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Intel To Redesign PC With "Grantsdale" Chip
MarkRH writes "Over at ExtremeTech, we tracked down some Intel roadmaps that discuss "Grantsdale", Intel's most important chipset in nearly a decade. Grantsdale brings PCI Express to the PC, so get ready to toss out your motherboard, AGP graphics card, and maybe a host of other components, too. Also check out our articles on the "Tejas" microprocessor, Intel's first CPU to forego pins (check out the waffle iron socket!), as well as the real reason Banias saves so much power."
I beg to differ. My 10MHz Intel 286 had no pins. It looked like this.
I have a woman and money. Life is good.
also... if you're currious about PCI Express, this link seems to be pretty... informative:
http://www.intel.com/technology/pciexpress/
and is anyone else disappointed that the new "Grantsdale" chipset isn't supporting rambus ram!? i know i am :(
The parent makes it seem as if PCI Express only defines the standard for new generation PC Cards. It doesn't simply do that; otherwise it would be nearly worthless as the next generation successor to PCI. Take a look at relevant quotes from the PCI-SIG:
The "Mini PCI Express Electromechanical specification, an alternate for the existing Mini PCI form factor specification, is being completed for membership review and is expected to be finalized for publication in the first quarter of 2003."
"IBM is excited about the PCI Express architecture because of its compatibility with the past and its high-bandwidth options for the future," said Peter Hortensius, Vice President of Development, IBM Personal Computing Division. "IBM embraces open industry standards and provides innovation on top of them, and PCI Express presents outstanding opportunities for solving real customer problems."
Mini-PCI Express, then, is a spec in its infancy that is designed to replace the previous generation PC Card. It should make future laptops far more expandable, which is a great thing. And PCI Express is one of multiple candidates for desktop expansion. Yet, it seems that PCI Express is going to be backward compatible with important specs, and that it seemingly has industry support. I just wanted to make sure everyone understands the PCI card isn't going to be replaced by the PC Card.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
PCI Express FAQ here.
Quick summary: Formerly known as 3GIO, Software compatibility. Point-to-point instead of bus. 1 to 32 bits wide @ 2Gbps per bit = 16 GB/sec max (vs. 1-4 GB/sec for regular PCI; this is about AGP16X)
I am. The HT consortium needs to get its act together to offer some viable competition to PCI express in terms of cards and peripherals. HT is free to use while mobo and card makers will have to pay liscencing fees for pci express, driving up component prices and possibly adding to tech market stagnation (assuming the tech market doesnt turn around by h2 04, god forbid).
Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
Um the Ti 4200 8x is a NV28 chip. The controversial GeForce FX 5800 and 5800 Ultra use the NV30 chip.
Viral software licensing is not freedom, it is in fact GNU/Socialism.
PCI is (in theory) 133 MB/sec. PCI express is from 250MB/sec (2 channel) to 16GB/sec (32 channel). Also, PCI Express is designed to more than replace PCI, it's also designed to replace AGP. Lastly, there are several things bottlenecking on PCI these days. Gigabit ethernet (which Apple ships by default), HDDs that can burst > 80 MB/sec, RAID arrays, IEEE 1394b (400MB/sec!), etc.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
There's an PCI-X to AGP bridge that vendors can take advantage of to offer AGP ports on PCI-Express motherboards, so you'll likely be able to hang on to that new $500 vidcard you just bought (not that you'll be seeing PCIX anytime soon mind you). Your "old" PCI devices should still work as well.
This "waffle iron" design which lacks pins is old news to the DEC/Compaq/HP Alpha processor team. They have been using this packaging for almost a year now in production systems.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
I think you misinterpreted the numbers. PCI-X is a point-to-point, rather than bus technology. A connection is 1 to 32 bits wide @ 2Gbps per bit.
So if you're using a measly 2 bit connection sure you might only get 250 MB a second, but if you read the article you'll see that Intel is planning on using a 16-bit wide connection for the graphics card. This would give you 32Gbps, or roughly the same as AGP 8X. There is potential to go much faster by using a 32-bit PCI-X connection. In comparison, the other PCI-X slots on the motherboard for peripherals will be much slower, probably only using 2 bits.
I fully expect server boards to have multiple 32-bit PCI-X slots for maximum I/O throughput. In addition, we will probably see new technologies for clustering that utilize a PCI-X expansion card as a high speed server-to-server bus.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon