what does x58 do?

[jiggpig]

So nehalim is coming out soon and I was looking at x58 motherboards. Looks like the chipset is still composed of a northbridge (x58) and a southbridge (ICH10). Since the memory controller is integrated into the cpu won't x58 just connect the cpu to the pci-e lanes? Do they really need a whole chip to do that when they could just integrate that into the cpu or southbridge? Or does x58 do more than just that?

 

[Comdrpopnfresh]

Look at amd.... to provide more pci-e lanes, they have a two-chip design although earlier models only had a unified nb/sb

 

[faxon]

should post stuff like this in the motherboard section just FYI.

 

[ihyagp]

$10 says intel will have some nehalem variant out with at least an ondie pcie x16 link within the next couple years. Sun has already done it.

 

[bobross419]

Originally posted by: ihyagp
$10 says intel will have some nehalem variant out with at least an ondie pcie x16 link within the next couple years. Sun has already done it.

Could you elaborate a little on what this means? It sounds interesting, but what is an ondie pciex16 link?

 

[KIAman]

Originally posted by: bobross419

Originally posted by: ihyagp
$10 says intel will have some nehalem variant out with at least an ondie pcie x16 link within the next couple years. Sun has already done it.

Could you elaborate a little on what this means? It sounds interesting, but what is an ondie pciex16 link?

He meant to say on-die.

Ondie sounds like someone trying to say underwear drunk.

 

[bobross419]

Originally posted by: KIAman

Originally posted by: bobross419

Originally posted by: ihyagp
$10 says intel will have some nehalem variant out with at least an ondie pcie x16 link within the next couple years. Sun has already done it.

Could you elaborate a little on what this means? It sounds interesting, but what is an ondie pciex16 link?

He meant to say on-die.

Ondie sounds like someone trying to say underwear drunk.

Oh... I still don't know what the significance of an on-die pcie x16 link is

 

[Gibsons]

Normally the link from your video card (pciex16 or whatever) goes through a north bridge. Newer CPUs are putting the north bridge functionality on the CPU, cutting out the middle man, sort of.

 

[bobross419]

Originally posted by: Gibsons
Normally the link from your video card (pciex16 or whatever) goes through a north bridge. Newer CPUs are putting the north bridge functionality on the CPU, cutting out the middle man, sort of.

Oh, thanks for the explanation. Sounds pretty slick.