Intel Launches New Chipset

mikemuch writes "The new P35 and G33 chipsets, codenamed 'Bear Lake' are now available. They have a new memory controller that supports DDR3 RAM at up to 1333MHz, a new southbridge, and will support the upcoming 45nm Penryn CPUs. They don't yet have an actually new and different GPU — their GMA 3100 is pretty much the same as the GMA 3000 of the G965 chipset." For a little more technical info you can also check out the Hot Hardware writeup.

Comments

When Do We Get Onchip DSPs?

[Doc Ruby]

Intel devastated the entire DSP industry in the late 1990s when they staked out the NSP ("Native Signal Processing") strategy of faster clockrates to run DSP in SW instead of in HW. But now they're up against new Cell chips from IBM which multiprocess with parallel DSPs onchip, and even GSPs ("Graphics Signal Processors") threaten new competition from first nVidia, then TI and other old surviving rivals, as GPGPU techiniques become more sophisticated and applicable.

All because DSP is more parallelizable than true general purpose processing, as parallelization is the best solution to increasing CPU power, just as the data to be processed is inherently more parallel, and more simply streams of "signals", as multimedia convergence redefines computing.

So when will Intel reverse its epoch of NSP, and deliver new uPs with embedded DSP in HW?

Re-state the question.

[DrYak]

A chip set is just supposed to talk to the CPU, and in case of Intel's architecture, talk to the memory.

A new chipset for DDR3 is logical in this situation : the chipset has to handle a different and electrically incompatible memory.

But why does a new CPU needs a newer Chipset ?!?!?

Meanwhile, in AMD's land, there's a standard between the chipset and the CPU called Hypertransport.
As long as both the CPU and the chipset follow the same protocol or compatible variation of (like AM2 being HT/2.0 and AM2+ and AM3 being HT/3.0) you can pretty much pair any thing you want.
The only restriction for a mother board is to have compatible socket (the CPU has on-board memory controller and directly speaks to the RAM sticks. There are different sockets type for different memory combination : 794 is for single channel DDR, 939 is for dual channel DDR, AM2 is for DDR2, Opteron F is for DDR2 and much higher number of Hypertransport lanes), and even that is getting stabilised (future AM2+ and AM3 CPUs can plug in today's AM2 board).

Why can't Intel guarantee the same kind of stability ?!?!?

Oh, yes, I know : they make chipsets and earn money by selling more motherboard.
Even back at the Pentium II/III era they have gone through the same cycle, releasing several incompatible chipsets and slot/socket formats in order to pump up motherboard sales, even if the same slot-1 PII motherboard could last until the last PIII only using adapted slotckets.

Meanwhile AMD is getting recommended on various website (like Ars Technica) as preferred solution for entry-/middle- level machines, because of cheaper board and more stable (and upgradable) hardware.

Stability of AM2/AM2+/AM3 is one of biggest AMD's advantage over LGA775 and should be put forward.

Re:Re-state the question.

[mrchaotica]

Meanwhile, in AMD's land, there's a standard between the chipset and the CPU called Hypertransport.

Note that that's not just "AMD land," that's IBM land, VIA land, Transmeta land, HP land, SUN land, and every-other-chip-manufacturer-except-Intel land.