When I heard about Alienware’s announcement of their upcoming X2 Video Array system, I was so surprised that flies hatched from larvae inside my body and flew right out of my genitals. First of all, Alienware’s system is two things, really: the X2 motherboard, based on Intel’s Tumwater chipset that includes two PCI-Express slots (PCI-Express is essentially the new hot version of AGP), and the ‘Video Array’ technology, which somehow harnesses the power of two video cards working in tandem that Alienware is claiming will result in performance gains of up to 50% over a single-card solution. So, uhm, how? It’s not an unheard of trick—the old 3dfx VooDoo 2 had a dual-card mode—but from what little I grok about modern pixel shaders and the like, it’s not possible for the Video Array to do the same ol’ SLI “line for me, line for you” sharing that the Voodoo did. If any hot shot game programmers would like to explain to me how they think this could be working, I’d be happy to listen.
Don’t expect the system to come cheap, either. Considering the price of a ‘stock’ Alienware PC, these could be up in the $5k-$6k range (although I’m just speculating). Oh, and they won’t license the tech to other vendors, they say.
Also, the picture above links to the full-size image captured by the Gizmodo E3 floor team, just in case you want to get in there and look at the dirty details.
Read – Q&A With Alienware [HomeLan via Blues]
