Unlike previous chipsets, the Intel 850 has a Northbridge component with a Micro PGA design. Essentially, the new chipset contains a dual rambus interface that theoretically provides 3.2 GB per second in bandwidth. However, every rambus channel has to be furnished with at least one memory bank and all empty slots must be fitted for termination with continuous modules (CRIMMs).

New CPU platform - The Socket 423, the Pentium 4 and the Intel 850 Chipset are celebrating their debut.

Test Subjects - Six Boards With Pentium 4/1300

If you take a look at all six boards, you can see that the manufacturers followed Intel's reference design very closely. Small wonder, then, that the benchmark results are relatively even across the test field. The new board design is especially unusual - in comparison to Pentium III boards, these boards have been designed to have substantially more surface area. Special bus bars that require an adapter for the power supply are a new addition.