Intel Corp has finally shipped the motherboard that supports its 810 ‘Whitney’ chipset; Intel’s first low-cost chipset with graphics and audio support. Michelle Johnston, branded motherboard product manager, said that the board had been delayed because of problems with the system clock, which had been rectified, by shipping the component with an external ocisilator.
The motherboard incorporates the 810 chipset, which Intel expects will be used with recently launched 466MHz Celeron processor, with an onboard Creative Labs SoundBlaster PCI audio subsystem. It supports up to 512MB of SDRAM, with dual USB connectors and four PCI slots. An 82559 LAN controller is offered as an option. Johnston said that this combination offered performance that was competitive with anything on today’s market.
The 810 chipset is the first in Intel’s new range which handle the core functionality of a motherboard, replacing the 440 range. The 810, combines 3D graphics, audio processing, modem and DVD capabilities with an optional 4Mb cache and interconnect bus that supports either 66MHZ or 100MHz connects.
However, while Whitney’s 100MHz memory interface demands PC100 SDRAMS, the Celeron can only access the external world through a 66MHz frontside bus, meaning that Whitney makes calls at 66MHz only to raise them to 100MHz, causing additional dissipation through synchronization. Johnston said that Intel may raise the Celeron bus speed to 100MHz and that having the 100MHz option would ease channel issues if Intel decided to increase the bus speed. The CA810 is available now and prices range from $110 to $145.
