Pros and Cons of Integrated Memory Controller

[ahock]

Hey Guys I have some question here. Intel is really sticking to its Northbridge and southbridge design while AMD already made the Nothbridge integrated to its processor. What are the pros and cons of these? I'm pretty sure Intel have a valid to stick to this design. I thing I know is they have this design already before BUT memory technology changes faster that the design which they eventually drop it ( I think its the RAMBUS thing)

 

[Algere]

The northbridge isn't integrated into the processor, just the memory controller. As for your topic title...

Pro: It's faster

Con: With Intel you can keep using the existing motherboard & memory when you upgrade the CPU (in most cases). With an integrated memory controller, you'll have to change/upgrade the motherboard & memory depending on the type of memory controller that's inside a CPU. For instance you can't use a DDR supported motherboard with a CPU that has an integrated DDR2 memory controller.

Fortunately memory types (DDR, DDR2, DDR3, etc.) don't change often.

 

[Jeff7181]

The cons for Intel are pretty big. DDR2 is still growing... faster speeds keep coming out. In order to go from PC4200 to PC5400 it would require a new CPU most likely.

That's not really as big a con for AMD since Athlon-64's seem to be perfectly happy with PC3200.