Matrox Extio F1400

[Mikko]

The Matrox Extioâ„¢ F1400 is the world's first external graphics unit delivering remote multi-display graphics capabilities. The user interface of the computer - keyboard, mouse, monitors, audio peripherals, and graphics hardware - can be separated from the host PC at distances of up to 250 meters (820 feet) of fiber optic cable.

http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/video/news/press_rel/2006/f1400_release.cfm

http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/cre_pro/products/extio/home.cfm

[schmosef]

I'm speechless.

They'll probably charge $5K USD for it and maybe sell 10.

I don't mean to sound like an ****at but I'm still disgruntled that they dropped the mainstream community the way that they did after making so many promises about the P class cards.

I wish them luck.

When Vista comes out it'll probably be time to retire all my Matrox kit.

Gurm will be so happy.

[Elie]

I'm actually impressed by this new device, many people don't have more than one video card in their
system, especailly editors, be it audio or video, and this can help significantly in studios!!

It will also appeal to the those working in the stock market, where they need so much realestate to monitor all kinds of stocks

All the best and hope it goes well for Matrox

Regards,
Elie

[lowlifecat]

I'm speechless.

They'll probably charge $5K USD for it and maybe sell 10.

I don't mean to sound like an ****at but I'm still disgruntled that they dropped the mainstream community the way that they did after making so many promises about the P class cards.

I wish them luck.

When Vista comes out it'll probably be time to retire all my Matrox kit.

Gurm will be so happy.

It is a kewl toy no? fanless too so no cat hair clogging up stuff you don't want clogged.

I suspect that it will be a lot cheaper than $5K, maybe $1k to fifteen hundred or a little more if you splurge on FibOps. I could be wrong about that.

Vista is another story. I thought Matrox was working on something for vista?

[schmosef]

It is a kewl toy no? fanless too so no cat hair clogging up stuff you don't want clogged.

I suspect that it will be a lot cheaper than $5K, maybe $1k to fifteen hundred or a little more if you splurge on FibOps. I could be wrong about that.

Vista is another story. I thought Matrox was working on something for vista?

You said once that you work for "M". I assumed you meant Matrox. Is that not correct?

So are you really making guesses or are you hinting at things that you're not actually allowed to come out and say?

I've heard a rumour that they're working on something for Vista too but October isn't that far away and knowing how long it takes Matrox to release a product after they've announced it, it's about time we heard something no?

[lowlifecat]

You said once that you work for "M". I assumed you meant Matrox. Is that not correct?

So are you really making guesses or are you hinting at things that you're not actually allowed to come out and say?

I've heard a rumour that they're working on something for Vista too but October isn't that far away and knowing how long it takes Matrox to release a product after they've announced it, it's about time we heard something no?

About dropping hints: i'm just making assumptions. i don't know how much it's gonna costs, but typically matrox's quad displays are ~$1k. add costs of fibob cables plus a little R&D.. *shrug* maybe you're guess is at good as mine.

As for the vista thing, i think i read about that in that article about 'nvidia buying matrox'.

The F1400 isn't something i would get for myself, don't have a need for it.. or enough monitors... or free PCIe/PCI slot (the x1800xt takes up most of my case).

It's still a kewl toy never the less. it looks pretty sweet on the site.

[schmosef]

About dropping hints: i'm just making assumptions. i don't know how much it's gonna costs, but typically matrox's quad displays are ~$1k. add costs of fibob cables plus a little R&D.. *shrug* maybe you're guess is at good as mine.

As for the vista thing, i think i read about that in that article about 'nvidia buying matrox'.

The F1400 isn't something i would get for myself, don't have a need for it.. or enough monitors... or free PCIe/PCI slot (the x1800xt takes up most of my case).

It's still a kewl toy never the less. it looks pretty sweet on the site.

So do you work for Matrox? If so, in what capacity?

[Fluff]

I think it's cool. Maybe it could enable a team of video editors to work on content and have all the pc's in a rack attached to some mega shared storage.

In hospitals / part of a multi screen scada display for monitoring plants. Places where there is a dusty environment.

Financial / secure institutions where you dont want people walking off with the information on memory sticks.

Would be cool if it could be put into a blade server which had virtualisation. Running 4 independant screens off 1 pc / server. There is Citrix I suppose for that.

[[Ch]amsalot]

Wow. At long last, I will read about Matrox once again in Maximum PC Magazine. I'll alert the editors at once!

-[Ch]amsalot

[Mehen]

250m

I think it is pretty impressive as well, but with every Matrox release its a painful reminder that they are moving farther away from the mainstream market (including us gamers!! I have still bid on a Parhelia on ebay here and there but haven't been willing to go high enough - I still want surround gaming [maybe with a boost of nvidia power?])

[Marshmallowman]

That does seem like a very nice bit of equipment, could be an ultimate HTPC, have your noisy HDD's cpus in a different room and this in the Viewing room.

So many uses, but I guess it comes down to what it costs, probably forcing it into a expenisve niche market.

[Fluff]

I bet when you look inside there are 2 x dualhead2go circuit boards

[VJ]

Interesting concept...

The intendend use I think is heavy duty workstations (e.g. dual Xeon with SCSI raids), this would easily allow one to still have a quiet working environment (cad/cam design, ...) while still allowing a large number of screens and relatively high performance graphics.

For server management, I think remote desktop is the way to go (no high perfomance graphics needed, ability to manage multiple server) or kvm switches/extenders.

I do wonder: does the PCI or PCIe card present itself as a number of devices (videocard, soundcard, usb card)?

While it may seem Matrox is moving away from the consumer, I wouldn't be suprised if they came back for Vista (let's face it: why release a videocard now, esp. if you have long product life cycles, with vista just around the corner). They seem to have made the time between product announcement and product availability a lot shorter.


Jörg

[James_D]

VJ, are you sure it can be used on CAD enviroments? Don't you think its doubtfull, that it has enough power to be able to handle a 3d rendering enviroment?

or does it work more like a KVM?

JD

[Wombat]

Probably not. The press release says it's an external video card with 128MB of memory on it. Not quite a powerhouse. But it would work nicely for medical, financial, studio work.