 6Gb/s SSDs brings is a welcome change.
The CPU itself won’t get much faster than 1.75GHz with E2 2000 at 18W that we mentioned here but it will be replaced by Kabini 28nm dual or quad-core parts at some point in 2013.
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