Some of the most exciting news of the show came from Tyan, who was showing off several of their most popular server and workstation motherboards. Their line of dual-CPU boards powered by VIA and Server Works chipsets were being prominently displayed, but the reason we were so excited was carefully concealed in a cardboard box.

For some time now, we have been anticipating a dual Athlon platform; a chipset AMD calls the 760MP. Tyan will be the first manufacturer to market with a board based on the 760MP, and was showing an early version of this board. Since the product is still under wraps, we were not able to snap any pictures, but we did manage to score a couple of shots of a dual Athlon system running in AMD's suite. (see below)

ATI's booth focused mainly on their All-In-Wonder and 64MB RADEON products. Also featured were products powered by their mobile line of 3D accelerators and a new TV product, the TV Wonder USB. Offering the same software package and many of the same features as the All-In-Wonder RADEON card, the TV Wonder USB sounded like an impressive, easy-to-use product.

While there was no earth-shattering 3D news from ATI, they did announce a business-oriented product called the RADEON VE. Stripped of one rendering pipeline and hardware accelerated T&L, the VE was not designed for the gaming enthusiast. Rather, ATI has aimed the card towards the business user who could take advantage of the dual VGA output capabilities (powered by dual 300MHz RAMDACs) or would benefit from excellent 3D and video acceleration. Priced at $129, we expect the RADEON VE will compete favorably against the GeForce2 MX line and appears to be an excellent foundation for what may turn into a mobile part.