SOYO Announces Socket 370 Motherboards to Support Intel's New Celeron CPU Design; Advanced Features Include On-Board Sound, AGP Slot, Hardware Monitoring, and Overclocking Capabilities.

FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 3, 1999--SOYO, Inc. of Fremont today announced three ATX footprint motherboards designed for Intel's new Celeron Socket 370 CPU, which include advanced features for both business users and PC game enthusiasts.

SOYO's newest motherboards -- SY-6IZA, SY-6ILA, SY-6VZA -- feature Intel's Socket 370 architecture to support 300/333MHz and above Celeron CPUs.

Intel's "socket-based" Celeron CPU offers enhanced performance, and is smaller, cheaper and easier to mount in computers than the current version. SOYO's new Socket 370 motherboards also provide a performance boost for low-cost systems with the Celeron's added support of Level 2 128K cache.

All three SOYO motherboards feature AGP support, for users seeking a performance boost for 3-D graphics, modeling, or computer gaming; Ultra DMA/33 E-IDE hard drive support, to increase system speed and data transfer rates; a USB interface for next generation peripherals; ACPI power management, and Wake-on LAN support.

To address PC gamers, SOYO added its SOYO COMBO Setup page to the BIOS of each board. This BIOS feature allows gamers and power users to fine tune the CPU Front Side Bus (FSB) frequency, wake-up, and Hardware Monitoring functions. Through this page gamers can easily tune their system to the highest performance. For example, the SY-6IZA offers 16 FSB / PCI bus frequencies from 66-150 MHz range, while the SY-6ILA and SY-6VZA can be set in increments from 66-83MHz, and 66-133MHz, respectively.

Each SOYO board comes with the Creative ES1373 PC, 16-bit stereo sound chip on-board, which helps SOYO hold down the price of the board and save valuable expansion slots for other peripherals. The integrated sound system also supports 3D sound, allows simultaneous play of 32 tracks, and is compatible to Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16 Emulation, and Windows Sound System products. In addition EAX (Environmental Audio Extensions) is supported.

SOYO integrated several hardware monitor and fault tolerant features into each board. Each board comes with Hardware Monitoring functionality and an additional Hardware Doctor Software package, which enables the user to be in full control of the system. Up to seven voltages can be monitored by alarms. The Celeron CPU and system fan speed can also be controlled in four steps.

In addition an alarm for low battery voltage is included. With these integrated hardware monitoring features, the user can control the state of the system at all times. The boards are also year 2000 compliant.

Individual Socket 370 Motherboard Features

The SY-6IZA comes with Intel's 440ZX chipset. Memory is expandable to 256MBs of SDRAM with three 168-pin DIMM banks. The board also supports 100MHz SDRAM for enhanced system performance.

The SY-6IZA comes with 4 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot to provide users with a wide variety of upgrade options. The 2Mbit FLASH BIOS supports Multi-Boot, and the ability to set a date and a time for the system to wake up (Wake up on Alarm). List price is $99 with volume discounts for system builders/VARs.

SOYO's SY-6ILA features Intel's 440 LX chipset. The board comes with three 168-pin DIMM banks to provide support for up to 384MBs of SDRAM memory, and 100MHz SDRAM support for enhanced system performance. The SY-6ILA features 4 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot. List price is $90.

SOYO's SY-6VZA provides full support for Intel's Celeron CPUs, but offers an alternative to Intel's chipset technology with its use of the VIA Apollo PRO Chipset. Memory is expandable to 512MBs of SDRAM with three 168-pin DIMMs banks. For enhanced system performance 100MHz SDRAM is supported. The SY-6VZA also comes with 4 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot for easy upgrades. List price is $95.

SOYO, Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of SOYO Computer, Inc. Founded in 1985, with worldwide headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, and branch offices in Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea, SOYO is one of the fastest growing major motherboard manufacturers in the world.

The company sells its products through a Tech Data and a select group of resellers, system integrators, and VARs worldwide. SOYO's U.S. headquarters are at 41484 Christy Street, Fremont, CA 94538. For information on SOYO products, call 510/226-7696 or visit www.soyousa.com.

Note to Editors: SOYO is a registered trademark. Other product names are either trademarks or trade names of their respective holders.