Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
of system memory. Both support ECC memory—a must for workstation operation—and
both use the ICH7 family of I/O controller hub chips listed in
Table 4.22
.
The 955X and 975X differ from each other in their video support. The 955X supports a
single PCI Express x16 video card, whereas the 975X supports two PCI Express video
cards in CrossFire dual-slot operation.
Intel 96x Series
The 96x series (code-named Broadwater) was introduced in June 2006 and is designed
to support the Core 2 processors, including dual- and quad-core versions. There are sev-
eral models in the series, each with slightly different features. The Q963 and Q965 are
the most basic versions. Both feature integrated GMA 3000 video; however, the Q965 in-
cludes support for a PCIe x16 slot (allowing for a video card upgrade). It also supports
faster800MHzDDR2memory.TheP965deletestheintegratedvideoforthoseonlywant-
ing to use PCIe x16 cards. Finally, the G965 includes all the features of the other chipsets
whileaddingevenbetterintegratedGMAX3000video,alongwithsupportforaPCIex16
upgrade slot.
Table 4.23
shows the major features of these chipsets.
Table 4.23 Intel 96x Chipsets for Core 2
Intel 3x and 4x Series Chipsets
Introduced in June 2007, the 3x series chipset family (code-named Bearlake) was de-
signed to support the Core 2 processors in both dual- and quad-core versions. The 4x
series followed in March 2008 and basically added DDR3 memory support, plus faster
PCIe 2.x slots and improved integrated graphics.
