Asus Officially Supports The 1600MHz Processor Bus

[jatinkompelli]

Asus Officially Supports The 1600MHz Processor Bus


Intel recently announced that its next generation of desktop high performance chipsets, the X38, will only support a 1333MHz processor bus speed and that a following iteration of that chipset, the X48, will reach the 1600Mhz operating frequency. As the launch date for the X38 chip draws near and mainboard manufacturing companies are rushing in with announcements concerning new products that are centered around the Intel chip, one of the most important motherboard producers, Asustek Computer just reported that it has other plans for X38.

Asustek Computer seems to consider
that the Intel X38 mainboard chipset will be able to handle a higher processor bus speed than its producer officially announced as it plans to enable the 1600MHz speed. As Asus is well known and liked for the fact that its mainboards are operating in very stable conditions, it becomes clear that Intel is planning to squeeze the gaming and enthusiasts market segments for all they are worth with two products, the X38 and the X48, that are offering the same general features.............

Source: Intothetec (http://www.intothetec.com/viewtopic.php?p=7218#7218)

[DoubleIPA]

With the "grass roots" hype building up for x48, I wonder why does Intel even bother with a roll out of the x38 chipset since by their own description of x48, the x38 is just a flawed beta version of what's to come?

[Malakai1911]

Yawn. Current generation Athlon 64 has 2GHz HyperTransport bus.

[DoubleIPA]

Yawn. Current generation Athlon 64 has 2GHz HyperTransport bus.

You are confusing the interconnect between the bridges (north brige, southbridge, MCH, ICH, what have you) and the front side bus. Two totally separate things. Intel's DMI interconnect is 2GB/s, and is more than enough for even today's controllers' crosstalk. Hypertransport is 8GB/s, but again this is not the actual speed but just the capability of what can be pushed down the pipe.

A front side bus is an entirely different ballgame.

[Malakai1911]

I know technically there is no FSB on the Athlon 64, because its integrated into the die. That doesn't mean it doesn't talk to a controller downline, in this case a southbridge (most popular likely the nForce which is a single chip controller), and its bus is ....2GHz HT.

[DoubleIPA]

Very true, AMD's integrated memory controller along with a superior chip allowed it to be the undisputed performance king for over 5 years. Intel claims it will remove its external memory controller by next year but they have already proven quite thoroughly that their current MCH along with the sum of the rest of their parts is enough to take the performance crown. It's good to see a rat race again.