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mike@mikeshardware.co.uk

Q1 2005

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01

nVidia GeForce Go 6200 was released on January 6th. The GeForce Go 6200 is intended for mainstream notebook PCs and is based on the desktop GeForce 6200, supporting TurboCache technology to allow the GPU to access system RAM.

AMD Turion 64-bit Mobile CPU was announced on January 7th, with availability expected in March. Turion is intended to compete with Intel's Centrino / Sonoma mobile platform and is aimed at the 'thin and light' mobile market. Unlike Intel's Centrino / Sonoma mobile platform incorporating both CPU and chipset, Turion is a CPU only with third party suppliers such as Broadcom producing the accompanying chipsets. See the Newark, Lancaster and Georgetown Roadmap entries for more information.

ATI Mobility Radeon X700 mobile GPU was released on January 19th. The Mobility X700 is based around the desktop X700, but with slightly lower clock speeds. The Mobility X700 features 8 pixel pipelines and 6 vertex processors and runs at a core clock of 350Mhz and a memory clock of 700Mhz. In addition to the featureset of the desktop X700, the Mobility version features ATI's Dynamic Lane Count Switching (DLCS), which allows the GPU to dynamically change the number of PCI Express lanes in use depending upon requirements from 1 to 16. DLCS is claimed to deliver up to 30% power savings in typical usage scenarios.

Pentium M (Dothan) with 533MHz FSB and EDB support was released on January 19th as part of the Sonoma Mobile Internet PC 2004 platform. Dothan 533 is the successor to Dothan. The initial processors released are the 770 (2.13GHz), 760 (2.00GHz), 750 (1.86GHz), 740 (1.73GHz) and 730 (1.60GHz). Additionally the low powered models 758 (1.50GHz with a TDP of 10W) and 753 (1.20GHz with a TDP of 5W) were also released.

Intel i915GM Express (Alviso GM) chipset for Dothan was released on January 19th as part of the Sonoma Mobile Internet PC 2004 platform. Alviso GM is the successor to the i855GME and features support for Dual Channel DDR2 400/533 or DDR333, a 533Mhz FSB speed and PCI Express (4x PCI Express X1 ports and a PCI Express X16 port for attaching PCI Express graphics cards such as ATI's AXIOM and nVidia's MXM removable mobile cards). G revision chipsets also feature Intel's Graphics and Media Adapter 900 which offer DirectX 9 support and twice the performance of the previous i955 on-board graphics. The on-board geaphics also feature Intel's Display Power Saving Technology 2 (Intel DPST2), which reduces display backlight power by up to 400mW with minimal visual impact. The North Bridge links to the ICH6-M South Bridge through Intel's Direct Media Interface (DMI) 2GB/s link, with the ICH6-M South Bridge features support for 8X USB2 ports, SATA150, 802.11A, B & G (Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG NIC) and Intel's High Definition Audio (Azalia 7.2 channel).

Intel i915GMS Express was released on January 19th and is the cut down version of the i915GM, featuring support for a 400Mhz FSB only, Single channel DDR2 support and no external display capabilities.

Intel i915PM Express was released on January 19th. The i915PM offers the same capabilities as the i915GM, but lacks on-board graphics.

Intel i910GML Express was released on January 19th and is intended to be paired with Celeron M processors. The i910GML features support for a 400Mhz FSB and offers single channel DDR2. Unlike the i915GMS, the i910GML features dual display outputs.

nForce Professional was released on January 24th. nForce Professional is based around the nForce 4 chipset, but is intended for the dual and quad processor Opteron market. The chipset is based around two components - the nForce Professional 2200 and the nForce Professional 2050. The 2200 chip is identical to the nForce 4 chipset with the addition of more efficient Gigabit Ethernet through the TCP/IP offload Engine (TOE), reducing CPU overhead. The 2050 chip is a companion to the 2200, offering additional functionality in a multi-processor environment. Both chipset offer a 1Ghz HT link to their respective processor, 20 PCI Express lanes configurable over 4 physical connections (e.g. 2x8+2x1, 16x1+4x1 etc), a Gb Ethernet engine with TCPIP offload engine and 4xSATA300 ports. In addition to this the 2200 features 2xATA133 channels, 10xUSB2 ports and PCI 2.3 ports.
Each system must have 1x2200 chip along with up to n 2050 chips, where n is the number of CPUs in the system - 1 (i.e. on 2200 for a CPU and up to one 2050 for each additional CPU in the system). The unique selling point of the nForce Professional is it's ability to share resources in a system. In a quad processor environment we can 1x2200 and 3x2050's giving us 80 PCI Express lanes across 16 physical connections, 16 SATA 3Gb/s channels (all of which can be RAIDed through nvRAID in addition to the 2xPATA channels) and 4 GbE interfaces. Additionally, the chipset will support SLI Quadro (when released), allowing 2xPCIe 16x ports on a dual processor (or higher) system with at least  1x2200 & 1x2050 chip.

Matrox Parhelia DL256 PCI was released on January 26th. Based around the Parhelia 512 architecture, the DL256 PCI is a 256MB card capable of utilising a 64-bit, 66 MHz PCI / PCI-X slots, although it is also compatible with standard 32-bit PCI. Designed for high resolution 2D work, the DL256 features dual 400Mhz RAMDACs and dual TMDS transmitters, providing a DVI resolution of 2560 x 1600 and VGA resolution of 2048 x 1536. The ESP for this card is $699.

VIA PT880 Pro chipset for the Pentium 4 was released on January 31st. The PT880 Pro is a migratory chipset providing support for both AGP and PCI Express x16 graphics cards - even simultaneously, allowing two graphics cards to be installed in a single machine. The PT880 Pro additionally features support for 1066Mhz FSB speed, dual channel DDR/DDR2 memory to 400 and 667Mhz respectively and 20 PCI Express lanes (16 of which are for the graphics interface). The PT880 Pro will be paired with VIA's VT8251 South Bridge, offering support for SATA II, RAID 5 and High Definition Audio.

VIA PT894 chipset for the Pentium 4 was released on January 31st. The PT894 is the successor to the VIA PT890 and supports a 1066Mhz FSB speed, dual channel DDR/DDR2 memory to 400 and 667Mhz respectively and 20 PCI Express lanes (16 of which are for the graphics interface). The PT894 will be paired with VIA's VT8251 South Bridge, offering support for SATA II, RAID 5 and High Definition Audio.

VIA PT894 Pro chipset for the Pentium 4 was released on January 31st. The PT890 Pro is an enhanced version of the PT894 featuring support for dual PCI Express x16 ports (VIA's Dual Gfx Express technology) enabling two PCI Express graphics cards to be used in a single machine. The PT894 Pro will be paired with VIA's VT8251 South Bridge, offering support for SATA II, RAID 5 and High Definition Audio.

02

Matrox Millennium P650 PCIe 128 was released on February 4th. The P650 PCIe 128 features a PCI Express x16 interface, 128Mb of graphics and dual head support. It is expected to be available in April at a list price of $249.

AMD Opteron 852 was released on February 14th. The new x52 CPUs are the first to feature AMD's Revision E core, adding 1Ghz coherant HT link support along with support for the full SSE3 instruction set. This 8 way processor capable processor runs at a clock speed of 2.6Ghz and is based on the Athens core.

AMD Opteron 252 was released on February 14th. This dual processor capable processor runs at a clock speed of 2.6Ghz and is based on the Troy core.

AMD Opteron 152 was announced on February 14th, with availability on April 30th. This processor runs at a clock speed of 2.6Ghz and is based on the Venus core.

Intel Xeon DP 3.6Ghz (Irwindale) was released on February 14th and is built on a 90nm process. Irwindale is based around the Prescott 2M core and features 2Mb L2 cache, EM64T technology, Enhanced Speedstep, EDB support and an 800Mhz FSB speed (i.e. it is a DP capable P4 6xx series CPU). Irwindale will be available at clock speed of 3.6Ghz, 3.4Ghz, 3.2Ghz and 3.0Ghz.

nVidia GeForce Go 6600 mobile GPU was released on February 14th The Go 6600 is based around the desktop GeForce 6600, with additional power saving functionality.

Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.73Ghz (Prescott 2M) was released on February 20th. Prescott 2M is the 2Mb L2 cache version of Prescott, featuring support for a 1066Mhz FSB speed, XD memory protection, Enhanced Speedstep (although some of the power saving features are not relevant for this first revision as the multiplier can't drop below it's default 14X for technical reasons) and EM64T technology. Prescott 2M is the successor to Gallatin for the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition series.

Initial benchmarks show that the 3.73Ghz EE performs at a similar level to the previous 3.46Ghz Gallatin core.

Intel Pentium 4 6xx series CPUs were released on February 20th. The 6xx series CPUs are based on the Prescott 2M core, featuring 2MB of L2 cache, but run on an 800Mhz FSB speed. The 600 series also introduces Enhanced Speedstep technology to the P4 family to try to minimise thermal output and power requirements and contains EM64T 64-bit extensions. The initial members of the 6xx series are the 660 (3.60GHz), 650 (3.40GHz), 640 (3.20GHz) and 630 (3.0Ghz).

Initial benchmarks show that in most applications & games the 600 series processor performs very closely to the equivalent 500 series processor, although the occasional application does come closer to the next step up in the 500 series. Of course, the improvement brought about by the 64-bit extensions will only become apparent with the release of Windows XP x64 Edition.

nVidia GeForce Go 6800 Ultra was released on February 24th. Based on the desktop edition of the GeForce 6800 Ultra and featuring a core clock speed of 450Mhz and a memory clock of 1.1Ghz (higher than most desktop Ultras which tend to be 400Mhz/1.1Ghz), the GeForce Go 6800 Ultra is the fastest notebook GPU yet released. In addition to the featureset of the desktop GPU, the Go series additional supports nVidia's Powermizer technology, allowing clock and voltage throttling as well as SmartDimmer to reduce the display panel's power consumption.

03

ATI X850 for AGP (R481) was released on March 1st.  Like the PCI Express R480, the R481 comes in XT Platinum Edition, XT and Pro form and features the same clock speeds as the PCI Express cards.

ATI X800 for AGP was released on March 1st.  The X800 for AGP features the same R430 GPU as the PCI Express X800 and is bridged to AGP through the use of the Rialto chipset. The members of the X800 for AGP family are as that of the PCI Express variants

ATI X700 for AGP was released on March 1st.  The X700 for AGP features the same RV410 GPU as the PCI Express X700 and is bridged to AGP through the use of the Rialto chipset. The members of the X700 for AGP family are as that of the PCI Express variants.

SiS 756 PCI Express chipset for AMD64 was released on March 8th following its announcement this time last year! The optional SiS 163 WLAN chip additionally offers support for 802.11b/g wireless networking.

S3 GammaChromeS18 was announced on March 10th and is aimed at the mainstream graphics market. GammaChromeS18 features full hardware support for DirectX 9.0 hardware, Hi-DefTV native HDTV encoder and Chromotion 2.0 programmable video engine. The core of the GammaChrome GPU features 4 pixel pipelines along with 4 vertex pipelines operating at a clock frequency up to 500Mhz (in the Ultra version) and interfacing to up to 256MB of memory over either a 128 or 64-bit memory bus running at speeds up to 900Mhz DDR. The ChroMAT memory controller operates rather like ATI's HyperMemory and NVIDIA's TurboCache, allowing the use of system memory as graphics memory.  S3's Chromotion 2.0 video processing engine is fully compatible with DirectX-VA and can process any video formats, for example WMV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX, etc. The Gammachrome also features DeepColor which reduces the width of the alpha-channel to 2 bits, providing 10 bits for R, G and B components (10:10:10:2), providing billions of colours. The Hi-Def Experience feature of Gammachrome provides a full HDTV encoder, supporting all existing standards including 1080p. The GPU will be available as the following versions:

S3 Gammachrome S18 Ultra - 500MHz core.
S3 Gammachrome S18 Nitro - 450MHz core.
S3 Gammachrome S18 Pro - 400MHz core. First to market at $139-$149.
S3 Gammachrome S18 VE - Core clock to be announced.
S3 Gammachrome S18 ULP - Ultra Low Power. Core clock to be announced.

AMD Turion (Lancaster) 64-bit mobile CPU was released on March 10th following its announcement in January. The Turion CPU is the replacement for the Low Voltage Mobile Athlon 64 and is based on a 90nm E4 core Athlon 64, providing support for SSE3. Turion also features AMD's PowerNow technology (known as Cool'N'Quiet on the desktop, but essentially the same technology), which allows for clock speed (and voltage) modulation between 1.0GHz and the processor's maximum frequency based on load. The main difference between Turion and the other E4 core Athlon 64s is that Turion only supports Single channel DDR400 and is binned for low voltage performance. Turion is available in two different power lines - ML, which has a 35W TDP, and MT, which features a lower 25W TDP. Turion is initially available as a 1.6Ghz / 1Mb 30 series (e.g. MT-30), a 1.8Ghz / 512Kb 32 series, a 1.8Ghz / 1Mb 34 series and a 2Ghz / 1Mb 37 series.

nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra 512MB was released on March 11th. The clock speeds of this part are identical to the current 256MB GeForce 6800 Ultra, with the only difference being the quantity of GDDR3 memory on the card.

nVidia GeForce 6200 for AGP was released on March 11th. The specifications of this card are as for the PCI Express GeForce 6200.

Intel Xeon MP (Cranford) was released on March 29th. Cranford is a multi-processor enabled version of Prescott, and the L3 cacheless version of Potomac. Cranford features support for EM64T and Enhanced SpeedStep and has debuted at a clock speed of 3.16Ghz and 3.66Ghz on a 667Mhz FSB.

Intel Xeon MP (Potomac) was released on March 29th. Potomac is the 64-bit (EM64T) successor to Nocona based around the Cranford core. It is built on a 90nm process and contains 1Mb L2 cache alongside either 8 or 4MB of L3 cache. Potomac has debuted with clock speeds of 2.83Ghz, 3.0Ghz and 3.33Ghz and runs on a 667Mhz FSB utilising Intel's E8500 chipset. Like Cranford, Potomac features support for EM64T and Enhanced SpeedStep.

Intel E8500 (Twin Castle) chipset, for Potomac and Cranford, was released on March 29th. Twin Castle supports up to 4 processors and features a significantly revamped memory and front side bus architecture. Rather than all four processors sharing a single 400Mhz bus, as with previous Xeon MPs, Twin Castle operates two independent 667Mhz front side busses, with up to two CPUs running of each bus. The memory architecture of Twin Castle is notably different to previous chipsets. Four independent memory interface ports are present on the chip, with each port connecting to Dual Channel DDR266, DDR300 or DDR2 400 memory. The memory lanes support ECC, Hot Plug technologies and Intel's Memory RAID which allows memory mirroring and treats the memory stores as independent redundant data stores to allow the reconstruction of data even if a module fails. Twin Castle additionally features PCI Express support, with 28 PCI Express lanes available, and supports Demand Based Switching and Enhanced SpeedStep to reduce power consumption. Twin Castle uses the ICH5 South Bridge for SATA, USB2 etc support.

Windows Server 2003 SP1 was released on March 30th. Service Pack 1 includes a number of hotfixes, security enhancements and performance improvements to Windows Server 2003.

Q1

AMD Sempron (Palermo) for Socket 939, the successor to the Paris core, is expected to be released in Q1 on a 90nm process. In addition to the featureset of Paris, Palermo is expected to feature SSE3 support. These processors are expected to be initially released with ratings of 3200+ & 3000+.

AMD Sempron (Palermo) for Socket 754, based on the Palermo core, is expected to be released in Q1. These processors are expected to be initially released with ratings of 3200+, 3000+, 2800+ and 2600+.

AMD Athlon 64 3800+, based on the Winchester core, is expected to be released in Q1.

VIA K8T890 Pro chipset for the Athlon 64 is expected to be released in Q1. The K8T890 Pro is an enhanced version of the K8T890, with support for two PCI Express x16 slots for hosting two PCI Express graphics cards, enabling the use of nVidia's SLI graphics card facility.

VIA K8M890 chipset for the Athlon 64 platform is expected to be released in Q1. The K8M890 is a version of the K8T890 with integrated DirectX 9 Deltachrome graphics. The K8M890 is expected to feature 1xPCI Expressx16 port and 2xPCI Express x1 ports.

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