Date:
Tuesday , July 02, 2002
Author:
Kyle Bennett
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Intel / Asus Dual Channel DDR

An ASUS sneak peek at what dual channel DDR will have to offer us on Intel's upcoming chipset.

First and foremost it needs to be noted that the chipset in this article is not even close to being a finished work of art from Intel. This dual channel DDR chipset can be called very much BETA. The drivers used to produce the benchmark numbers we show here are very much ALPHA. That being the case one can hardly look at these numbers and draw the conclusion that they will represent the performance of the final chipset from Intel.

On the other hand, we can almost be assured that the results we see when this chipset is officially launched later this year will most certainly be better than what is referenced here.

We have been talking about this chipset since last November. Asus, the company that has supplied the board has asked us not to refer to this chipset by its codename, so we will not. The chipset is quickly discussed in our talk with Intel Vice President Bill Siu when we met with him at Computex a few weeks ago. It was then explained to us that this dual channel DDR chipset would be targeted at the workstation arena and not desktop. Our Dually DDR chipset is specified to work with PC2100 DDR SDRam better known as 266MHz DDR. Intel will be launching the desktop version of this chipset, codenamed Springdale, most likely next year and it will be packing PC2700 or 333MHz DDR Ram at that time.

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Now days with the desktop and workstation markets becoming so close in performance, how do you designate what market the chipset will fall into? Usually it is as simple as the pricing. While a current i845 chipset will run you about US$30 in quantity, word on the street is that Intel's workstation Dually DDR chipset will cost upwards of US$60. While this is not an extreme jump, it will of course make a retail board more expensive.

Asus wants to take this chipset and push it into the retail desktop market with their P4G8X board. Dually DDR, 8X AGP, and Serial ATA will be the highlights of what this board is packing. This is not however a board review but rather very much a PREview of what dual channel DDR could offer. This chipset is probably one of the most exciting products to be launched for the remainder of the year and is going to be very welcome in the desktop arena.

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Shown above is the board during testing yesterday. The last picture is probably the most compelling as it shows the DIMM slots "out of order". Banks 1 and 3 are grouped while 2 and 4 are grouped. Dual channel DDR will require you to have two matched DIMMs in two of these banks grouped together on this particular board. Layouts among manufactures are sure to vary so don't take this as the gospel.