Asus P7P55 Pro Lynnfield Motherboard Pictured

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, June 04, 2009, 01:58 PM EDT

As is typically the case, there are plenty of hot, upcoming new products being showcased at the Computex event, currently going on in Taipei. And although Intel is yet to nail down a specific launch date and official product name, Asus is already showing off motherboards that will support Intel's upcoming mainstream Nehalem processor derivatives, codenamed Lynnfield--and sometimes referred to as Core i5, perhaps incorrectly.

Asus P7P55 Pro Lynnfield LGA-1156 Motherboard

What you see pictured above is the Asus P7P55 Pro motherboard based on the Intel P55 PCH (platform controller hub). Due to the fact that Lynnfield processors feature an integrated memory controller, like current Core i7 processors, and that they're outfitted with 16 lanes of on-die PCI Express connectivity, there's no need to pair the processors with a dual-chip chipset, like the X58, for example. Instead, Lynnfield processors will connect only to the P55 PCH, eliminating the need for the second chip. Lynnfield processors will also have fewer pads than current Core i7s and require a new socket with "only" 1156 pins (LGA-1156). As such, motherboards for Lynnfield should be less complicated to produce, and of course more affordable.

As you can see, the Asus P7P55 Pro has the P55 PCH mounted in the traditional position for the Southbridge and it's adorned with only a basic aluminum heatsink. The motherboard is equipped with dual PCI Express x16 graphics slots, a pair of PCIe x1 slots and a trio of PCI slots. There are a couple of additional blue heatsinks on the components in the VRM as well and all of the board's various connectors and headers are situated around the edges of the PCB. Note the 8-PIn power connecter is pushed all the way to the far, top edge of the board, just behind one of the VRM heatsinks.

We'll fill you in with more news regarding Intel's Lynnfield processors as we have it. For now, enjoy the pics.

Tags: Intel, Asus, CPU, Motherboard, processor, Lynnfield, Core i5, LGA1156

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com