[News] Marvell announces Discovery III Northbridge | ANN.lu |
Posted on 30-Sep-2003 15:01 GMT by takemehomegrandma | 94 comments View flat View list |
Marvell today announced the Discovery III northbridge. It features a 200MHz PowerPC CPU interface, 200MHz DDR SDRAM Interface (400Mbps data rate), Dual CPU SMP Support (MPX and 60x modes), PCI-X, Gigabit ethernet and is software compatible with other Discovery northbridges.
Source: morphos-news.de
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Marvell announces Discovery III Northbridge : Comment 92 of 94 | ANN.lu |
Posted by hammer on 02-Oct-2003 20:17 GMT | In reply to Comment 90 (tarbos): >Others have multiple PCI(-X) buses and other goodies that AMD64 CPU itself
>lacks. It just offers a fast (Hypertranport)interface and that's about it.
>You still need several bridge chips to make available the usual PC mainboard
>features so you cannot speak about the functionality that moved into the CPU
>itself as a full fledged northbridge seperated from the core.
The features mentioned can change from time to time BUT the critical elements
that makes up the classic Northbridge does not change. The other goodies
doesn't change the fundamental operation of the PC i.e. Without a memory
controller the desktop PC wouldn’t function. The Desktop PC can function without a AGP or PCI-Express GFX cards, plain PCI V2.2 would be sufficient.
>An onchip memory controller is nothing new, certain IBM and Motorola SoC PPC
>have it now (also with DDR Ram support) - Transmeta even adds AGP.
I didn’t say it was special i.e. where did you get this idea?
Anyway, none of the CPUs you mention runs at 2.2Ghz for critical Northbridge functions.
>The RAM controller at first was only good for DDR333 with Opteron and
Limited by the certified registered PC2700 DDR SDRAM standards,
one can overclock the memory controller to DDR400. Such as setup is
similar to the Athlon FX51. Stepping C0 shouldn’t oppose a problem for
both of the CPUs.
>I see. It's just confusing since there is no "Northbridge" per se on AMD64.
There are 3 critical elements that makes up the classic K7 Northbridge.
(e.g. VIA KT400/600 series, Nvidia NForce I/II series).
1. Memory controller. Interfaces with RAM modules**.
2. AGP bus**.
3. Northbridge<>Southbridge I/O**.
With AMD K8 processor.
1. Memory controller is integrated**.
2. AGP bus via integrated AGP tunnelling**.
3. Southbridge I/O Link via hyper-transport link.
This hasn’t change since the invention of Northbridge and Southbridge
architecture.
Anything else is just optional features i.e. they can go to Southbridge
(e.g. MCP-T*, MCP-S1000 Southbridge). *Gigabyte's NForceII 400 Ultra solution
(includes Gigabit Ethernet). Features can change from time to time
e.g. One doesn’t need AGP GFX card to get a display.
In the old K7 nForce II 400 Ultra...
(CPU e.g. 2.2Ghz) <CPU's FSB e.g. DDR400> (Northbridge Functions e.g. SPP)
<HT interconnect e.g. @800MB/s> (Southbridge e.g. MCP-T).
In the K8 platform...
(CPU core e.g. 2.2Ghz) <at CPU's speed e.g. 2.2Ghz> (Critical Northbridge Functions**)
<interconnect i.e. 800MHz DDR> (Residual/optional**** Northbridge functions/Southbridge).
****Features such as Gigabit Ethernet wouldn't be considered as a critical
function to the operation of the PC. |
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