Tyan Tempest i5000XL S2692 Preview

Our last section to cover with this preview is the BIOS. Tyan continues to employ Phoenix Technologies for its BIOS. The BIOS version used was S2692 V1.00 and was built on April 10, 2006. The options inside the PhoenixBIOS setup utility are pretty much standard for servers/workstations. The real-time sensors in the BIOS monitor both CPU temperatures, the fan speeds for both processors, rear fan, front fan, and PCI area fan. Also monitored are the voltages for the CPU0 and CPU1 VCore, CPU VTT, VCC 1.5V, VCC 3.3V, VCC 5V, and VCC 12V.

For those not familiar with Tyan's new Tempest series, products in this new line-up are designed to be seriously powerful server platforms with maximum scalability and flexibility for high-computing environments. Tyan has co-designed these next generation products based upon Intel's new technology for delivering superior performance while maintaining low power consumption. Accompanying the new Tempest series is the Toledo and Tank series. The Tempest series currently consists of the i5000PW S5382WAG2NRF, i5000PX S5380G2NR, i5000VF S5370G2NR, i5000VS S5372G3NR, i5000XP S2696WA2NRF, and i5000XL S2692A2NR. One of the highlights for the Tyan Tempest Greencreek products is the blue PCB, over the green that we have been accustom to seeing.

While we will not draw any concluding remarks until we have finished testing the motherboard, on paper the Tyan Tempest i5000XL certainly looks to be a competitive product. The S2692 boasts Intel's i5000X Greencreek Chipset, to offer competitive possibilities when it comes to using the latest Dempsey and Woodcrest processors. The motherboard also offers four DDR2 FB-DIMMs, which are fully buffered and designed to offer un-paralleled performance in workstation environments. To reiterate, the motherboard we have our hands on today is not the finalized Tempest S2692 product, as can be seen from the selection of accessories to a few mistakes on the motherboard. Shortly we will be delivering additional Tyan motherboard articles, as well as Intel performance results with these new Xeon solutions.