What I got from this is that RD580 may not need to use crossfire edition cards to enable crossfire because it could be done through the mobo, where-as the older (soon-to-be-released) RD480 will need master cards. What this means is it's a pain in the ass for mobo makers to create a board on tech that will be soon obsolete. From the looks of it, the newer version of the mobos (RD580) will be out before the end of the year. Who would want to buy a board that in only a few months will be replaced with a newer chipset that eliminates the need for mastercards?
I also took from that, but am kind of sketchy, that RD690, the next chipset from there, will be made using the same kind of composite engine that RD580 does. Also, Intel's boards may not use the older design at all, and may jump directly to the new design (RD400[using 500 tech]-->future chipset RD600 for intel, where-as AMD is RD480 [400 tech, old engine, needs MC]-->RD580 [500 engine]-->RD690).
I am almost 100% positive this has to do with that final respin they did of the crossfire chipset. They were phasing out the needing of mastercards. It's all a fact of how fast people want it (yesterday) and that some mobo makers like sapphire/DFI have mobos ready with the old chipset. They could scrap it and delay it even FURTHER, or release a revision in a couple months as they seem to be doing. Because of that fact we might see RD480 boards out very soon, but needing master cards, and RD400 (intel first rev) and RD580 (AMD second rev) out before the end of the year that won't need them.
Personally, it's looking like RD580 will be worth waiting for...and intelites won't even have to mess with it at all.
Who the hell knows what RD600/690 will be. Perhaps we can only hope it's IGP with multiple gfx cards all capable on crossfire at the same time (1x16 or 2x16 pci-e slots + IGP). That would be cool, and the next logical step as we know ATi is fully capable of making it happen.
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