Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/922
Computex 2002 Day 1 - Part II: KT400, Dual Channel DDR & More
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 3, 2002 11:55 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
We have only been here for ten hours and already we have seen more at this years Computex than we could have hoped for. We came into the show not knowing what to expect. Taking into account that we are not too far removed from the slowest Comdex in memorable history and the fact that the tech market remains lower than it was at our first Computex in 2000, we hoped for signs of life at Computex 2002. We would not be disappointed.
Our first day at Computex 2002 was filled with much meeting, walking, and picture taking. Although it does not seem quite as busy as last year, the show was noticeably more packed than the ghost town that was Comdex 2001.
On our first day we got a chance to see quite a few motherboard solutions based on a variety of chipsets. As we discussed in our initial coverage of the show, AMD and AMD enabling products were out in full force. We saw Clawhammer solutions by every motherboard manufacturer we got a chance to visit today. Also making an appearance were a few KT400 motherboards, furthering the presence of AMD enabling motherboards. Solutions were not limited to AMD, as motherboard producers were displaying a number of solutions on Intel's latest 845 series chipsets. We also got a peek at the upcoming Granite Bay chipset solution from Intel, promising dual channel DDR memory and AGP 8x support. Let's take a look at what stood out the most on our first day at Computex 2002.
In our first Newsletter update from Computex 2002 we brought you coverage of AMD's Hammer/Opteron processors and their chipsets. Continuing with our live coverage from the show floor we have more information about Hammer motherboards as well as VIA's KT400 chipset and Intel's Granite Bay chipset (dual-channel DDR desktop Pentium 4 chipset).
As usual, this information is provided first to our Newsletter subscribers and you can be on the list to receive these live updates by subscribing here. The Newsletter is free and you'll get the information well before it even hits the website.
SiS 658 - The First 850 Competitor
You've probably heard about it for a while but we were finally able to get an up close and personal look at the first RDRAM Pentium 4 chipset not to be produced by Intel. The SiS 658 is a dual-channel RDRAM solution for the Pentium 4 with official support for the 533MHz FSB and PC1066 RDRAM (something the 850E lacks). Unofficial support for PC1200 RDRAM will be provided. The 658 North Bridge also supports AGP 8X and will be shipping in Q4 of this year.
The 658 North Bridge will most likely be paired with the new SiS 963 South Bridge. The 963 features integrated USB 2.0 and IEEE-1394 controllers for the most flexible I/O support of any South Bridge.
The SiS 648 was also on display; for those of you that aren't familiar with the chipset, the 648 is basically SiS' 645 Pentium 4 chipset but with AGP 8X support. Although the chipset was supposed to be running a DDR400 demo, the memory was running at DDR333 speeds because of stability issues.
Shuttle - Barebones Success
Apparently Shuttle is enjoying quite some success with their barebones systems. The company has transferred barebone system manufacturing to the front lines, making it a major area of focus. The current product line lists no less than five barebone systems measuring no more than 300mm by 200mm by 185mm but we saw quite a few more when we paid the company a visit.
Shuttle is trying to make their stylish barebones systems even more fashionable while at the same time expanding the number of solutions that are available. On the appearance side, Shuttle will soon be introducing Shuttle XPCs (as the company calls them) that glow. In the prototypes that the company was showing, the front of the case glowed softly with a number of colors. Add to it the case a shell with clear plastic inserts and you have PC that fits in a space not much larger than a shoe box and looks much cooler.
The changes made to the barebone systems were not limited to cosmetic ones. Shuttle promotes the XPC line as not only being small but also being quiet. On top of its good looks and tiny size, there were a few XPCs running with a quite innovate heatpipe cooling solution. Using a large, high volume, low RPM fan to cool a heatsink connected to the core via heatpipes, Shuttle claims that they have produced the most quiet Pentium 4 solution to date.
On our end, perhaps the most exciting change to come to the XPC line is the addition of an external AGP slot. Previous XPCs were limited to either remedial onboard video solutions or older PCI video cards. Now, with a dedicated AGP slot, the XPC has the potential to become a full desktop replacement for even serious gamers. Kudos to Shuttle for that.
Gigabyte is on top of things: KT400, Hammer & Granite Bay boards displayed
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Although we didn't visit many motherboard manufacturers on the first day of Computex, we made certain to pay Gigabyte a visit. Last year we could find virtually every motherboard we were interested in at Gigabyte's suite and the situation is no different in 2002.
The first on Gigabyte's long list of boards were Socket-754 (ClawHammer) boards featuring AMD's 8000 and VIA's K8HTA chipsets. The AMD 8000 based board was actually functional and running in Gigabyte's labs although admittedly not very stable. It is entirely too early to expect a stable showing from most of these motherboards and definitely too early to start talking about performance but with a launch somewhere between October and December of this year it's good to see such open support for the Hammer platform.
An interesting thing to note is that the board is currently spec'd with support for three ATA-133 channels and two Serial ATA connections on-board. Also worth noting is the placement of the AGP controller (covered by the Gigabyte heatsink) in relation to the CPU socket, memory banks and AGP slot. Since there's no direct link between the chip and main memory (unlike conventional North Bridges), the chip is placed much closer to the AGP slot and the CPU.
Gigabyte also had a VIA based Socket-754 board on display although it was definitely not as far along in the testing cycle as the AMD-8000 board. Gigabyte anticipates having both AMD and VIA based solutions at launch but no mention about ALi, SiS or NVIDIA solution; you should keep in mind that Gigabyte historically hasn't worked with any of the other chipset manufacturers however.
VIA's KT400 can be seen on a number of motherboards on the show floor although the chipset won't be ready until late July at the earliest. From talking to Gigabyte they seem to be betting on an August launch for the chipset. The new North Bridge should offer a P4X333-class memory controller with DDR400 and AGP 8X support. We haven't seen a single demo of DDR400 at Computex thus far that was actually running at DDR400 speeds however. Both the VIA and SiS chipsets that offer DDR400 support aren't currently stable enough in order to allow for a demonstration.
Gigabyte wasn't too exited about KT400 stating that the chipset's costs are noticeably greater than KT333 with minimal performance benefits, not to mention that prices for DDR400 memory will most likely be astronomical upon the chipset's launch.
Although Intel has yet to announce the chipset, it seems like AMD's openness with non-shipping products (Hammer) may be rubbing off on Intel when it comes to their Granite Bay chipset. The Granite Bay chipset will be launching either late this year or by Q2 next year and is the first dual-channel DDR solution for the desktop Pentium 4. The chipset will mark Intel's phase-out process of RDRAM from the desktop market for the foreseeable future. Other than a dual-channel DDR memory controller, the chipset also supports AGP 8X and will be aimed at high-end desktop and workstation systems.
The Granite Bay Memory Controller Hub (MCH) has a noticeably larger die than all other Pentium 4 chipsets and also boasts a much larger substrate surface area. The reason for the larger substrate is because of the fact that there are physically many more wires to route with a dual-channel 64-bit DDR memory controller than with a dual-channel 16-bit RDRAM controller (e.g. 850E)
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At last year's Computex Gigabyte effectively cut ties with NVIDIA by agreeing to produce ATI based graphics cards. ATI seems quite pleased with them and has asked Gigabyte to produce a higher clocked version of the Radeon 8500. The card is called the Radeon 8500XT Ultra and runs at 300MHz core with 300MHz DDR SDRAM (3.3ns); this is an increase of approximately 9% over the default 275/275MHz Radeon 8500 clock. The board is outfitted with 128MB of 300MHz DDR memory.
Continuing with their support for ATI, Gigabyte also had a Radeon IGP board on display. Gigabyte felt (much like we do) that the Radeon IGP has very little business being in the desktop market and is a much better match for the mobile market that ATI seems to be targeting it at. Nonetheless, a board was on display but it was clearly not as prominent as the other boards we saw from Gigabyte.
Iwill - Bringing Serial ATA to the masses
For the past three years the first motherboard manufacturer we've stopped by has been Iwill and this Computex was definitely no exception.
Just like Gigabyte and a handful of other manufacturers, Iwill had a KT400 board on display; and just like all of the other manufacturers, Iwill was waiting on VIA to provide stable KT400 samples before committing to a launch date for their board.
We saw the usual collection of 845E, 845G and 850E motherboards at Iwill's suite but what was most interesting was Iwill's insistence on including Serial ATA support with some of their boards. Despite the fact that drives are still not available, Iwill is offering support for the standard this early in the game.
Another, more useful, feature is Iwill's on-board analog 5.1, SPDIF and Optical outputs for 6 channel audio driven by Avance Logic/Realtek AC'97 codecs. By replacing the second serial port with a pair of 1/8" jacks and a toslink optical output you are given a very flexible 6-channel audio solution without any extra brackets.
As we mentioned before, Iwill showed us their 845G motherboard which they claim is one of very few 845G boards that will run DDR333 memory with both banks populated. We're working on our 845G roundup and we'll be able to put that to the test as soon as we get back from Computex.
Intel in 2003
We managed to sit down with Bill Siu, the VP and GM of Intel's Desktop Platforms Group and talk shop for a while. Unlike most of our conversations with Intel this one wasn't littered with NDA dates or marketing positions on products, instead it offered us a very upfront perspective of how Intel views a couple of hot topics.
The first point of discussion was the future of RDRAM with the Pentium 4 platform to which Mr. Siu quickly reaffirmed what we had been hearing from motherboard manufacturers - after the 850E, there will be no more RDRAM based chipsets for the Pentium 4. Although Mr. Siu (as well as most people in the industry) believes that RDRAM is technically superior to DDR, he made it clear that Intel's roadmap was hurt severely by an overly strong commitment to the technology which today still isn't as economically viable as DDR.
The transition in the future will be to dual-channel DDR which can be seen in Intel's forthcoming Granite Bay chipset (see our previous page on Gigabyte). It's too early for Intel to commit to DDR-II but it seems as if that would be the logical step after DDR333 for Intel assuming that they continue to phase out RDRAM on their platforms.
On the topic of x86-64, Mr. Siu was refreshingly open minded stating that although the technology didn't make sense today it could in the future. We're getting a similar vibe from AMD about the Hammer's release at the end of this year, stating that x86-64 support will definitely not be a compelling feature for desktop Hammer ownership anytime soon. Of course on the server side of things that's a different story, but the IA-64 vs. x86-64 debate will be saved for another arena. Mr. Siu also shared our concerns for AMD's ability to drive compiler and driver development for x86-64, it seems like it will be a while after Hammer's launch in Q4 before we see x86-64 spread its wings.
As far as what we should expect from Intel, in the next year they seem to be quite confident (and overclocking tests confirm this) in the ability to hit 3GHz before the end of this year, we'll see Granite Bay debuted and Hyper Threading will eventually make its way down to the desktop (via the Prescott core). What will be interesting to see is what sort of memory controller (DDR-II?) Intel uses for Prescott, which is supposed to make use of an 800MHz FSB, if RDRAM is indeed phased out.
Finally, AMD Displays uPGA Thoroughbred
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Ever wonder why Athlon notebooks are always so incredibly big? One of the reasons is that the mobile Athlon XP processors are still using the desktop Socket-A platform which physically takes up much more space than the mobile Pentium III and Pentium 4-M CPUs. AMD has been working on a smaller form factor Athlon package for a while and we even got to see one in action at last year's Comdex in Las Vegas.
Today we were able to see a mechanical sample out in the open as you can see below:
Unfortunately we don't know when to expect this much needed form-factor to make its official debut. It is definitely a step in the right direction for reducing the size of AMD notebooks for use in smaller-than-desktop-replacement sized products.
Final Words
With that said we bring Day 1 of Computex 2002 to a close. We'll be posting full coverage on the main site but we sure to subscribe to the AnandTech Newsletter to receive these updates as soon as we have the info.
More as we get it…
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