GIGABYTE
 
 
   
 
 

GIGABYTE's Ultra Durable 3 Technology

 
 
For the past 30 years, motherboard design, for the most part, has been driven by industry upgrade cycles. Each new generation of Intel or AMD CPUs introduced into the market bring along with them support for new technologies or features that require hardware upgrades. New CPUs also mean chipset upgrades with their own newly supported technologies. Of course many of these upgrades require motherboard upgrades as well, as many of these new technologies are not compatible with previous generation technologies.
 
 
Quality Components
Motherboards
 
 
 

So, every new technology cycle means an automatic refresh for motherboard design. This technology upgrade cycle has greatly benefitted the industry and consumers alike (new products for the manufacturers to sell and new features and technologies for consumers) and has been the leading drive of innovation on the motherboard side for a long time.

For the past several years, GIGABYTE has taken a critical look at its own motherboard design philosophy. While design focusing on incorporating all of the latest and greatest technologies is still a top priority, GIGABYTE realized that more innovation on the motherboard level itself was not only possible, but was critical in order to maintain the health of the industry. So, GIGABYTE went back to the very basics of motherboard design and said how can we do it better? In 2006, GIGABYTE's Ultra Durable design philosophy was born.

GIGABYTE Ultra Durable design is simple. Improve on the basics of the motherboard, and you can fundamentally change not only the performance of the board, but the durability and lifespan of the board. Longer running motherboards allow customers to choose when they want to make an upgrade, rather than a dead motherboard telling them they have to. This might seem not so great for motherboard manufacturers, as generally they would like to see customers upgrade as often as possible. In addition, with large volume business, the incentive for manufacturers is to cost down, not up. By using cheaper components, manufacturers can save a few dollars per board. It doesn't seem like a lot per board, but multiply that by the number of boards sold, and you are talking millions of dollars. Then move your manufacturing operations to developing countries where labor wages are low, and you are able to save even more money.

GIGABYTE sees it differently. The benefits of using higher quality components outweigh the higher cost of those components. For example, better durability means less costs associated with RMA, both in terms of material/labor/shipping costs, but also the cost of having an unhappy customer with a dead board. In addition, the happier customers are with the quality, performance and lifespan of their board, the more likely their next motherboard purchase will be from your company. Makes sense, right?

 
 
 
     
GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3
This year, GIGABYTE has introduced the latest Ultra Durable 3 technology on their P45 and X58 product lineup. Ultra Durable 3 incorporates all the features of the GIGABYTE Ultra Durable and Ultra Durable 2 design including using Japanese Solid Capacitors with a 50,000 lifespan, Ferrite Core Chokes and Lower RDS(on) MOSFETs, but also doubles the amount of copper in the Power and Ground layers of the PCB.
     
  ( I've introduced the Ultra Durable and Ultra Durable 2 features in earlier articles, so if you would like to learn more, please visit:
http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/48/tech_080924_ud3_ultra-durable.htm )
 
     
 
 
 

What are PCB layers?
Motherboards are made up of a series of copper layers of PCB (Printed Circuit Board) that not only physically connect the various components onto the motherboard, but also provide the signal (trace) paths electrically connecting them and the power and ground layers providing current. Separating the layers of the motherboard and on the top and bottom surfaces of the motherboard are plastic or epoxy layers (but these are not part of the total count of layers of a motherboard PCB).

 
Copper Track
 
Surface IC
 
 
FR4 Layer
 
 
Etched Embedded
Resistor
Full Copper
ground plane
   
Eight-layer PCB stack-up exhibiting layer types
 
 

The number of copper layers of a motherboard is dependent on the amount of components and trace paths required as well as the amount of power running through the system. Today's fully loaded high-end motherboards are typically either 6 or 8 layers, as they usually feature many more components and require more power to run them, therefore more layers to connect and power them.

Each layer of a traditional motherboard is made up of 1oz of copper for both the Signal layers and Power/Ground layers. GIGABYTE's Ultra Durable 3 technology doubles the amount of copper for each of the Power/Ground layers, making them 2oz each. The images below show both a GIGABYTE P45 motherboard with 4 layers and a GIGABYTE X58 motherboard featuring 8 layers. Notice that both of the ground layers on the P45 motherboard are each 2oz of copper, whereas all 4 of the power and ground layers are each 2oz.

 
     
 
GIGABYTE P45 4 Layer Cross Section
GIGABYTE X58 8 Layer Cross Section
 
 
 
Ultra Durable 3 Advantages
What are the advantages to adding another oz of copper to the Power/Ground layers?
 
Better Thermal Performance (Ultra Cool)
Doubling the amount of copper provides a more effective thermal cooling solution by delivering a more efficient spreading of heat from critical areas of the motherboard such as the CPU power zone throughout the entire PCB. In fact, GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 motherboards are able to deliver up to 50°C cooler working temperatures than traditional motherboards (1oz copper layer motherboards without Solid Capacitors, Ferrite Core Chokes or Lower ESR(on) MOSFETs).
 
* CPU VRM Temperature measurements under system setup with water-cooler block and CPU running at 100% loading
In addition, doubling the amount of copper allows more bandwidth for electron passage and lowers the PCB impedance by 50%. Impedance is a measure of how much the circuit impedes the flow of current. If you double the size of the path the electrons are traveling you are, in effect, reducing the Impedance by 50%.
 
2X Lower Impedance
  Impedance Ω Lower is better
   
 
  Lower
  Doubling the amount of copper improves power efficiency by reducing circuit impedance by 50% and allowing more bandwidth for electron passage.
  2 OZ Copper PCB
  1 OZ Copper PCB
 
  Electron
  Electron
So what does having less impedance mean? The less the flow of current is impeded, the less amount of energy is wasted, or in other words, the greater your power efficiency. So, if Ultra Durable 3 is able to deliver 50% lower impedance, electrical waste is also reduced by 50%. Of course we all know that electrical waste generates heat, so by improving power efficiency by 50%, this will also reduce the amount of heat generated.
 
Infra Red CPU VRM Thermal Diagram
* CPU VRM Temperature measurements under CPU running at 100% loading.
 
Better Performance
Ultra Durable 3 design featuring 2 ounces of copper for the ground layer helps to improve signal integrity and lower EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) by providing a more effective ground plane. EMI is an unwanted disturbance signals that affect surrounding electronic devices. A good PCB circuit layout is the key to helping control EMI emission.

Better signal quality helps to improve the overall system stability of GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 motherboards and provides a greater margin for overclocking. Having improved signal quality means you are able to run higher frequencies at lower voltages. Currently, GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 3 P45 motherboards are running at the world's highest memory frequencies, with native DDR3 speed up to 2200MHz and higher and DDR2 up to 1366 and higher.
 
 
 
In fact, GIGABYTE is currently running a "Beat the Pros" competition to see how high end users can push their memory speeds. We invited the winners of our GOOC 2008 Freestyle Competition (GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championship) Fugger and Vapor to post their highest memory score to challenge anyone to beat them. As of today, the current record is Dual Channel DDR2 @1676.80 from Roodt Goddy in SouthAfrica.
Check out the results for yourself at: http://ddr2-1508.gigabyte.com.tw/
     
 
 
 
 
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