A set of chips
that provides the interfaces between all of
the PC's subsystems. It provides the buses and
electronics to allow the CPU, memory and
input/output devices to interact. Most Intel
chipsets, which are contained on two to four
chips, also include built-in EIDE support. In
the past, Intel used the name "Triton" for its
chipsets. It also used the name PCIset for PCI-based
chipsets.
Intel used 420 designations for its 486
chipsets (420EX, 420TX and 420ZX). Following
is a brief summary of Pentium chipsets.
Pentium
Chipsets
430LX
- Mercury - First Pentium chipset (1993) for
60 and 66MHz models. Supports PCI and FPM
memory.
430NX - Neptune - Supports 90 and
100MHz Pentiums.
430FX, (formerly Triton) - Supports EDO
RAM, Plug and Play.
430MX - Version of 430FX designed for
portable computers.
430TX - Desktop and mobile use. First
mobile chipset to support Concurrent PCI.
Supports USB, DPMA, Ultra DMA, SMBus.
430HX (formerly Triton II) - Geared for
business market. Supports EDO RAM, Concurrent
PCI, BGA packaging.
430VX (formerly Triton VX) - Geared for
home market. Supports USB, SDRAM, Concurrent
PCI.
440FX - Optimized for Pentium Pro and
Pentium II. Supports USB, EDO RAM, ECC memory,
dual processors, Concurrent PCI.
440LX - Optimized for Pentium II.
Supports LS-120, 33MHz Ultra DMA, AGP, USB,
SDRAM, ECC RAM, PC 97 power management,
Concurrent PCI.
440LXR - Low-end version of 440LX.
440BX - Optimized for Pentium II.
Supports 100MHz bus, FireWire, ACPI,
Concurrent PCI.
440GX - For midrange workstations.
Supports two CPUs, 2GB SDRAM, dual AGP.
450GX, 450KX - Optimized for Pentium
Pro. Supports FPM memory only. KX supports
dual processors, 1GB RAM. GX supports quad
processors, 8GB RAM.
450NX - For high-end workstations and
servers. Supports four CPUs, 2MB L2 cache,
Intelligent I/O, 8GB EDO memory, two 32-bit or
one 64-bit PCI.
460GX - For high-end workstations and
servers. Supports four CPUs, Slot M and 4xAGP.
810 - For value PCs. Includes
integrated 3-D graphics (AGP) with video out
and hardware motion compensation for MPEG-2
software playback. Supports 100MHz system bus
and 2 USB ports. Employs Intel Accelerated Hub
with 266 MBps between memory and peripherals
(2xPCI).
810e - Based on 440BX chipset intended
for mainstream PCs. Same as 810, but supports
133MHz system bus and ATA-66.
820 - For high-end desktops and
workstations. Provides 2-way multiprocessing (SMP),
ATA-66, 4xAGP, 133MHz system bus and was first
to support RDRAM memory. Introduced hub
architecture that uses a memory controller hub
chip (MCH) for AGP and RDRAM, which is
connected to an I/O controller hub chip (ICH)
at 266 MB/sec for PCI, sound, hard disk and
USB.
815, 815e - Uses hub architecture like
the 820, but supports PC100 and PC133 SDRAM.
Also provides dual ATA-100 control and
integrated Ethernet. Second generation of I/O
controller hub (ICH2).
840 - Similar to 820, but adds support
for 64-bit PCI, 4GB of RDRAM and dual
processors. A prefetch cache increases
performance.
845 - Similar to 840, but designed for
one Pentium 4 processor and SDRAM memory.
Supports lower voltage 1.5v AGP 4x/2x.
850 - Advanced 800 series chipset
designed for Pentium 4. Supports second
generation I/O controller hub (ICH2), 2GB of
RDRAM, 4 port USB, 6-channel AC97 sound, dual
ATA-100, integrated Ethernet and CNR slot.
852GM - Designed for mobile computing
with support for 1GB of DDR RAM and integrated
graphics.
855 - Designed for the Pentium M CPU.
855PM includes an AGP 4x slot, and 855GM
includes graphics. Supports up to 2GB of DDR
RAM.
860 - Similar to 850, but designed for
up to two Xeon processors with RDRAM increased
from 2GB to 4GB.
865G - Supports Hyper-Threading, 800MHz
frontside bus and dual channel DDR400 RAM.
875P - Similar to 865G, plus support
for Serial ATA, Gigabit Ethernet and 8x AGP.
Memory bandwidth increased to 6.4 GB/sec. |
