In het tweede deel van het Next Generation Motherboard Platforms artikel kijkt Anand naar een drietal i820 moederborden, namelijk Intel's eigen Vancouver VC820, de AOpen AX6C en de Gigabyte GA-6CX. Hieronder een gedeelte uit het artikel.
You would think that it would be very easy to predict the future of the i820 based motherboard market. It should theoretically follow in the footsteps of the BX platform. But then again, when the BX chipset was released, there wasn't a true competitor to the chipset around. The i820 is a step in a different direction, the RDRAM platform has yet to be embraced by the industry and unfortunately for Intel, there are viable alternatives.Micron has already launched a "we told you so" campaign praising their decision to pursue VIA's i820 alternative, the quietly released Apollo Pro 133A, over Intel's delayed i820. If we also take into account the fact that the i810 chipset was a huge disappointment in the minds of many motherboard manufacturers (it did begin to catch on after awhile but it was a very slow start), the future of the i820 chipset is a bit sketchy.
With no native PC133 support without the addition of a Memory Translator Hub (MTH) that will most likely not come without a performance penalty, the RDRAM prerequisite of the i820 platform will keep it out of the hands of many. At the same time, Intel has already made it clear that the upcoming Pentium III E (Coppermine) will be available in a Slot-1/100MHz FSB version which further extends the life of the BX chipset. It is unlikely that motherboard manufacturers will completely ignore the i820 chipset and continue to produce newer BX boards, but don't be surprised to see your favorite BX boards stick around for a little while longer while i820 becomes established.
Once the motherboard manufacturers, most of which are still recovering from the horrible earthquakes in Taiwan, do jump on the i820 bandwagon, you can expect quite a fewinnovations brought to motherboards based on this chipset.
De rest van het verhaaltje vind je hier.
