<A HREF="http://www.jc-news.com" target="_new">JC NEWS</A> REPORTS:
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What did AMD say about the AMD-8000 chipset? Well, if you look at AMD's AMD-8000 product <A HREF="http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~14848,00.html" target="_new"><font color=red>information page</font color=red></A>, you'll find that the chipset is separated into three chips: the AMD-8111, which acts like a typical south bridge; the AMD-8131, adding PCI-X capabilities; and the AMD-8151, which takes over the AGP functions, so this chip is sort of a north bridge without the memory interface (as the memory is controlled by the processor here).
From the looks of it, or at least from my looking at it, not all of these chips are required for a chipset. I believe that motherboard manufacturers could use all three chips for a server board, but only two of the chips (the 8111 and the 8151) would be required for a consumer board, since consumers don't have a pressing need for PCI-X. Please
Here are some pertinent details of the chips in the AMD-8000 chipset:
* AMD-8111 HyperTransport I/O hub
eight 33MHz, 32-bit PCI2.2 slot support
AC-97 (audio)
10/100 ethernet
three USB controllers (two OHCI, one EHCI, six ports total)
LPC bus (flash memory and Super I/O)
ATA133
800MB/s HT connection to host
* AMD-8131 HyperTransport PCI-X tunnel
6.4GB/s HT connection to host
3.2GB/s HT connection to "downstream device"
two PCI-X bridges
up to five 133MHz PCI-X masters per bridge (they're also regular PCI capable)
* AMD-8151 HyperTransport AGP3.0 graphics tunnel
6.4GB/s HT connection to host
1.6GB/s HT connection to "downstream device"
AGP2.0 compliant (1x/2x/4x)
AGP3.0 compliant (4x/8x)
I think that the chips are chained together (that's why two of them have HT connections to downstream devices), if what some more brain-oriented people are saying is accurate. The processor could be connected to the PCI-X tunnel, which could be connected to the AGP chip, which in turn gets connected to the I/O hub. I would appreciate it if anybody out there could confirm that it works in that fashion. It would seem strangely wasteful for the Hammer processor to have three completely separate HT links for the chipset, but what do I know? <g>
The AMD-8000 chipset will apparently become available to motherboard manufacturers in production quantities sometime during the fourth quarter of this year. Please note that, to the end user, chipset availability does not mean motherboard availability. It will likely take at least a month or two for motherboard makers to get their products ready for the market.
Anyway, I wanted to mention that I rather like the integrated NIC. More chipsets should have those.
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Interesting stuff indeed !
<font color=purple>~* K6-2 @ 333MHz *~
I don't need a 'Gigahertz' chip to surf the web just yet ;-)</font color=purple>