Most recently the development of industry characteristics, determined mainly rivalry two processor giants Intel and AMD, slowly rise to in the evolutionary way. Evolution - so if someone does not know the process, when the vast majority of computer enthusiasts, it is usually not encumbered ultra-high-income, not just remember what the term "upgrade" computer, but also have the opportunity to apply their knowledge in practice. Alas, these "blessed" the times seems to depart in the field of computer tradition ...

Today, the technological revolution, when emerging one after another almost without interruption, rather shaken the foundations of modern computer platforms. For example, "Intel revolution of 2004 brought us a new basic technology - PCI Express system bus and DDR2 memory. Also in the past year, with a large or lesser degree "gromoglasnosti" said a serial interface Serial ATA disk drives in the area of network solutions came to the fore Gigabit Gigabit Ethernet interface and various options for wireless Wi-Fi, integrated sound good old AC ' 97 fell under the pressure of an aggressive newcomer HDA (High Definition Audio). Only the most naive could believe that the revolution in the field of graphical interfaces confine itself only to the replacement of AGP8X PCI Express x16. No - NVIDIA company successfully reanimated rather forgotten technology SLI (Scalable Link Interface), is very popular in the time of the rule of the 3D video 3dfx Voodoo 2. And this year was no less turmoil - here, and the introduction of 64 - bit EM64T, and the inclusion of support XD bit, which, paired with Windows XP Service Pack 2, to prevent some viral attack (all of this is implemented in Pentium 4 processors with numbers of 5 x1), support energy conservation Enhanced SpeedStep technology, previously available only in mobile processors, and up to now has reached desktop (Pentium 4600 - Series). But the most important event of 2005 processors on the market, no doubt, has been the emergence of dual CPU architecture. These include Pentium processors 4800 - Series (kernel Smithfield), which at one semiconducting crystals are two equivalent processor kernel (by the way, the usual kernel Prescott, built on 90 - nm process technology), ie, produced a kind two-CPU system in the same package.

Intel Chipsets
The best chipset for Intel processors, by definition, can only be from the Intel chipsets. And they are, indeed, today - the best.

Family Express 915/925 chipsets
Happy birthday of a fundamentally new platform should be June 19, 2004, when the company formally announced the Intel chipsets discrete 925 H, 915 R and integrated 915G for the Pentium 4 processor in small-FC PGA2 and LGA775, and the new "south bridge" ICH6, which is included in their composition . All they supported 200 - MHz system bus (the term "FSB 800 MHz" arose from the fact that for a four-stroke transmission of data signals), equipped with a dual universal memory (as working with DDR2-533, and with normal memory DDR400), and PCI Express interface, not only for graphic adapters, but also for the card expansion.

There are no special architectural differences between basic 915P and 925X chipsets masthead No, but the last to defend its "topovost, not outdated model supports Pentium 4 processors with 533 MHz-bus (and still fowling, the budget Celeron, including its most recent version with the index of "D"), and memory - only supported DDR2. For several 925X performance surpasses 915 - and by a new incarnation of good old technology PAT, the current version of which, incidentally, now has no special title, as before.

Family Express 945/955 chipsets
Intel 945/955 Express Chipsets submitted three products: basic 945P, 945G integrated 955X and the masthead are evolutionarily ruler 915/925 Express. Small improvements touched, in fact, the only support for a high-speed tyres, the main novelties same task - to provide support for the latest Intel dual-core processors.

Northbridge 945P supports Intel Celeron D processor, Pentium 4, Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, Pentium D with the frequency 533/800/1066 MHz system bus; its dual memory controller can work with DDR2-400/533/667 aggregate up to 4 GB . True to its tradition every "accelerate" technological progress, in its new lineup of Intel refused to fully support lost relevance (in its view) DDR memory. But support for DDR2-667 memory will improve peak performance memory subsystem with a 8.5 Gbit / s at DDR2-533 up to 10.8 Gbps. And yet, and support FSB 1066 MHz, which is a computer exotic gradually moving into a mass of decisions can finally talk about significant increases in productivity new platform. However, of any mass dissemination of processors Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, and is still quite expensive DDR2-667 memory, now there can be no question - the cost exceeds all reasonable limits.

The new lineup ICH7 south bridge also not very different from the ICH6: they implemented a new, faster (300 Mbytes / s) Serial ATA-interface is almost completely follows the standard SATA-II, but without AHCI. ICH7R version adds support for SATA-RAID disks, which, compared with the ICH6R, that support expanded: now, in addition to RAID 0 and RAID 1 available yet, and levels 0 +1 (10) and 5. In addition, the number of ports ICH7R PCI-E x1 increased to 6, which may prove useful in the case of the merger of the two PCI-E-graphics cards in SLI mode.

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NVIDIA Chipsets
One of the most high profile events of the past year was the news of the "admission" by NVIDIA, one of the leading players in the market system logic for AMD processors, to a much more "piece" of the Intel market. Thus for the first time in history in the niche chipsets for hard-fast decisions previously controlled exclusively Intel itself, there is also another player, and not just a "second room", and immediately declared the claim for leadership. And, judging by the successes NVIDIA to "front" solutions for AMD64 platform, a claim is not unfounded. After all chipsets nForce4 SLI Intel Edition, despite not most, to say the least felicitous name - terribly unwieldy and trudnootlichimoe of ordinary nForce4 SLI, is essentially the same so well nForce4 SLI, which has been changed only tire processor and memory controller added . Recall that on AMD64 memory controller integrated into the CPU, so it unnecessarily chipset, which, of course, it's a lot easier to Northbridge. That is why the family of chipsets nForce3 / 4, in contrast to the "Intel Edition" are odnokristalnymi.

Unlike in previous years, when the producers of "alternative" chipsets for Pentium 4 released their new products almost immediately after Intel (and sometimes even ahead of it), with the introduction of new standards PCI Express/DDR2 Taiwanese "triumvirate" VIA, SiS and ALi / ULi and primknuvshaya to them "© ATI especially not in a hurry, limited only announces decent enough, but unfortunately, or no market demand, or simply" paper "chipsets. Such a "disregard" for whether it is due to progress every obstacles Intel in licensing new tyres multiplied to the power of marketing chief competitor, or second-tier manufacturers really appreciate its too limited competition with a truly advanced Intel chipsets. But it is not deleted, and a simple version of events, when the "alternative" simply awaiting final acceptance DDR2/PCI Express, and only then take seriously for the development of this market. However, according to information available on the Net on the plans of competitors Intel, the majority of their decisions will be aimed at Mainstream or, more likely, the Low-End sectors.