PCI Express™ interfaceThe motherboard fully supports PCI Express, the latest I/O interconnect technology that speeds up the PCI bus. PCI Express features point‑topoint serial interconnections between devices and allows higher clockspeeds by carrying data in packets. This high speed interface is software compatible with existing PCI specifications. See page 2-20 for details.
Serial ATA I/II technology and SATA-On-The-Go 
The motherboard fully supports the Serial ATA II 3.0 Gb/s technology through the Serial ATA interfaces and the NVIDIA® NF590-SLI chipset. The Serial ATA 3 Gb/s specification provides twice the bandwidth of the current Serial ATA products with a host of new features, including Nativa Command Queueing (NCQ), and Power Management (PM) Implementation Algorithm. Serial ATA allows for thinner, more flexible cables with lower pin count and reduced voltage required. Leveraging these Serial ATA 3Gb/s features is the SATA-On-The-Go. Supported by the Silicon Image Sil3132 Serial ATA controller, external SATA ports on the rear panel I/O provide smart setup, hot-plug and support for up to 16 devices per port with port‑multiplier functions. See pages 2-23 and 2-27 for details.
Dual RAID solutionOnboard RAID controllers provide the motherboard with dual-RAID functionality that allows you to select the best RAID solution using IDE or Serial ATA devices.
The NVIDIA® NF590-SLI chipset allows RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5, and JBOD configuration for six SATA 3.0 Gb/s. See pages 2-27 and 5-24.
The Silicon Image® 3132 controller supports two additional external Serial ATA
3.0Gb/s ports on the rear panel and allows RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5 through port multiplier and JBOD configurations on these ports. See pages 2-23 and 5‑31 for details.
IEEE 1394a support 
The IEEE 1394a interface provides high-speed and flexible PC connectivity to a wide range of peripherals and devices compliant to the IEEE 1394a standard. The IEEE 1394a interface allows up to 400 Mbps transfer rates through simple, low-cost, high-bandwidth asynchronous (real-time) data interfacing between computers, peripherals, and consumer electronic devices such as camcorders, VCRs, printers, TVs, and digital cameras. See pages 2-22 and 2-28 for details.
