Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
The 945PL—aimed at what Intel refers to as the “mainstream PC” segment—supports
only two memory modules (one pair of dual-channel modules) running at up to 533MHz
and a maximum memory size of 2GB. It also supports PCI Express x16.
All members of the 945 family support the ICH7 family of I/O controller hub chips listed
in
Table 4.22
. The ICH7 family differs from ICH6 in the following ways:
• It has support for 300MBps Serial ATA.
• It has support for SATA RAID 5 and Matrix RAID (ICH7R only).
• It has support for two additional PCI Express x1 ports (ICH7R only).
Figure 4.22
compares the features of the 945G and 915G chipsets.
Figure 4.22
The 915G chipset (left) was the first Intel chipset to support both PCI Express x16 and integ-
rated graphics. The 945G chipset (right) offers similar features but supports faster integrated graphics,
faster SATA hard disks, and more PCI Express x1 slots than the 915G.
Intel 955X and 975X Family
The Intel Glenwood chipset family was released in 2005 and includes two members: the
955X and 975X. These chipsets, along with the 945 family, are the first to support In-
tel'snewdual-corePentiumDprocessors,buttheyalsosupportthenewhigh-performance
single-core Pentium Extreme Edition processors and existing Pentium 4 HT Technology
processors using Socket 775. Intel categorizes these chipsets as entry-level workstation
and performance PC chipsets.
Althoughthesechipsetsarenumberedindifferentseries,mostoftheirfeaturesareidentic-
al. Both support FSB speeds of 800MHz and 1,066MHz and support up to four DDR2
667/533MHz memory modules (two pairs of dual-channel modules) for a maximum 8GB
