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Hardware Guide Part II (Chipsets)

Essentially, each mainboard chipset consists of a Northbridge and a Southbridge which are connected through a data channel. Some of the chipsets from NVIDIA (Nforce3/4) and SiS (735/645) are exceptions, because they are based on a single-chip technology. The Northbridge typically connects high-speed devices like processor, graphics card (AGP or PCI Express 16X) and memory modules. As an exception, AMD Athlon 64 processors have an integrated memory controller that bypasses the Northbridge in order to lower the memory latency. So called integrated chipsets also include graphics cores, which is also located in the Northbridge chip. The Southbridge is responsible for communicating with the peripheral devices. This includes PCI interfaces (traditional PCI or PCI Express 1X), IDE (Parallel ATA and/or Serial ATA) for hard drives and DVD/CD drives, USB ports, audio and LAN interfaces.

Shuttle has designed and manufactured dozens of unique XPC SFF computers based on a wide range of leading chipsets from long-time partners Intel, NVIDIA, ATI, VIA and SiS. Shuttle's determination to deliver cutting edge innovation can seen in the mainboards that reside inside the XPC. Shuttle is always one of the first, if not the very first SFF manufacturer to incorporate the latest desktop chipsets in their mainboards. Shuttle was e.g. the first to design an SFF with Intels 865G, 875P, 915G, or 925XE chipset or NVIDIA nForce 2, 3 and 4 chipsets.

The following page may give your an overview about the recent mainboard chipsets.

Intel chipsets for Pentium 4 (and Pentium D)

Intel is the leading manufacturer of chipsets and during the recent years they release a new chipset family for own desktop processors around every second quarter, which always introduces new features - for example faster interfaces for memory, processors, expansion cards, audio and harddisks. Since Intel introduced the Hub architecture, their Northbridge is now called the Memory Controller Hub (MCH) and the Southbridge is called the I/O Controller Hub (ICH).

Note: Socket 775 was introduced together with 915/925 chipset family, but is also possible with 865/875 chipset.

Pentium 4 Desktop Chipsets

Codename

Northbridge
(GMCH/MCH)

Southbridge
(ICH)

Integrated
Graphics?

Graphics
Slot

CPU FSB
max.

Dual
Core

Memory, max.

Brookdale 845PE ICH4 AGP 4X 533MHz No DDR333
Brookdale 845GE ICH4 Yes, 64MB AGP 4X 533MHz No DDR333
Brookdale 845G ICH4 Yes, 64MB AGP 4X 533MHz No DDR266
Brookdale 845E ICH4 AGP 4X 533MHz No DDR266
Brookdale 845GV ICH4 Yes, 64MB 533MHz No DDR266
Brookdale 845GL ICH4 Yes, 64MB 400MHz No DDR266
Brookdale 845/D ICH2 AGP 4X 400MHz No DDR266
Springdale 865P ICH5 AGP 8X 533 MHz No DC, DDR333
Springdale 865GV ICH5 Yes, 96MB 800 MHz No DC, DDR400
Springdale 865PE ICH5 AGP 8X 800 MHz No DC, DDR400
Springdale 865G ICH5 Yes, 96MB AGP 8X 800 MHz No DC, DDR400
Springdale 848P ICH5 AGP 8X 800 MHz No DDR400
Canterwood 875P ICH5 AGP 8X 800MHz No DC, DDR400, PAT
Grantsdale 915G ICH6 Yes, 224MB PCIe 16X 800MHz No DC, DDR400 (DDR2)
Grantsdale 915P ICH6 PCIe 16X 800MHz No DC, DDR400 (DDR2)
Grantsdale 915GV ICH6 Yes, 224MB 800MHz No DC, DDR400 (DDR2)
Grantsdale 915PL ICH6 PCIe 16X 800MHz No DC, DDR400
Grantsdale 915GL ICH6 Yes, 224MB 800MHz No DC, DDR400
Grantsdale 910GL ICH6 Yes, 224MB 533MHz No DC, DDR400
Alderwood 925X ICH6 PCIe 16X 800MHz No Dual, DDR2-533
Alderwood 925XE ICH6 PCIe 16X 1066MHz No Dual, DDR2-533
Lakeport 945P ICH7 PCIe 16X 1066MHz Yes Dual, DDR2-667
Lakeport 945G ICH7 Yes, 224MB PCIe 16X 1066MHz Yes Dual, DDR2-667
Lakeport 945PL ICH7 PCIe 16X 800MHz Yes Dual, DDR2-533
Glenwood 955X ICH7 PCIe 16X 1066MHz Yes Dual, DDR2-667

The Intel Northbridge chip is called graphics and memory controller hub (GMCH) when it integrated a graphics function. Those chipsets have a "G" in their name, e.g. 915GV.

Intel integrated graphics technologies

Northbridge chip (GMCH)

Integrated graphics solution

Shared Memory

Direct X / OpenGL

Core clock

i845Gx (Brookdale)

Intel Extreme Graphics

64 MB

DX8, OGL 1.1

i865Gx (Springdale)

Intel Extreme Graphics 2

96 MB

DX8, OGL 1.1

266MHz

i915Gx (Grantsdale)

Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA900)

224 MB

DX8, OGL 1.4

266MHz

i945Gx (Lakeport)

Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA950)

224 MB

DX8, OGL 1.4

266MHz

Intel Southbridge (I/O Controller Hub)

Southbridge (ICH)

Par-ATA

Ser-ATA

Raid optional

USB 2.0

LAN Audio PCI PCIe 1X

ICH4

2x ATA100

6x

yes 6-ch 6

ICH5/R

2x ATA100

2x SATA

Raid 0

8x

yes 6-ch 6

ICH6/R

1x ATA100

4x SATA

Raid 0,1,5,10

8x

yes 8-ch HD-Audio 6 4

ICH7/R

1x ATA100

4x SATA 3Gb

Raid 0,1,5,10

8x

yes 8-ch HD-Audio 6 6

Intel chipsets for Pentium M

Intel Centrino Mobile Technology (short: Centrino) is a marketing initiative from Intel for a particular combination of CPU, mainboard chipset and wireless network interface in the design of a laptop personal computer. Only systems which include all three components are allowed to use the Centrino brand, but there also exist Pentium-M based systems where Intel's networking hardware is replaced by another good solution. The Intel Mobile chipsets 855/915 support the Intel Pentium M processor in a Socket 479, which is available with Banias core (400MHz FSB, 1MB Cache) or the newer Dothan core (400 or 533MHz FSB, 2MB Cache).

Centrino Generation

Carmel

Sonoma

Chipset

i855GM

i855PM

i855GME

i915GM

i915GMS

i915PM

Introduced

March 2003

March 2003

Sept. 2003

Begin 2005

Begin 2005

Begin 2005

Front Side Bus

400 MHz

400 MHz

400 MHz

533/400 MHz

400 MHz

533/400 MHz

Memory

DDR266

DDR266

DDR266
DDR333

DDR2-533/400 (Dual)
DDR2-400 (Single)
DDR 333 (Single)

1x DDR2-400 (Single)

DDR2-533/400 (Dual)
DDR2-400 (Single)
DDR 333 (Single)

Integrated graphics

Yes, DX 7.1

No

Yes, DX 7.1

Yes, GMA900, DX 9.0 Yes, GMA900, DX 9.0

No

External graphics AGP 4X PCI-Express x16 PCI-Express x16

LAN

over PCI over PCI over PCI

Gigabit

Gigabit

Gigabit

Intel WLAN Intel PRO/Wireless 2100BG, IEEE 802.11b and 2200BG Single-Band (since Q1/04) Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG, IEEE 802.11abg
Southbridge ICH4-M
Parallel ATA 100
PCI interface
AC97 5.1 Audio
ICH6-M
Serial ATA 150 (without Raid) and Parallel ATA 100
PCI Express 1x interface
Intel HD-Audio Audio

NVIDIA Chipsets for AMD CPUs

The nForce4 family brings three major technologies to the AMD Athlon 64 market, SLI, PCI Express and SATA 300 (3 Gb/s). The rest of the features such as ActiveArmor Networking and Firewall, MediaShield Storage and dedicated Gigabit LAN have already been built upon since the later incarnations of the nForce3 series. The following table shows all the main features and difference between the nForce4 family and its predecessor. Finally, NVIDIA offers some integrated chipset solutions with GeForce 6100/6150 which consists of two chips: IGP (Integrated graphics processor) and MCP (Media communication processor). All nForce3 and nForce4 chipsets are single-chip solutions.

NVIDIA chipsets for Athlon 64 and Sempron processors (Socket 754/939)

Chipset

HT max.

PEG

PCIe 1X

AGP 8X

PCI

SATA PATA Raid USB Audio LAN Hardware Firewall

nForce3 150 (Pro)

3.6 GB/s

Yes

6

external chip

2

 

6

AC97

100

 

nForce3 250

6.4 GB/s

Yes

6

external chip

3

0,1,10

8

AC97

100

 

nForce3 250 Gb

6.4 GB/s

Yes

6

external chip

3

0,1,10

8

AC97

GBit

Yes

nForce3 Ultra

8 GB/s

Yes

6

external chip

3

0,1,10

8

AC97

GBit

Yes

nForce4

8 GB/s

16x

4

6

4x 150MB/s

4

0,1,10

10

AC97

GBit

Active
Armor

nForce4 Ultra

8 GB/s

16x

4

6

4x 300MB/s

4

0,1,10

10

AC97

GBit

Active
Armor
+ SNE

nForce4 SLI

8 GB/s

16x or 8x + 8x

4

6

4x 300MB/s

4

0,1,10

10

AC97

GBit

Active
Armor
+ SNE

GeForce 6100 / nForce 410

8 GB/s

16x

1

 

 

2x 300MB/s

2

0,1

8

HD

100

 

GeForce 6100 / nForce 410

8 GB/s

16x

2

 

 

4x 300MB/s

2

0,1,0
+1,5

8

HD

GBit

Active
Armor
+ SNE

GeForce 6150*) / nForce 410

8 GB/s

16x

2

 

 

4x 300MB/s

2

0,1,0
+1,5

8

HD

GBit

Active
Armor
+ SNE

*) GeForce 6150 supports Composite, S-Video, HD-Video and DVI. The graphics core is based on GeForce 6200 (NV44) and the core speed is 475 MHz.

The NVIDIA nForce 2 chipset supports Athlon XP, Duron and Sempron processors in Socket A (462 pins) and consist of two chips. The Northbridge is called System Platform Processor (SPP, without graphics) or Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP, with integrated NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX 440 graphics) and features interfaces for Dual Channel Memory and AGP 8X. The Southbridge is called Media and Communications Processor/Turbo (MCP, MCP-T) and supports USB 2.0, Ultra ATA 133, AC97 Audio and PCI. The T-Version supports IEEE 1394a/Firewire, 100MB/s LAN and real-time 5.1 Dolby Digital 3D encoding (AC3, "Soundstorm").

Chipset

Integrated graphics

Shuttle XPC

nForce2

Yes

SN41G2/V2/V3

nForce2 Ultra 400

No

SN45G/V2/V3

ATI Chipsets

ATI's RADEON 9100 IGP for Pentium 4 processors

ATI's RADEON 9100 IGP chipset (codename RS300) was not the first integrated chipsets of ATI Technologies. The company had long been shipping such products, e.g. the 320/330/340 IGPs and the mobile 320M/340M IGPs - but the RADEON 9100 achieved higher popularity in the desktop chipset field and was the world's first DX8 integrated chipset for the Pentium 4 when it was announced in June 2003. The RADEON 9100 IGP graphics core (300MHz) is based on the RADEON 9200 architecture and supports up to 128MB allocated for frame-buffer and DirectX 8.1 features in addition to HyperZ technologies to ensure memory bandwidth is used more effectively. The graphics core also supports Surroundview: it can work with three monitors if you use an external graphics card. The northbridge supports Pentium 4 and Celeron processors up to 800MHz FSB, Dual Channel DDR400 and an AGP 8X interface. The Southbridge (IXP250) supports AC97 5.1 audio, USB 2.0, PCI, ATA100 and 100Mb/s LAN. Shuttle was among the launch partners of the ATI RADEON 9100 IGP chipset and released two XPC Barebone products with ATI's RADEON 9100 IGP chipset: ST61G4 and ST62K. A MOBILITY RADEON 9100 IGP chipset for Intel Pentium M processors and Mobile Intel Pentium 4-M family is also available.

ATI Radeon Xpress 200 for K8 platforms

The ATI Radeon Xpress 200 chipset comes with PCI-Express interface and is ATIs first mainboard chipset that is really aimed at the enthusiast market. It was released in Nov. 2004 and comes in two flavors:

  • ATI Radeon Xpress 200 (codename RS480)
    with integrated graphics processor
  • ATI Radeon Xpress 200P (codename RX480)
    for discrete graphics solutions only

The onboard DirectX 9.0 graphics processor based on the same core technology as the Redeon X300 (introduced in June 04) and uses the very same Catalyst drivers as ATi's discreet add-in video cards. The graphics engine supports Vertex Shader 2.0, Pixel Shader 2.0 and up to 128MB shared memory. It comes with dual display capability on chipset (analog and DVI) and Surroundview for up to 4 monitors in combination with another ATI graphics card. The Southbridge supports 100MB/s LAN (Gigabit via PCIe), 4x SATA and 2x PATA ports (RAID 0, 1), 8x USB 2.0 ports, and AC97 audio. Since ATI has had issues previously with their Southbridge implementation and since Shuttle's early market penetration is crucial, Shuttle engineers have chosen go with ULi's M1573 Southbridge for their XPC Barebone ST20G5 instead, which is also more feature-rich.

SiS Chipsets

Silicon Integrated Systems has been long known as a chipset manufacturer as well as a developer of standalone graphics chips (SiS305, SiS315 and SiS Xabre). Their graphics solutions are usually found in the northbridges of their integrated chipsets. The following tables are summarized from http://www.sis.com/support/support_compare.htm.

SiS Chipsets for Intel Desktop CPUs

Chipset

Target 
Segment

Max FSB

HT

Memory 
Channel

Max.
Memory

Memory
Type (max)

ECC

Interface

Integrated 
Graphics

SiS650

Value

FSB 400

Yes

Single
Channel

3GB

DDR266

No

AGP 4X 

SiS Real256
64MB, DX7.0

SiS651

Value

FSB 533

Yes

Single
Channel

3GB

DDR333

No

AGP 4X 

SiS Real256
64MB, DX7.0

SiS651B

Value

FSB 533

Yes

Single
Channel

3GB

DDR333

No

AGP 4X 

SiS Real256
64MB, DX7.0

SiS648

Value

FSB 533

No

Single
Channel

3GB

DDR333

No

AGP 8X 

 

SiS661GX

Value

FSB 533

Yes

Single
Channel

3GB

DDR400

No

AGP 8X 

Mirage
64MB, DX7.0

SiS655

Mainstream

FSB 533

Yes

Dual
Channel

4GB

DDR333

No

AGP 8X 

 

SiS655TX

Mainstream
Performance

FSB 800

Yes

Dual
Channel

4GB

DDR400

No

AGP 8X 

 

SiS648FX

Mainstream

FSB 800

Yes

Single
Channel

3GB

DDR400

No

AGP 8X 

 

SiS655FX

Mainstream
Performance

FSB 800

Yes

Dual
Channel

4GB

DDR400

No

AGP 8X 

 

SiS661FX

Value

FSB 800

Yes

Single
Channel

3GB

DDR400

No

AGP 8X 

Mirage
64MB, DX7.0

SiS649

Performance

FSB 800

Yes

Single
Channel

2GB

DDR2-533
DDR400

No

PCIe x16

 

SiS656

Performance

FSB 800

Yes

Dual
Channel

4GB

DDR2-667 
DDR400

Yes

PCIe x16

 

SiS649FX

Mainstream

FSB 1066
only

Yes

Single
Channel

2GB

DDR2-667 
DDR400

No

PCIe x16

 

SiS656FX

Performance

FSB 1066

Yes

Dual
Channel

4GB

DDR2-667 
DDR400

Yes

PCIe x16

 

SiS Chipsets for AMD K8 Desktop CPUs

Item

Target Segment

System Bus

External Graphics

Integrated Graphics

SiS761GL

Mainstream
Value

1600 MT/s

Mirage
128MB, DirectX 7.0

SiS755

Performance
Mainstream

1600 MT/s

AGP 8X

SiS760

Mainstream
Value

1600 MT/s

AGP 8X

Mirage, DirectX 8.1
LFB+UMA<=128MB

SiS760GX

Value

1600 MT/s

AGP 8X

Mirage
128MB, DirectX 8.1

SiS755FX

Performance

2000 MT/s

AGP 8X

SiS756

Performance

2000 MT/s

PCIe x16

SiS761GX

Mainstream
Value

2000 MT/s

PCIe x16

Mirage
128MB, DirectX 7.0

SiS Chipsets for AMD Socket A Desktop CPUs

Item

Target
Segment

max. FSB

Memory
Channel

Memory
type

Memory
(max.)

External
Graphics

Integrated
Graphics

SiS740

Value

FSB 266

Single
Channel

DDR266

3GB

PCI

SiS Real256
64MB, DX7.0

SiS746

Value

FSB 266

Single
Channel

DDR333

3GB

AGP 8X

SiS741GX

Value

FSB 333

Single
Channel

DDR333

3GB

AGP 8X

Mirage
64MB, DX7.0

SiS746FX

Value

FSB 333

Single
Channel

DDR400

3GB

AGP 8X

SiS741

Value

FSB 400

Single
Channel

DDR400

3GB

AGP 8X

Mirage
64MB, DX7.0

SiS748

Value

FSB 400

Single
Channel

DDR400

3GB

AGP 8X

SiS Southbridges

South Bridge

PCIe x1

PCI Masters

S-ATA

IDE

IEEE1394

USB

LAN

Audio

SiS962

6 (PCI 2.3)

ATA133

USB 1.1

100 MB/s

AC'97 v2.2

SiS962L

6 (PCI 2.2)

ATA133

USB 2.0

100 MB/s

AC'97 v2.2

SiS963L

6 (PCI 2.2)

ATA133

USB 2.0

100 MB/s

AC'97 v2.2

SiS963

6 (PCI 2.2)

ATA133

Yes

USB 2.0

100 MB/s

AC'97 v2.2

SiS964L

6 (PCI 2.3)

ATA133

USB 2.0

100 MB/s

AC'97 v2.3

SiS964

6 (PCI 2.3)

2

ATA133

USB 2.0

100 MB/s

AC'97 v2.3

SiS965L

Yes

6 (PCI 2.3)

2

ATA133

USB 2.0

100 MB/s

AC'97 v2.3

SiS966L

Yes

6 (PCI 2.3)

2

ATA133

USB 2.0

100 MB/s

HDA / AC'97 v2.3

SiS965

Yes

6 (PCI 2.3)

4

ATA133

USB 2.0

1 GB/s

AC'97 v2.3

SiS966

Yes

6 (PCI 2.3)

4

ATA133

USB 2.0

1 GB/s

HDA / AC'97 v2.3

VIA Chipsets

VIA is a very well known company for their mainboards, chipsets, processors and form factors. Below are listed some of their latest chipsets for desktop mainboards.. From VIAs driver page you can download the latest VIA drivers.

VIA Chipsets for AMD Athlon 64 / FX, Sempron, Source

North Bridge

Hyper Transport

Bus

Ext. Graphics

Int. Graphics

PCIe 1x

VIA K8T890

1GHz / 16-bit

Asynchr.

PCIe x16

4x

VIA K8T800 Pro

1GHz / 16-bit

Asynchr.

AGP 8X

VIA K8T800

800MHz / 16-bit

Synchr.

AGP 8X

VIA K8M800

800MHz / 16-bit

Synchr.

AGP 8X

S3 UniChrome
Pro IGP, 64MB

VIA Chipsets for Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron (including Prescott core), Source

North Bridge

FSB (max.)

Bus

Memory Support

Ext. Graphics

Internal Graphics

VIA PT894 Pro

1066 MHz

Asynchr.

DDR400, DDR2-533
Dual Channel, 16GB

PCIe x16
PCIe x4

VIA PT894

1066 MHz

Asynchr.

DDR400, DDR2-533
Dual Channel, 16GB

PCIe x16

VIA PT880 Ultra

1066 MHz

Asynchr.

DDR400, DDR2-533
Dual Channel, 16GB

AGP 8X
PCIe x4

VIA PT880 Pro

800 MHz

Asynchr.

DDR400, DDR2-533
Dual Channel, 16GB

AGP 8X
PCIe x4

VIA PT880

800 MHz

Asynchr.

DDR400
Dual Channel, 16GB

AGP 8X

VIA PM800

800 MHz

Asynchr.

DDR400
Single Channel, 16GB

AGP 8X

S3 UniChrome™
Pro IGP, 64MB

P4M800 Pro

800 MHz

Asynchr.

DDR400, DDR2-533
16GB

AGP 8X

S3 UniChrome™
Pro IGP, 64MB

VIA Chipsets for AMD Athlon XP Processors (Socket A), Source

North Bridge

FSB (max.)

Bus

Memory Support

Ext. Graphics

Internal Graphics

VIA KT880

400 MHz

Synchr.

DDR400, max. 8GB
Dual channel

AGP 8X

VIA KT600

400 MHz

Synchr.

DDR400, max. 4GB
Single channel

AGP 8X

VIA KT400A

333 MHz

Synchr.

DDR400, max. 4GB
Single channel

AGP 8X

VIA KM400A

400 MHz

Synchr.

DDR400, max. 6GB
Single channel

AGP 8X

S3 UniChrome
IGP, 64MB

VIA KM400

400 MHz

Synchr.

DDR333, max. 4GB
Single channel

AGP 8X

S3 UniChrome
IGP, 64MB

Newest VIA Southbridges

South Bridge

VIA VT8235

VIA VT8237/R (R = Raid)

North/South Bridge Link

8X V-Link (533MB/sec)

Ultra V-Link (1066MB/sec)

Audio

VIA Vinyl 6-ch Audio (AC'97)

VIA Vinyl 6-ch Audio (AC'97)
VIA Vinyl Gold 8-ch Audio (PCI)

Networking

VIA MAC 10/100 Ethernet

VIA Velocity Gigabit Ethernet (PCI)
VIA integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet

Serial ATA

2 x SATA 150 devices
interface for 2 additional SATA devices (4 total)

V-RAID

RAID 0, RAID 1, & JBOD (SATA)

IDE

ATA 33/66/100/133

ATA133 (up to 4 devices)

USB 2.0

6 slots

8 ports

PCI Devices/Slots

5 slots

6 ports

Modem

MC'97

MC'97

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