As far as the enthusiastic sector for the AMD platform is concerned, there really is no competition for nVidia's nForce platform at the moment. However, a very large segment of AMD's market share comes from System Integrators that use lesser priced components and in this market, chipsets from companies such as SiS and VIA sell well.

Today, we take a look at the ULi M1695 chipset for the AMD platform that should not only work well for system integrators but also for end-users in the process of upgrading their systems. Paired with the ULi M1567 Southbridge, the platform provides something ULi calls TGi- Triple Graphics Interface that allows simultaneous support for a PCI-E x16, an AGP 8X and a PCI graphics cards on the same motherboard. But that's not all- ULi further supports breaking the PCI-E x16 slot into two PCI-E x8 lanes that could, at least theoretically, allow you to connect four graphics cards on one motherboard.

Lets talk about the block diagram and the features supported by ULi. Starting off with the Northbridge, a total of 20 PCI-E lanes are supported than can be divided into 16+4, 16+2+2 or 8+8+4 configurations. As expected, the HTT bus connects the Northbridge to the CPU as well as the M1567 Southbridge. As you can see from the diagram above, the M1567 provides support for the AGP 8X slot along with six 32 bit PCI slots, eight USB 1.1/2.0 ports, dual channel IDE bus master along with two Serial ATA ports and finally Ethernet and Audio. The following is a full list of specifications of the reference board sent to us.

Processor:	Socket 939 for AMD K8 Processor ST (L6711) X 3 Phase Core Power solution Max 70A.
Chipset	ULi M1695 + ULi M1567 M1695: Supports HyperTransport Bus 16¡Ñ16 @ 1000 MHz Double Data Rate with LVDS-like differential technology (transfer rate 8 GB/S Max.) Supports three PCI-Express ports which maximum lanes of each can be configured as one of the following: 16 lanes + 4 lanes, 16 lanes + 2 lanes + 2 lanes, 8 lanes + 8 lanes + 4 lanes M1567: Supports HyperTransport Bus 16¡Ñ8 @800 MHz Double Data Rate with LVDS-like differential technology (transfer rate 4.8 GB/S Max.)
Memory:	Provides 4 184-pin DIMMs for PC1600/2100/2700/3200 DDR SDRAM up to 4GB. Supports up four unbuffered DDR DIMMs modules per the DDR SDRAM with a maximum capacity of 1 GB per module. Up to four unbuffered DIMMs in a 128-bit configuration, or up to two unbuffered DIMMs in a 64-bit configuration.
Expansion Slots:	1 PCI-E_X16 VGP slot 2 PCI-E_X1 slot 1 AGP slot (AGP 8X) 2 PCI Slots.
Audio / LAN:	Built-in 6-channel AC¡¦97 CODEC. (Realtek ALC655) Built-in 10/100 Ethernet PHY on board. (Realtek RTL8201CL)
Standard I/O:	Provides ƒnaudio jack (Mic In, Line ¡@ In, Line Out), 1 Analog Line_IN header (CD_IN). Provides 1 RJ-45 connector for LAN FIR Pin Header Ready PS2 Keyboard, PS2 Mouse, 1x FDD, 2xCOM, 1xLPT on boards 8 Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0), 4 Standard Black panel and 4 Pin Headers . 2 Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133 IDE Connectors 2 Serial ATA IDE Connectors 1 WOL header. 1 WOR header.
System BIOS:	LPC ROM (4Mb and architected by Super I/O) (ITE8712F_IX) ACPI 2.0, DMI 2.0, APM 1.2, WFM 2.0, SMBIOS 2.3, Smart for HDD, PnP 1.0a, USB 2.0/1.1, PCI 2.2, Supports S0, S1, S3, S4 and S5. Supports AMD Power-Now Supports en/disable C2 and C3 Function Stepless frequency selection and over system bus frequency (over CLK operation Option) (ICS 952505) CPU/System FAN revolving detection CPU/System Temperature detection System Voltage detection USB device wake-up from S1 ,S3 ,-S4. (Optional) KB/Mouse wake-up from S1-S3 Wake-on-LAN from S1, S3-S4. Wake-on-Ring from S1, S3-S4.
System Protection & Management:	Hardware monitoring (ITE8712F_IX) CPU Thermal Protection 3 Fan (1 CPU Fan, 1 SYS Fan, 1 CHIP Fan) connectors
Form Factor:	4-layers PCB Standard ATX board 304 x 210 mm