It's been a while since there have been any major changes to the chipsets motherboards have been built around over the past few years. Even non-Intel chipsets seem to follow the same general mold for their foundation, you generally have two parts to a chipset, the North Bridge and the South Bridge, the former controlling the memory/graphics and the latter controlling the Disk/IO parts of a motherboard. Ever since the advent of the PCI bus in the first Pentium mainboards, Intel has pushed the same standard North/South Bridge chipset configuration with all of their chipsets, and therefore the competition has refrained from making the bold move of not conforming to the standards set by Intel.

The time for change is upon us, and Intel's outdated North/South Bridge chipset configuration system is on its way out, the replacement? What is known as the Accelerated Hub Architecture (AHA), the basis for Intel's most recent entry into the chipset arena, the i810 aka Whitney chipset.

The problem with the more conventional way of how a chipset functions is that transfers from the peripherals, disk drives, and video sub-systems are made via the PCI bus rather than directly to the CPU/memory. You can imagine the PCI bus as being a tunnel of a set width (32-bits) able to transfer only a certain amount of traffic at a time (32-bits * 33.3MHz operating speed of the PCI bus = 1066.6Mbits/s = 133MB/s transfer rate). The reason for making the move to the PCI bus was because the former "king of the hill," the ISA bus was slowly but surely becoming a bottleneck for operations where data was transferred to/from the CPU. The ISA bus can be imaged as a smaller tunnel of a set width (16-bits), and able to transfer considerably less data based on a slower operating frequency and a smaller bandwidth in comparison to the now commonplace PCI bus.

If you remember back to the days of overclocking your favorite Socket-7 CPUs, one of the major concerns was that the higher FSB settings would result in a PCI bus frequency that would cause your other peripherals to malfunction. The reason for this was that essentially all of the peripherals that went in to your system and connected to your motherboard operated via the PCI bus, it would only be a short time before the PCI bus would become a bottleneck.

During 1997 Intel began planning ahead, by releasing their first Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) enabled chipset, the i440LX, which gave graphics vendors the ability to communicate directly with the memory and then the CPU without being limited by the PCI bus. Since 3D games and applications increased in popularity, the need for a greater amount of available bandwidth became a more pressing issue, thus resulting in the, what some may argue, premature, release of the AGP enabled i440LX chipset. The AGP bus offered a few key improvements over the PCI bus when it came to graphics cards, the most obvious being that it was a bus independent of the PCI bus. The AGP bus can be presented in the same terms as the PCI bus, as an even wider tunnel of a set width (64-bits) able to transfer only a certain amount of traffic at a time (64-bits * 66.6MHz operating speed of the AGP 2X bus = 4266.6Mbits/s = 533MB/s). The basic nature of the AGP 2X bus, the standard AGP specification for most motherboards today, indicates that it is faster than the PCI bus, however you can only use the AGP bus for graphics cards…what about the rest of your system?

Here's where Intel's new Accelerated Hub Architecture comes into play.

Instead of having everything communicate with the memory/CPU via the PCI bus, the new Accelerated Hub Architecture allows for direct communication between the memory/CPU and disks, peripherals, and in the case of the i810 chipset, the graphics adapter.

The key to the success of the Accelerated Hub Architecture is the substitution of individual hub interfaces for the PCI bus in connecting the various parts of your system to your memory/CPU on the motherboard end of things. Take a look at the acronym PCI, Peripheral Component Interconnect, it doesn't really scream "all-purpose-bus" now does it? Intel took what was once a two-chip solution (North/South Bridge) and converted it into a two chip, three-hub solution, the first implementation being the i810 chipset. The three individual hubs are the Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH), the I/O Controller Hub (ICH) and the Firmware Hub (FWH). The two main hubs, the GMCH and the ICH are connected via an internal bus that offers double the bandwidth of the PCI bus, 266MB/s. This is a definite improvement over the "old" way of doing things and will shortly become the new standard as far as chipsets go, don't expect Intel to return to the classical way of doing things on the motherboard level anytime soon.

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So you have all this bandwidth to make use of, how did Intel go about making the most cost effective and integrated chipset solution in the history of the company? Let's start with the GMCH, the Graphics and Memory Controller Hub.

At the heart of what most would like to identify as the North Bridge of the i810 chipset (in reality its the GMCH hub, there are no North/South Bridges anymore) is the Graphics and Memory Controller Hub, or GMCH for short. The i82810 GMCH supports uni-processor systems only, and is compatible with Socket-370 and SC242 (Slot-1) CPUs.

The memory bus can be explained the same way we've been addressing all of the buses in this discussion so far, a tunnel of a set width (32-bits) able to transfer only a certain amount of traffic at once (32-bits * 100MHz operating speed of the FSB * 2X AGP Operating Mode = 6400Mbits/s = 800MB/s). The memory bus is the connection between the GMCH and the system memory, and with the video integrated into the GMCH, the video core is capable of accessing the system memory at 800MB/s, much faster than the 533MB/s transfer rate of the AGP 2X specification, however less than the upcoming AGP 4X specification. The tradeoff is made with the fact that the video core in the GMCH has no local memory, meaning all of the graphics data must be stored in the system memory via the memory bus. This makes the "incredible" 800MB/s transfer rate look quite wimpy in comparison to what the big boys are capable of, making the integrated video in the GMCH not a solution for a hard core gamer.

Common to both the 810 and 810-DC100 is an integrated 230MHz RAMDAC that supports 2D resolutions up to 1600 x 1200 x 8bpp @ 85Hz. If you look at those specs, the 810 once again doesn't appear to be geared towards high-end users, which it's not, however it should be just fine for the entry level user. The 230MHz RAMDAC won't allow for crisp 2D display at higher resolutions, however it will be more than sufficient for the 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 resolutions low cost systems will probably be required to run at due to monitor restraints. The quality of the 2D output will vary from motherboard to motherboard, however overall, the quality should be decent for the overall cost of the system.

The memory portion of the GMCH is an extremely limiting factor of a potentially high-end solution, it looks like Intel will truly make the market wait for the 820 before the features of the 810 can be enjoyed by everyone. The i810 GMCH supports 8MB to 512MB of SDRAM via 2 double-sided banks (4 rows), so you probably won't see more than 2 DIMM slots on 810 motherboards. The memory bus is locked at a 100MHz frequency, in spite of the fact that the system bus is adjustable between 66 and 100MHz as well as a number of unsupported overclocked frequencies. This has a positive and a negative side to it, the positive is that regardless of your system's FSB setting, the memory will still run at 100MHz, eliminating the need for more expensive SDRAM that will run properly at overclocked speeds. The negative is that PC100 SDRAM is a requirement, so chances are that you won't be able to re-use generic PC66 SDRAM, although some PC66 SDRAM is capable of working at 100MHz just fine.

The replacement for the South Bridge is the Intel 810 I/O Controller Hub (ICH). The ICH is the connecting force between the PCI bus, the USB ports, as well as a newcomer to the motherboard, the AMR slot. The ICH provides a direct connection to the 2 IDE channels (4 devices), the 2 USB ports, the PCI bus, and the Super I/O which drives the keyboard, mouse, FDD, serial and parallel ports. Like the GMCH, there are two distinct flavors of the ICH, a low and a high end.

The two versions, the ICH and the ICH0 differ only in the amount of PCI slots supported, as well as the type of Ultra ATA supported. The "high-end" solution, the ICH, supports Ultra ATA 66/33 and supports a maximum of 6 PCI slots with an optional ISA bridge. The "low-end" solution, the ICH0, supports Ultra ATA 33, and a maximum of 4 PCI slots with an optional ISA bridge. Although ISA bridges are supported by the chipset, it is highly unlikely that you'll see many 810 boards outfitted with ISA slots.

It looks like 1/3 of an AGP slot, when in actuality it is the latest addition to the acronyms tech junkies will have to remember, AMR, or the Audio Modem Riser slot. The 810 chipset, if anything, is designed to be a highly integrated solution, and going along with the integrated motif is the optional inclusion of Audio/Telephony codecs. The inclusion of the Audio/Telephony codecs allows motherboard manufacturers to produce Audio/Modem ready mainboards without having to actually test and certify the components on the Audio/Modem cards themselves. Then, after producing and releasing the board, an optional AMR card can be installed that will provide the output ports for the Audio/Telephony devices. The reason this is a more cost effective solution is because the Audio/Telephony devices are software devices that are essentially powered by your CPU. For some users, a soft modem or soft audio device makes sense, because how much of a Celeron 466 will you be using while you're surfing the net? However, for others, it makes very little sense, such as having a soft audio/modem while playing some Quake 3 Arena on-line.

Motherboard manufacturers will be offering hardware sound/modem devices as an option as well. Chances are that hardware sound will be a preferred option by gamers since you don't usually want to waste all too many clock cycles working on producing audio when they could be boosting your frame rate.

There are a few other features of the ICH (common to both the ICH and the ICH0) that add to the 810's unique qualities. Borrowing a feature originally introduced by VIA based motherboards, i810 based motherboards will most likely offer support for front as well as rear USB ports, sharing the 2 ports allocated by the chipset. It makes more sense to have USB ports on the front of your case rather than on the back where you'd have difficulty reaching them if you wish to plug something in quickly, regardless, you'll most likely have the option of either front or the back with most 810 motherboards. Whether your case supports front panel USB ports is another question.

The final piece to Intel's three hub puzzle is the i82802AB/AC Firmware Hub (FWH). As you can tell by the name, the FWH is essentially the BIOS of the motherboard. The FWH is a 4Mbit EEPROM device with a bit of "intelligence" to it in that it does more than just store/retrieve predefined and modified settings, the FWH also contains Intel's own Random Number Generator (RNG). Intel's documentation claims that the RNG is used for "greater security," go figure, regardless, the RNG is there.

The BIOS setup on the first 810 boards AnandTech took a look at was manufactured by Award, and the particular setup programs were Award's latest revision, v4.00PG. The new BIOS setup program from Award should be quite popular, and it seems like more motherboard manufacturers are journeying towards jumperless setups. The ability to manually tweak and set the core voltage of the CPU is still not as widespread as the market would like it to be, however there are still more choices than just ABIT when you're looking for such options. Microstar's MS-6182, mentioned above, even features the ability to adjust the voltage of the processor's L2 cache. It's bold moves like this that have ABIT very worried, possibly the same worries that have inspired them to pursue a few new products such as Dual Socket-370 motherboards in order to remain competitive.

There is a downside to the FWH, it happens to operate synchronously with the 33MHz PCI bus. This translates into another factor you must consider when you are overclocking the PCI bus to any degree. Although your PCI peripherals may work fine at a PCI bus frequency greater than 33%, if the FWH does not agree then you'll be in a bit of trouble. AnandTech's tests revealed that the FWH on most 810 boards is fairly reasonable when it comes to out-of-spec operation, however we issue no guarantees (it's overclocking, c'mon).

All benchmarks were run on an Intel Celeron 300A clocked at 450MHz, the same test system that was used in the AnandTech Pentium III Review.

The Intel 810 chipset is a very well made solution for the highly integrated motherboard, however most of you won't find yourselves losing sleep over a simple 810 board. The real monster is when you combine the new features of the 810 chipset, with the ability to choose your own AGP 4X graphics accelerator. This September, we'll all find out what Intel's upcoming 820 is really about.

In the mean time, the 810 and 810-DC100 should tide the low-cost market over, with the 810-E (133MHz FSB support) on the way as well, it seems like Intel is doing their best to make sure that the competitors leave their Slot-1/Socket-370 babies alone.