Intel Corp. has confirmed its i845 "Brookdale" chipset, which will let Pentium 4 (P4) system designers use 133-MHz DRAM instead of pricey Rambus RDRAM to hit a wider range of consumer price points, will ship in the second half of this year (probably September). DDR DRAM support will come in 2002.

The i845 chipset in its current state supports DDR SDRAM. Intel has simply not allowed motherboard manufacturers to design DDR i845 motherboards until they are allowed the go ahead.

If you're wondering why, the reason is simple—Intel has an agreement with Rambus in place that limits what they can do with DDR chipsets. Through some heavy negotiations, Intel has managed to get Rambus to allow them to promote the i845 with DDR support as early as January 1, 2002. My sources tell me that Intel will continue to push for an even earlier release of DDR i845 platforms, but as of now, motherboard manufacturers can't show off or promote DDR i845 motherboards until January 1, 2002. The DDR i845 chipset will still be called the i845 because it is essentially the same chip.

I found this new information intriguing and went ahead and rounded up some information about the i845 chipset and motherboard.

A1 Electronics

This site is loaded with helpful information about all of Intelýs previous chipsets. If you are wondering about any certain type of chipset and a short review look here. Included is information on the following:

This page contains Intel chipset reviews and information covering present and future Intel chipsets for the Intel range of processors.

For more, visit A1 Electronics.

SysOpt

Whether you support the Pentium 4 or not, most will agree that this processor is a representation of advanced technological engineering as represented by SysOpt's previous P4 Platform Preview. Being Intel's new flagship processor, a P4-based system is definitely expensive as compared to more traditional Pentium 3 or AMD Athlon offerings. Although Intel processor prices are consistently dropping, the costs associated with the more expensive P4 i850 chipset itself, plus the need for higher priced RAMBUS memory, proves to be a limiting factor for many OEMs and system integrators. For now, the only official solution for alternative memory standards will be Intel's i845 chipset with support for standard SD-RAM. Trying to match a 400-MHz processor bus and a Rambus oriented hardware prefetch routine to a traditional PC-133, will likely yield disappointing results, especially considering the Pentium 4 retains a large portion of its high-performance through the increased bandwidth of PC-800 R-DRAM.

DDR for the Pentium 4?

Now enters price-competitive Double Data Rate memory into the equation. Although not a perfect replacement for RAMBUS in regards to performance, it will offer much improved results as compared to SD-RAM because of its higher bandwidth characteristics.

For more from this article, visit SysOpt.

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