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NVIDIA's Socket 775 Core Logic Coming Soon

Posted by Hemos on from the moving-into-the-big-boy-space dept.

Hack Jandy writes "NVIDIA dominates a large percentage of AMD chipset sales already, and next week they will reportedly make the announcement to pursue Intel based platforms as well. NVIDIA's General Manager claims March 1st (during the Intel Developer Forum) will be the date the world gets to see NVIDIA's SLI chipset running on a Socket 775 Intel motherboard."

47 comments

  1. The question is by alexo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Will it support SoundStorm?

    (Pirst Fost?)

    1. Re:The question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative


      No. SoundStorm is dead.

      The motherboard mfgrs weren't getting enough positive feedback from it, it was expensive (the Dolby license was not the only reason), and Creative bought Sensura, whose technology it used.

    2. Re:The question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Were its bones turned over to yet another charnel house?

    3. Re:The question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Buy me Bonestorm or go to Hell!"

    4. Re:The question is by doofusclam · · Score: 1
      No. SoundStorm is dead.

      The motherboard mfgrs weren't getting enough positive feedback from it, it was expensive (the Dolby license was not the only reason), and Creative bought Sensura, whose technology it used.


      That might not be true. According to hexus and theinquirer.net, soundstorm will return in the next chipset iteration. Which is nice - the sound on my nforce boards is fantastic.
    5. Re:The question is by Temporal · · Score: 4, Funny

      The motherboard mfgrs weren't getting enough positive feedback from it, it was expensive (the Dolby license was not the only reason), and Creative bought Sensura, whose technology it used.

      Sure, you can come up with all the excuses you want for why soundstorm died, but we all know the real reason is this.

    6. Re:The question is by Evangelion · · Score: 3, Insightful


      There's a difference between "available from nVidia" and "available on a motherboard". Even if nVidia makes it, will any motherboard manufacurers include it? Or will they just go with the standard RealTek/AC97 onboard sound solutions?

      There were only one or two actual boards that used the full SoundStorm solution -- because of it's price, it was relegated to Deluxe models, and the standard onboard sound solutions were used on the normal boards.

    7. Re:The question is by doofusclam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Good point, but what most people liked about the nvidia APU was the realtime DD encoding - not the nice d/a converters that nvidia specced but most manufacturers discarded in place of crappy realtek codecs. This DD encoding was on lots of boards, and for someone like me who uses sp/dif the quality of the analogue outs is moot anyways.

    8. Re:The question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously you havent heard that on the Soundstorm!

    9. Re:The question is by DarkSarin · · Score: 1

      I hadn't ever endured that previously. Thanks for making my ears bleed--now I have to explain the blood to my supervisor. Gaah!

      --
      "We don't know what we are doing, but we are doing it very carefully,..." Wherry, R.J. Personnel Psychology (1995)
    10. Re:The question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow that hella sucked

    11. Re:The question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow that hella sucked

      You don't talk like that in real life do you?

    12. Re:The question is by radish · · Score: 1

      My ears! They bleed! Seriously..WTF??

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    13. Re:The question is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only on Mondays.

  2. Highly doubtful. by DeeKayWon · · Score: 2, Informative

    They've pretty much declared that Soundstorm is dead, save for the possibility of it showing up as add-on card in the future.

  3. More propietary crap by pupeno · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I don't like nVidia as a company because they make almost everything proprietary, from their video cards to the motherboard chip-sets. I've spent a lot of time in an nForce2-based motherboard and I had lots of trouble with it running Linux, mainly unexpected and random freezes. Thankfully I know have a Soyo Dragon Ultra based on the Via KT600 chip-set, it's much better, I haven't had a freeze in the 18 months since I made the switch.

    --
    Pupeno
    1. Re:More propietary crap by stuffisgood · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well at least they went to the trouble to make available some half-decent drivers for *nix systems. Its taken ATI a long time to get to the quality the Nvidia drivers have been for quite a while.

      --
      My Site, My Life
    2. Re:More propietary crap by crow · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'm running nForce-2 on my Myth box, and I haven't had any unexplained freezes. Did you monitor the CPU temperature? Overheating is the most common cause of random freezes. It's quite easy to use insufficient fans or improperly-attached heat sinks.

      I've also heard some suggestions to use the pci=noapic command-line option when booting the kernel (in your grub.conf or equivalent); I'm not sure if that's a nForce issue or a 2.6 issue.

    3. Re:More propietary crap by Keltan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Last time I checked, while ATI had better hardware than nVidia, their drivers were still poorly lacking. ATI seems to be able to come up with better/cheaper hardware (usually), but I have yet to see them come close to matching nVidia's drivers. nVidia updates their drivers more often, on more platforms, and supports more software* than ATI does. *by software, I mean games

    4. Re:More propietary crap by crow · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Their video drivers are half-decent. By "half" I mean the half that works. Every driver seems to introduce some obscure bug while fixing others. Casual users are fine with most of the drivers, but if you use some special feature like twinview or TV-out overscan, then you have to be careful to use the right version. Oh, and their web pages clearly state that the video cards have on-board MPEG-2 decoding, but there's no driver support for that.

      As to their motherboard drivers, I don't think anyone is using them. Newer kernels include GPL driver support for both ethernet and sound. I've heard some reports that the nVidia driver is better if you need SPDIF-out, but I've also heard reports that those drivers have various problems.

      Still, with all that said, nVidia is clearly head and shoulders above other vendors, and I thank them for their efforts.

    5. Re:More propietary crap by DeeKayWon · · Score: 1

      There was a C1 HALT disconnect problem with the nForce2 that caused lockups, but AFAIK that's been fixed since 2.6.7.

    6. Re:More propietary crap by aztracker1 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I've seen as many issues with cheapy psu's as I have overheating.. also, many video cards are clocked to their max... I bought a radeon 9600 pro for my kid's pc, so he could play doom3 better, and it wasn't stable under load to video... when I underclocked 1 notch in ati-util, it's been rock solid since then.

      --
      Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
  4. Yay by Christoff+Ka+Sin+Chu · · Score: 0

    That's good news to hear. One of the reasons my computer was AMD-based was because I didn't like Intel's offerings at the time, and the nForce 2 was a great motherboard chipset.
    Hopefully nVidia will do as well in their Intel market.
    CC

    --
    CKSCIII
  5. Poor server by Forcepath · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...it's been /.ed to death already. And I wanted to RTFA.

    --
    this .sig for sale
    1. Re:Poor server by EmperorKagato · · Score: 1

      Hmm that's when subscriptions come in handy.

      --
      ----- You know you have ego issues when you register a domain in your name.
    2. Re:Poor server by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Link to the official press release, no need to guess further.

  6. Sounds like Samsungs Strategy by CarlinWithers · · Score: 1

    Samsung used a strategy like this to outmanuever their competition in the Japanese electronics market. Basically, make a really good version of the lowest common denominator part of an electronics system. If it's good enough, rival companies will use it within your own system instead of developing their own in house. In this way Sony made TVs that were making Samsung money as well.

  7. Continuance of SLI in nVidia Intel mobo chipsets? by Piewalker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Will nVidia continue to pursue SLI configurations in Intel mobos? I think it makes sense to do so. Intel chipsets have a much bigger market, and SLI is just barely coming of age. SLI would certainly distinguish nVidia from other Intel chipset manufacturers. Sounds like nVidia is doing well enough to expand into the Pentium/Celeron/Xeon market. Finally some options for P4 users! But what will they call it??? Will they call their Intel chipsets "nForce" or something else? Waiting for benchmarks...

  8. Re:Continuance of SLI in nVidia Intel mobo chipset by Piewalker · · Score: 2, Informative

    From the press release: "Informed gamers and PC enthusiasts know that NVIDIA SLI graphics technology and NVIDIA nForce MCPs are synonymous with incredible performance and exceptional features," said Drew Henry, general manager of platform business at NVIDIA. "I am excited to provide IDF attendees with a preview of the features and performance that NVIDIA nForce MCPs can bring to Intel-based PCs."

  9. Article pretty slim on information. by caryw · · Score: 2, Informative

    The link at the bottom of the page to the german "computerbase.de" provides much more information. Just make sure you run it through the fish.
    Even after fishing it provides more detail than the original article.
    - Cary
    --Fairfax Underground: Where Fairfax County comes out to play

  10. Open Source motherboard drivers by Omnifarious · · Score: 0

    When nVidia starts Open Sourcing their motherboard drivers, I'll start caring about their motherboard products. Sadly, I use their graphics cards. :-( I feel like I either have the choice of nice 3D graphics or Open Source drivers, and I pick nice 3D graphics.

    But with motherboards, there are other offerings out there, and they will tell you enough about how their stuff works that the Open Source community can create drivers for it. Heck, some of them even actively cooperate in writing the drivers. I don't need nVidia's chipset. It's not enough benefit to be worth the cost to my freedom.

    --
    Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
    1. Re:Open Source motherboard drivers by IntergalacticWalrus · · Score: 1

      Check again, it's fine now. The Linux kernel has had open drivers for nvidia ethernet, AGP, IDE and sound for quite a while now. The only thing lacking open drivers is Soundstorm (the fancy sound hardware on some but not all nforce2 boards), but it's dead anyway, and at worst you can run it in ac97 mode with the intel8x0 drivers from ALSA. Or just do like me and get a Creative emu10k1-compatible card (hands down the best open Linux drivers).

    2. Re:Open Source motherboard drivers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I feel like I either have the choice of nice 3D graphics or Open Source drivers, and I pick nice 3D graphics.

      ATI cards up to the Radeon 9250 work with open-source 3D drivers, and are probably good enough unless you're running non-free games.

  11. Article Text by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Graphics and media processors designer NVIDIA Corp. will talk about its forthcoming high-end gaming platform for Intel Corp.'s microprocessors at the upcoming Intel Developer Forum (IDF) Spring 2004, according to Intel's web-site. The presentation is expected to take place on the very first day of the show.

    nForce for Intel Pentium 4 Approaches

    The session entitled "Bringing NVIDIA nForce SLI to the Intel Platform" will be performed by Drew Henry, NVIDIA's General Manager, Platform Products, on the 1st of March, 2005.

    "Be one of the first to experience this public technology demonstration and get a glimpse of what NVIDIA has in mind for nForce on the Intel Platform. Drew Henry, General Manager of NVIDIA's MCP group, will preview this stunning new technology," a statement over Intel's web-site reads.

    NVIDIA Corp.'s upcoming core-logic for Intel Pentium 4 processors code-named Crush 19, or C19, has already been certified by PCI Special Interest Group and is currently in the PCI-SIG's Integrator's List, according to the organization's web-site. The certification confirms NVIDIA's plans to release a high-quality core-logic product supporting Intel's chips in the short-term.

    This PCI-SIG Integrators List includes all products that have a complete and satisfactory PCI Compliance Checklist on file at PCI-SIG, have passed the test criteria set forth at the PCI Compliance Workshops and are production ready.

    Crush 19 to be Branded nForce 4 Intel Edition?

    The Crush 19 chipset from NVIDIA is currently expected to support various Intel processors, including the most powerful and innovative in LGA775 form-factor with 1066MHz processor system bus as well as EM64T, XD and EIST technologies. Currently unofficial sources state that the only memory configuration to be supported will be dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz or 667MHz, but no dual-channel DDR memory. NVIDIA is also expected to incorporate special enhancements for Multi-GPU SLI configurations, which will allow installing two PCI Express x16 graphics slots and cards.

    Given that due to external memory controller on Intel-based platforms, NVIDIA is expected to bring dual-chip core-logic for mainboards intended for Intel chips. The MCP04 I/O controller that is proclaimed to be paired with Crush 19 MCH is projected to inherit many features from the nForce4 core-logic, NVIDIA RAID, NVIDIA ActiveArmor firewall, NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet, Serial ATA-300 and other important technologies, like USB 2.0, FireWire, 8-channel AC'97 audio and so on.

    Currently it is unclear, how many versions of the Crush 19 chipset NVIDIA may offer. The Santa Clara, California-based NVIDIA usually preps numerous flavours of its chipsets seeking to target various markets with various demands for functionality and pricing.

    It is currently unclear what the official brand-name for the Crush 19 will be, but German web-site ComputerBase believes the core-logic will be branded as NVIDIA nForce4 Intel Edition.

  12. on MPEG-2 decoding by pardasaniman · · Score: 1

    correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't XvMC do Mpeg-Decoding using NVIDIA's hardware acceleration?

    1. Re:on MPEG-2 decoding by crow · · Score: 1

      XvMC does help with MPEG-2 playback, but it's not nearly the same as having hardware MPEG-2 decoding. With the latter, you just send the MPEG-2 stream to the card, and it plays it for you.

  13. not bad by golfsportila · · Score: 0

    I absolutely love my asus motherboards, but at this moment im kind of a amd guy, so its not a big deal to me either way. http://www.freestufftimes.com/

  14. Security? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmm, I'm not sure I want everyone in the CPU group to have write AND execute access...

    --AC

  15. Huh? Coming of age? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I work for a computer store, and out of the SLI setups we sold, probably 99% of them were before three years ago. It isn't coming of age. It's more like it's dead and buried.

  16. Re:Huh? Coming of age? by Piewalker · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apparantly you haven't seen recent benchmarks on SLI: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041123/ index.html and here for Doom 3, Counterstrike and FarCry benches: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2258 &p=4 The store you work probably isn't selling SLI because the new SLI PCI-Express mobos were just released. They're available on Newegg, CDW, etc.

  17. NVidia Heat Sink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if the breasts make it run that much cooler?

    http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=84357

  18. Re:Continuance of SLI in nVidia Intel mobo chipset by sean23007 · · Score: 1

    nDarkSide
    nEmpire
    nDarthVader

    Or maybe just nIntel?

    --

    Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
  19. The better question is by Merk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Will it, or any other motherboard, really, truly, fully support Linux anytime soon?

    I'm strongly considering buying the pcHDTV HTDV card even though I don't really care about watching HDTV. Why? Because it's designed for Linux.

    This weekend I had to haul a 5ish year old SB Live card out of an old server and install it on a new machine, because the onboard sound card on the new nForce2 motherboard wasn't properly supported in Linux.

    I think there's a huge untapped market for hardware that's fully open. It doesn't even need to be the latest and greatest stuff. My SB Live is a prime example. If someone were selling new sound cards with a 5-year-old feature set, but with completely open hardware and APIs I'm sure they'd do great. Same with network cards and even graphic cards. Sometimes full support is more important than performance. Linux users may only be 1% of the market, but that market share is growing.

  20. The Actual Unveiling Here by Hack+Jandy · · Score: 1

    Anand just posted and article http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i =2364 about it.