There appeared Intel’s official documents on the web revealing some details about the upcoming i845PE and i845GE solutions, due this autumn. According to the available slides (you can check them here: slide 1; slide 2; slide 3; slide 4; slide 5), both chipsets will have the following basic features:

• Pin-compatible with one another and with i845G;
• Support 533MHz/400MHz Quad Pumped Bus;
• Single-channel memory interface supporting DDR200/DDR266/DDR333;
• AGP 4x;
• 6 USB 2.0 ports;
• Enhanced 20bit AC’97 sound;
• No ECC support.

Both chipsets will be provided with ICH4 South Bridge.

I845GE will differ from i845PE by the integrated graphics core. Compared with the core used in i845G, this one will be faster due to high working frequency increased up to 266MHz. As you remember, the graphics core in i845G works at 200MHz.

Also note that i845GE and i845PE will have no support for PC133 SDRAM, which was there by their predecessors: i845G and i845D.

As for the support of faster DDR333 memory, it will be involved only with the CPUs with 533MHz bus.

The engineering samples of i845GE and i845PE are reported to be already shipping to Intel’s key partners since mid July. The mass production is scheduled for September. The official product launch is planned for early October.