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Tweakers Australia has just posted a review of the Soltek i845E based SL-85DR2 motherboard. Here's a snip:

As we touched on during the introduction, the most obvious and unique features of the layout would definitely have to be the silver PCB, which Soltek has creatively dubbed 'Silver Glacier'. Although the idea has been witnessed before, namely on Triplex's GeForce4 series of graphic cards, the concept not only looks good, but is said to help reduce surface temperatures. Whether or not this has any validly to it certainly goes undecided from my point of view, but indeed it certainly adds a bit of spice over traditional brown and green boards.

Screenshot: >> Click Here <<
View: Soltek SL-85DR2 i845E Motherboard Review @ Tweakers Australia

"First it was like a mile, then it was five miles, then 10, then 20," Holt said about the evolution of EtherLinx's development.

The key to EtherLinx's success is a single, small antenna that can be mounted just about anywhere -- on a water tower, on a building roof, or even on a billboard. It transmits data faster than a cable modem to a tiny, $150 receiver mounted to the side of a customer's home or business. That receiver is hardwired to a personal computer using standard CAT 5 wiring.

Like FM radio, EtherLinx's wireless broadband access should be available just about anywhere -- at home, in a car, or at the beach. But unlike radio, this technology allows for two-way communication, making it perfect for wireless broadband Net access. And since it's wireless, the easily installed equipment can reach even the most remote, rural areas, opening broadband to the estimated 90 percent of the nation that still can't get it.

Security and privacy are the great unknowns with this spectrum of wireless access, but EtherLinx says it has addressed those issues. Furrier and Holt say that transmitted data can be received only by their equipment, and each receiver has a unique address, making it relatively easy to detect and then track someone who's trying to gain unauthorized access to the data being sent.

The EtherLinx equipment is so innovative that the New York Times recently suggested it could render traditional cable modems and DSL connections obsolete, though Furrier downplays that suggestion. He says his company is looking for partners, not victims.

"We're not out to kill the monopolies," he said. "We just want to serve broadband up to the masses."

Now that the word is getting out about this technology, offers are pouring in from around the world. At least 2,000 business leads flooded the founders' email accounts just this week, one of them offering to invest as much as $1 million in this new company.

Last year, when EtherLinx shopped its idea around to Silicon Valley venture capitalists, many of them simply laughed, and none of them ponied up any money. EtherLinx instead was funded primarily by angel investors, wealthy individuals who put a paltry $200,000 in start-up funding. But since news of its wireless achievements have begun to trickle out, several well-known venture capitalists are now clamoring for a chance to get in on the deal.

EtherLinx has been operating a small, for-pay trial in Oakland, California, for the past year. The company will next open up the antenna transmission and begin covering the small city of Campbell, California, where DSL service is not available. The company's founders say they hope to work closely with the Campbell Police Department to deploy the technology. Since it's totally mobile, an EtherLinx antenna can be installed on the police headquarters' roof, and officers can have high-speed access to the Net or to the department intranet anytime, all the time.

This past week, Congressman Mike Honda met with the company's founders and scheduled a demo and presentation in Washington, DC. Honda says he wants to see how quickly this technology can be deployed elsewhere in the nation.

In his New York Times article, reporter John Markoff cited other companies trying to duplicate EtherLinx's achievement. Nokia, Iospan Wireless, and Navini Networks all sell similar products, but to date none has met with EtherLinx's success. EtherLinx's two founders say they hope that being first to market will make them a lasting presence.

Meantime, EtherLinx also has an innovative way of penetrating communities, one neighborhood at a time, by working with schools first.

"We then get a broadcast location to the neighborhood and we would share some revenue with the schools," Furrier said.