Power to the PC with the new Intel CC820 motherboard

Intel`s long-awaited 820 chipset has made its appearance in the form of the CC820 motherboard, announced in mid-November. Alex Morse, processor and motherboard product manager at Intel distributor AXiZ, discusses the benefits of the latest technology from Intel.

"In today`s fast-paced computer world, advancements in technology continue to drive requirements for more powerful PCs," she says. "Growth in the Internet and e-Commerce is exploding, and application developers are pushing the performance envelope in multimedia, voice recognition, streaming video, and photo-realistic 3D."

Whether the PC is used to fly 3D jet simulations, create an ad in Adobe Photoshop, or run a business on the Internet, a more responsive PC will enhance entertainment and work productivity alike.

"The 820 chipset, found on the CC820 motherboard (codenamed `Cape Cod`), enables all the latest performance features to get the most out of your PC," Morse points out. "The 820 chipset raises the support of the processor system bus from 100 MHz to 133 MHz, enabling a new class of high-speed Pentium III processors."

In addition, the 820 chipset also features AGP4X graphics, delivering twice the graphics bandwidth of any previous chipset. Intel 820 chipset-based systems also deliver Ultra ATA/66 drive interface to enable new levels of disk transfer rates.

At the core is Intel`s new Accelerated Hub Architecture, which doubles available I/O bandwidth to main memory. This extra I/O capability will better enable you to run your modem or LAN, while accessing your new faster ATA/66 HDD. The result: the highest performance platform for multitasking and rich 3D environments.

"The enhanced features of the Intel 820 chipset provide the greatest flexibility, stability, and longevity of any desktop chipset," says Morse. "When building a system, you want flexibility and the ability to upgrade, without compromising long-term stability. Intel`s processor roadmap and the 820 chipset in particular were designed with this in mind."

While the latest performance features were added to the 820 chipset, special care was taken to design and validate support of existing technologies, such as the implementation of AGP. The 820 chipset uses flexible graphics buffers that seamlessly set themselves properly to either the new voltage of AGP4X or the higher voltage required in AGP1X and 2X cards. Similarly, the platform supports both the 100-MHz and 133-MHz processor system bus as well as ATA/66.

In addition, an 820 chipset platform in a "0 +2" configuration (0 RIMM + 2 DIMM) can support PC100 SDRAM with the memory translator hub. Combined, these capabilities bring ultimate flexibility to the 820 chipset platform to manage multiple transitions in areas of processors, memory, graphics and hard disk drives. Stability over time in platform and software is needed to lower your costs as well as the costs of your customers` small and large businesses. By implementing all the latest features and support of the newest peripherals, current and future processors, system builders can standardise offerings around 820 chipset processor-based platforms for some time to come.

"With enhanced features such as 133-MHz processor system bus, AGP4X graphics, together with new features such as the Random Number Generator and Alert on LAN 1.0, the 820 chipset creates new paradigms for system performance, flexibility, and stability," says Morse. "The 820 chipset unleashes the power of Intel Pentium III processor-based systems both on and off the Internet-for the ultimate in PC performance."