Motherboard maker Tyan has begun sampling its first board for Intel's new 64-bit Xeon DP processor, Nocona.

The Thunder i7525 uses Intel's E7525 chipset, which brings PCI Express, ECC DDR 2 SDRAM support and an 800MHz frontside bus to the chip giant's workstation and server chips.

The i7525 also provides Serial ATA RAID, with an Adaptec 7902W Ultra320 SCSI controller available as an optional extra. Networking comes courtesy of a Broadcom PCI-Express connected Gigabit Ethernet port. The board also provides USB 2.0 and 1394/Firewire. There are three 133MHz PCI-X expansions slots and a part of 32-bit PCI slots for legacy add-ins.

Tyan hopes to bring the Thunder i7525 up to volume production in July 2004. ®

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