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Additional Details on Intel Chipsets for Banias Platform

by Anton Shilov
12/30/2002 | 03:14 PM

A number of important details about the core-logic sets for Intel Banias and Intel Dothan platforms were unveiled today by our sources. Since Banias-series of CPUs as well as the mobile Pentium 4-M processors use identical Quad Pumped Bus, some chipsets will be pin-to-pin compatible, however, there is no word that different components of Portability and Mobility platforms can be matched together.

Here are the in-depth technical details about the newcomers:

Mobility Platform:
- i855PM, the former Odem, a discrete mobile chipset for Banias processors that consists of Odem MCH and ICH4-M I/O controller. The MCH provides 400MHz Quad Pumped Bus support, AGP 2x/4x and power management features, including the Geyserville III, Deeper Sleep and so on. All mobile platforms from Intel next year will use PC1600 and PC2100 DDR SDRAM.
- i855GM, the ex-Montara-GM is practically the same as the i855PM, but with integrated 32-bit 3D/2D graphics core with Dynamic Video Memory Technology, as Intel calls its UMA (Unified Memory Architecture). The graphics core offers LVDS transmitter supporting up to UXGA resolutions (1600x1200) and RAMDAC that provides up to QXGA (2048x1536).
- i855GME, the former Montara-GM+ has a lot in common with the predecessor, but is destined for the Dothan processor with all the improvements it brings.
Portability Platform:
- i852GM, the former Montara-GML is developed for Intel Celeron and Pentium 4-M processors, supports 400MHz Quad Pumped Bus, AGP 2x/4x and power management features, including the EIST, Deeper Sleep, ACPI and so on. Like all mobile platforms from Intel next year, this one is to utilise the PC1600 and PC2100 DDR SDRAM. Integrated graphics core is present.
- i852GME, a bit more advanced version of the previous core-logic set, supports 533MHz Quad Pumped Bus (if Intel changes the specs of the Portability platform next year, what is unlikely, this baby will be able to bring us something like 667 or 800MHz QPB), Hyper-Threading technology and so on. Integrated graphics core is present.

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As you may notice, only the i855PM is the discrete chipset without a graphics core, while the rest are equipped with their own graphics capabilities. Given that Intel will push its Banias platform heavily next year, there will be quite tough times for ATI and NVIDIA to sell their graphics processors intended for notebooks. Of course, we should consider that the demand on rich-multimedia capabilities is high these days, so both graphics processor developers should still enjoy good sales in the mobile sector, however, the market of mobile graphics processors is not very likely to grow significantly next year.

As for the timeframes of new Intel mobile chipsets, I should say that according to unofficial information, the i855PM, i855GM and i852GM are due early next year, while the remaining i855GME and i852GME will come later in 2003.