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The ServerWorks Grand Champion series and the Intel 75xx series of chipsets both support >4GB. The no-name Taiwanese brands from Fry's usually don't. Each serves a different market.

On current PCI architectures, you already have that implemented.

Here is the description of the Serverworks chipset (Scroll down to the drawings) Intel's (e7500/7501) is very similar, in architecture at least.

The memory subsystem is one leg of the northbridge (center of the chipset), (two channels allows the chipset to double the bandwidth, but not the latency)

The CPU(s) sit on another bus.

The PCI busses are interconnected through HUBs and specilised links. With this kind of architecture, you can reach 4 times 400 MB/s (1.6GB/s agregate) using the busses in PCI64bits/66MHz). Even better can be expected with PCI-X interfaces.

About the address tricks, you can do that kind of things, but in this case, expect to have to write many things ad-hoc, and forget the general-purpose side of your system. You usually want a real-time system, and I see no point in doing that for a simple web server. RADAR systems, avionics, and stuff like that can be expected to use that kind of trick and optimisations a lot (lots of processing done, and in a very systematic way). 3D rendering seems a nice application for that as well, but I don't know what the state of the art is for high quality (movies) rendering.

The hard part of Web sites is usually database access, which implies complex algorithm that don't fit well in specialised hardware. Compression is I think anacdotis in a web server.

I buy Intel because their chips and chipsets are rock solid stable, at least compared to other PC chips and chipsets.

Funny, Compaq Proliant servers use the Serverworks chipsets. HP dropped their own IA-32 server line in favor of the Proliant. Last I checked they were still the best selling IA-32 servers. BTW the Proliants are the most rock solid stable x86 kit I've had the privlidge to work with.

Even so there is a huge quality and stablity leap from even the best IA-32 based gear to the truely high-end servers from IBM, Sun, or HP. Even the best PC server gear isn't going to give you 5 or 6 Sigma reliablity especially if it is running Windows.

The "northbridge" of the Intel E7500 supports two PCI-X busses (more information about the chipset can be found here.

The ServerWorks GC series support for PCI-X start from 2 independent busses (the GC-SL) up to six PCI-X busses (the GC-HE). Specs on the ServerWorks stuff is located here.

I'm not completely sure if the AMD Hammer chipsets will include PCI-X support initially, but if one were to give up AGP 8x (which isn't really needed on a server) then you can turn that into a PCI-X bus to support a single 10 Gig Ethernet controller.

Of course, there is still the bottleneck of the memory subsystem which can make or break a high-end system.

I need a mission critical server that is x86 based? Forget intel chipsets, forget VIA, forget SiS, I go with Serverworks chipsets With pentium III processors, Serverworks are proven reliable chipsets vendor, and while the cost of the motherboard is a bit (well a big bit :) ) higher, it's still way cheaper than goind into most other platforms.

I need building an x86 renderfarm? NOTHING beats the power of a tigerMP with dual athlon price/performance wise. Stability? it is, it's simply rendering, not running quake while processing SETI units and running beta video drivers with leaked chipsets drivers.

The processors are a tool, you don't see people fighting over mastercraft vs black and decker when they come to buy a screwdriver, why you guys gets so religious about processors? I remember how happy most of you were when celerons with cache came out, overclocking that 300A to 450... you didn't think about AMD back then (well most of you didn't).. you were just saying "the k6 sucks, celeron rules" (I own a dual 366->550 that I'll probably change to a tigerMP). Of course most of what intel did to get flamed happened after that (rambus, crappy chipsets after BX, patent crap with via, etc), It's still pathetic to see how people react so badly...

Don't get me wrong, I find what intel did (especially with the rambus and via case) disgusting, but buisness is buisness, if they deliver good stuff at a decent price, I'll still get it, I have a company to maintain and a job to do. Of course if in the process I can do something about it as a IT manager, I will do it, but NOT at the demise of the company that employs me. There are alternatives to Rambus (serverworks gives a nice memory bandwidth with standard PC133 ram, they should come out with the same technology with DDR memory soon so that WILL kick hard). This is where I voice my opinion. Still, I wouldn't pay 50% more for AMD if intel would offer a similar technology same specs, same performance for less, this is where it becomes religious and pathetic.

If tomorrow I could get dual 2.2GHZ intel processors with rambus, 33% cheaper than an AMD based solution with DDR ram, I'd go for it, right now, it's AMD that has the upper hand, so these are the guys that I buy from for general computing/renderfarming.

The Intel 440GX is way behind the curve. Intel has poured so much into the Rambus avenue they forgot about the high-end where 4GB RAM and 2 standard PCI busses don't cut it. And the MTH (memory translator hub) failed to produce the SDRAM alternative they needed with the i840.

Enter ServerWorks' (formerly Reliance Computer Corporation, RCC) ServerSet III chipsets. They product chipsets for the big-boys, now for mainboard OEMs like Tyan, Asus and SuperMicro. 2 to 3 PCI busses (1 or 2 are 64-bit x 66MHz -- NOT slots, but whole busses!), 2 to 4-way PC133 SDRAM (supports upto 16GB), DDR SDRAM on the way, just awesome. The massive PCI I/O blows anything Intel's got away, and meets or beats most RISC vendors. Cheap too as the 2 CPU, 2 PCI bus, 2-way PC133 bus ServerSet IIILE can be had for just over $250 in SuperMicro mainboards.

ServerWorks is so good, Intel has adopted their chipsets for their own branded mainboards. Again, check them out!

P.S. As far as AMD, stay _away_ from Gateway 2000 -- the cheapest/worst components. Stick with a vendor that builds quality AMD systems, with AMD-approved components. Try Micron PC as they just introduced systems based on the new DDR SDRAM AMD i760 chipset mainboards and PC266 CPUs.

-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith

Machines with Serverworks chipsets support them, (Serverworks being formerly known as Reliant Computer Corporation). However, I have not seen a motherboard mere mortals can buy with this chipset. So far I have only seen them in x86 Servers from Dell, Compaq, and IIRC IBM. The serverworks line of chipsets also include IIRC an end to ISA, and an end to the 16 IRQ barrier (allowing 64 virtual IRQ's).

Of course I could be mistaken on the IRQ thing because the Intel Profusion chipset does that, and I could be confusing the two. Nevertheless Serverworks based boards do use 64bit hot-swappable PCI slots. Woohoo!

PCI-X is a backward compatible extension of the widely accepted Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) standard that forms the basis for the I/O systems for personal computers, workstations and all classes of servers. PCI-X permits the transfer of data between a host CPU and I/O peripherals at speeds in excess of 1-GByte per second, twice as fast as the 533-MByte per second supported by today's fastest (66 MHz) PCI buses, and eight times as fast as the 133-MByte per second peak rate available on most contemporary desktop and laptop personal computers. Industry analysts project that the PCI-X standard will have broad impact on high-end systems used for traditional data processing applications. It will also find broad acceptance in emerging markets for server appliances, storage-area networks (SANs), and high performance network switches. The first commercial products incorporating PCI-X technology are expected to arrive in the market during the second half of this calendar year.