Super Voyager PCI-II © 1994 AMI [American Megatrends, Inc.]
The Super Voyager PCI-II is an elite high-performance 80486 Baby AT motherboard engineered and manufactured directly by American Megatrends, Inc. (AMI) around 1994 to 1995. Transitioning away from older VESA Local Bus technologies, this premium workstation-grade platform adopts Intel's highly stable 420EX (Aries) core logic PCI chipset. Built around a flexible 168-pin Socket 3 footprint, it provides robust native support for late-generation 486 processors, including Intel 486SX/DX/DX2 and DX4 chips, complete with onboard voltage regulators managing 3.3V microprocessors. Its expansion sub-system architectural design features three high-speed 32-bit PCI slots mapped alongside four 16-bit ISA slots. Memory handling configuration consists of four 72-pin SIMM sockets supporting Fast Page Mode (FPM) DRAM, complemented by an expandable secondary L2 write-back static cache (SRAM) DIP matrix capable of holding up to 512 KB.
The Intel Chipset Shift: While AMI historically developed its own hardware system logic chips (like the Goliath family found on the VLB series), the rapid standardization and licensing constraints of Intel's 32-bit PCI architecture led AMI to embrace Intel's 420EX Aries silicon layout. This pivot combined AMI's unmatched multi-layer industrial PCB build quality with Intel's highly reliable PCI clock arbitration.
Professional Storage Capabilities: Because it targets server and high-end CAD stations rather than the home market, the Super Voyager PCI-II was frequently paired with PCI-based SCSI controllers (like the Adaptec 2940) rather than standard consumer IDE setups. This combination allowed it to deliver data transfer speeds and multitasking stability far beyond what any standard generic VLB or ISA clone board could hope to reach.