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1. Overview of Recent Chipsets for the Intel Platform
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Intel
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Intel has been producing
chipsets for its own chips. Each Intel chipset consists of the traditional two chips:
- MCH (or GMCH): (Graphics and) Memory Controller Hub, so called northbridge, that includes CPU interface, DRAM controller, external graphics interface (and internal graphics controller).
- ICH: I/O Controller Hub, so called southbridge, that includes the PCI and PCI Express interface, PATA, SATA, LAN, Audio, USB and other I/O functions.
Desktop Chipsets
Recently a new desktop chipset family is introduced every year, around June. Chipset families that may support Core 2 are:
- Intel 865 with ICH5, with or without integrated graphics Extreme Graphics 2
Released in May 2003. Features FSB 800MTps, dual-channel DDR, AGP 8X, and integrated SATA. There is an extreme version Intel 875P.
- Intel 915 Express with ICH6, with or without graphics media accelerator GMA 900
The 1st generation of Express chipset family released in June 2004, along with the new socket LGA (Land Grid Array) 775. Introduced revolutionary technologies: dual-channel DDR2, PCI Express and HD audio. There are two extreme versions, Intel 925X Express and Intel 925XE Express.
- Intel 945 Express with ICH7, with or without graphics media accelerator GMA 950
The 2nd generation of Express chipset family launched in June 2005. Supports the higher FSB 1066MTps and the higher DRAM frequency DDR2-667. There are two extreme versions, Intel 955X Express (enhanced memory controller) and Intel 975X Express (two PCI Express graphics controllers supporting ATI CrossFire Technology).
- Intel 965 Express with ICH8, with or without graphics media accelerator GMA X3000/GMA 3000
The 3rd generation of Express chipset family launched in June 2006. Supports Core 2 Duo/Quad/Extreme processors, DDR2-800 and has an integrated Gb LAN controller. Intel 946 Express, launched at the same time, is considered as its value segment.
- Intel 3 Series with ICH9, with or without graphics media accelerator GMA 3100/GMA X3500
The 4th generation of Express chipset family released in June/August 2007. Supports FSB1333 and Penryn processors and supports both DDR2 and DDR3 SDRAM. PCI Express 2.0 is introduced in the high-end chipset.
Northbridge of each family usually includes
- xxxG or Gxxx: an integrated graphics chipset
- xxxP or Pxxx: a discrete graphics chipset
- xxxX or Xxxx: an extreme edition, discrete graphics
where xxx is a three-digit number like 965 (two-digit number for 3 Series) and G = "graphics", P = "performance" (perhaps because it is coupled with a performance external graphics). Southbridge comes in four flavors
- ICHx: ICHx Base
- ICHxR: ICHx RAID
- ICHxDH: ICHx Digital Home
- ICHxDO: ICHx Digital Office
where x is the generation number like 7, 8. All of ICHxR, ICHxDH and ICHxDO support RAID. More details come in later sections.
Mobile Chipsets
Mobile processors are used in the notebook PC. However Intel also chose them instead of desktop processors for digital entertainment center (
Intel Mobile on Desktop, MoDT) combined with
Intel Viiv technology because of low power consumption and heat dissipation and hence reduced system noise. Although high power consumption and heat dissipation do not apply to the new desktop processors Core 2 any longer, Intel is pushing this trend further in the next year. So I have included Intel mobile chipsets and motherboards.
A new mobile chipset family is usually introduced half a year later than the latest desktop chipset family. It is a low power consumption version of the desktop chipset (that implies lower FSB, lower frequency of internal graphics and lower SATA speed). Recent mobile chipsets are:
- Mobile Intel 855 with ICH4-M, with or without graphics media accelerator Mobile Extreme Graphics 2
Part of the 1st-generation Centrino platform Carmel launched in March 2003. FSB 400MTps.
- Mobile Intel 915 Express with ICH6-M, with or without graphics media accelerator Mobile GMA 900
Part of the 2nd-generation Centrino platform Sonoma launched in January 2005. FSB 533MTps.
- Mobile Intel 945 Express with ICH7-M, with or without graphics media accelerator Mobile GMA 950
Part of the 3rd-generation Centrino platform Napa launched in January 2006. Supports Core Duo/Solo (Yonah), Celeron M (Yonah), Core 2 Duo (Merom). FSB 667MTps.
- Mobile Intel 965 Express with ICH8M, with or without graphics media accelerator Mobile Intel GMA X3100
Part of the 4th-generation Centrino platform Santa Rosa launched in May 2007. New Socket P and supports FSB 800MTps.
- Cantiga with ICH9M
Part of the 5rd-generation Centrino platform Montevina to be launched in Q2 2008. Supports Penryn processors. FSB 1066MTps.
Northbridge of each family includes
- xxxGM or GMxxx: an integrated graphics chipset
- xxxPM or PMxxx: a discrete graphics chipset
where M = "mobile" obviously. Mobile southbridge comes in three flavors except for ICH8M:
- ICHx-M: Mobile ICHx Base
- ICHx-M DH: Mobile ICHx Digital Home
- ICHx-M DO: Mobile ICHx Digital Office
ICH8M comes in two flavors:
- ICH8M: ICH8 Mobile Base
- ICH8M-E: ICH8 Mobile Enhanced
Integrated Graphics Device (IGD)
Intel is the largest graphics manufacturer because most Intel systems come with integrated graphics. However the performance of Intel IGDs has been poorer than IGDs from ATI and NVIDIA. Besides that, one needs to note the following facts:
- The current Intel IGD provides
- 1 x VGA (Video Graphics Array)
- 2 x SDVO (Serial Digital Video Out)
An SDVO port can support a variety of display types including DVI, HDMI, Analog CRT, TV-Out, but requires a third-party SDVO device such as ADD2 (Advanced Digital Display 2) card that occupies the x16 PCI Express connector and TMDS transmitter. You may find a retail ADD2 DVI or HDMI card. Other than that implementation of SDVO ports is up to the motherboard's manufacturer. Several motherboards have an integrated DVI and/or HDMI transmitter. Please see the motherboard spreadsheet for a list of such motherboards.
- An external PCI Express x16 graphics card cannot work concurrently with IGD. This is in marked contrast to NVIDIA and ATI IGPs.
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NVIDIA
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NVIDIA entered the chipset business with the
nForce chipset series for the AMD platform in June 2001. However NVIDIA chipsets came into the Intel platform only lately when NVIDIA and Intel signed a cross-license agreement in November 2004.
- nForce4 for Intel (codenamed Crush 19 or simply C19)
The first NVIDIA chipset family for the Intel platform released first in April 2005 for SLI x8 and then SLI x16. Later versions with a new southbridge were released for SLI x8 and non-SLI.
- nForce 500 Series for Intel
Released in June 2006. Full support for Core 2 Duo along with a bunch of new features. SLI x8 and SLI x16 versions are available.
- nForce 600i Series (codenamed C55)
Released in November 2006. Support for Kentsfield. Overclocking abilities are greatly improved. SLI x16, SLI x8 and non-SLI versions are available.
- nForce 700i Series (codenamed C72 and C73)
To be released in Q4 2007. Support for 45 nm processors and PCI Express 2.0. Two SPPs are planned, one featuring FSB 1333MTps and DDR2-1066 and the other featuring FSB 1600MTps and DDR3-1600, each has SLI x8 and SLI x16 variants.
- GeForce 7-Series GPU and nForce 6-Series MCP (codenamed MCP73)
To be released in Q4 2007. NVIDIA's first integrated graphics chipset for Intel. A single-chip solution with single-channel memory controller. NVIDIA was once developing an IGP for the Intel platform, codenamed C60 (AnandTech), but canceled it later (the Inquirer). NVIDIA resumed the project as customer demand is increasing and the merged AMD-ATI is leaving the IGP market for the Intel platform, thus creating a void to be filled.
Just like Intel chipsets, every NVIDIA chipset for Intel, except for MCP73, consists of
- SPP = System Platform Processor (northbridge)
- MCP = Media and Communications Processor (southbridge)
This is in contrast to the single chipset solution for AMD. As the Athlon 64 chip includes a memory controller, the only functions of the northbridge was the CPU and graphics interface. So NVIDIA chose to combine the northbridge and the southbridge into a single chip in nForce3 and nForce4. This trick has not worked for the Intel chips that have no memory controller and NVIDIA had to go back to the traditional solution and developed a northbridge codenamed
C19 that is used in all of nForce4 and nForce 500 Series chipsets. C19 had been aging with limited support for newer DRAM and poor overclockability. Hence an SPP codenamed
C55 was developed and used in the latest nForce 600i Series chipsets. Further two new SPPs,
C72 and
C73 are planned supporting higher FSB and higher DDR2 memory speed or DDR3 memory. On the other hand southbridge is common to both AMD and Intel,
CK804 (nForce4),
MCP51 (nForce 430),
MCP55 (nForce 500 Series) or
MCP72 (nForce 700 Series). Unlike Intel chipsets, NVIDIA northbridge and southbridge are called only by codename that makes it difficult to see what chips are actually used. I will explain NVIDIA chipset codenames later.
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ATI
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ATI entered the PC chipset market in 2002 with the integrated graphics chipset family called
Radeon IGP & IXP for value to mainstream desktop and notebook PCs both for AMD and Intel, where
- IGP = Integrated Graphics Processor (northbridge)
- IXP = Integrated Communications Processor (southbridge)
They were geared toward the OEM market. A shift occurred in late 2004 with the release of
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 Series for AMD K8 processors. The
current chipsets for the Intel desktop platform are:
Northbridge
- ATI 400 Series with integrated Radeon X300 graphics core
- ATI Radeon Xpress 200 for Intel Processors (codename RS400/RC400/RC410), first released on March 11, 2005
- There is no discrete graphics version.
- ATI 600 Series with or without integrated Radeon X700 graphics core
- ATI Radeon Xpress 1250 (codename RS600), the integrated graphics version featuring HDMI and partial HD hardware decode, was released on August 29, 2006. This is the equivalent of RS690 for AMD.
- ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 (codename RD600), the discrete graphics version featuring dual PCI Express x8 graphics, was released on September 27, 2005. This is the equivalent of RD580 for AMD.
Southbridge
Each northbridge can be coupled with southbridge
- ATI SB400 (IXP 400)
- ATI SB450 (IXP 450)
- ATI SB460 (IXP 460)
- ATI SB600 (IXP 600)
via
A-Link Xpress (PCI Express x2) or
A-Link Xpress II (PCI Express x4). As A-Link Xpress (II) is backward compatible with PCI Express links, they can also be coupled with any third-party southbridge that relies on PCI Express links to connect to northbridge such as
- ULi M1573
- ULi M1575
Because of the acquisition of ATI by AMD in 2006,
these chipsets will be the last ATI products supporting Intel platform.
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SiS
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Silicon Integrated Systems Corp. (SiS) has been producing chipsets for Intel since 1990 and for AMD since 1999 (?). The current
desktop chipsets for the Intel platforms are
- Northbridge SiS6xx with southbridge SiS96y
where xx = 48, 49,...,72, y = 2,3,...,8. They come with/without integrated graphics. They are considerably cheaper than Intel chipsets with less features.
SiS662 or above supports Core 2 Duo. SiS will soon release chipsets supporting FSB 1333MTps and quad-core processors.
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VIA
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VIA has been producing
chipsets for AMD and Intel for a long time. The current VIA chipset series for the Intel platform is
- P4 Series northbridges with VIA southbridges
They are considerably cheaper than Intel chipsets with less features. However they support Core 2 and they are unique in that
some of them support both DDR and DDR2 and both AGP and PCI Express graphics. VIA is rumored to switch its focus from third party chipsets (i.e. for Intel and AMD) to chipsets for its own C7 processor platform.
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References
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