AMD Chipset 2008

AMD 700 Chipset

The AMD 700 chipset series (also called as AMD 7-Series Chipsets) is a set of upcoming chipsets designed by ATI to be sold under the AMD brand and is scheduled to launch between the end of 2007 to the first half of 2008.

The existence of the chipsets was proved on October 2006 through two hardware websites in Chile and Spain which posted the leaked slides of an ATI internal event, "ATI chipset update". In the slides, ATI have shown a series of RD700 series chipset logics. Codenamed RD790, RX790, RS790 and RS740 respectively. A codenamed SB700 southbridge was also mentioned in the event. The 790X (codenamed RD780) chipset was spotted on Computex 2007, exhibited by ASUS, while the SB750 southbridge was reported by VR-Zone .

Availability

The 790FX, 790X and 770 chipsets were launched on November 19, 2007 as part of the Spider desktop performance platform, While the others will be released on the first half of 2008, including M740G, M780G and M780T chipsets.

Lineup

790FX

• Codenamed RD790, final name revealed to be "AMD 790FX chipset"
• Dual-socket (Quad FX, Dual Socket Direct Connect (DSDC) Architecture) or single AMD processor configuration
• Maximum four physical PCI-E x16 slots and discrete PCI-E x4 slot , the chipset provides a total of 42 lanes solely in the Northbridge
• HyperTransport 3.0 with support for HTX slots and PCI Express 2.0
• ATI CrossFire X
• AutoXpress
• Extreme overclocking, reported to have achieved about 420 MHz bus for overclocking an Athlon 64 FX-62 processor , from originally 200 MHz.
• Discrete chipset cache memory of at least 16 KB to reduce the latencies and increase the bandwidth
• Supports Dual Gigabit Ethernet, and teaming option
• Reference board codenamed "Wahoo" for dual-processor system reference design board with three physical PCI-E x16 slots, and "HammerHead" for single-socket system reference design board with four physical PCI-E x16 slots, also notable was the reference boards includes two ATA ports and only four SATA 3.0 Gbit/s ports (as being paired with SB600 southbridge), but the final product with SB700 or SB750 southbridge should support up to six SATA ports
• Energy efficient Northbridge design
• Enthusiast discrete multi-graphics segment

790X

• Codenamed RD780, final name revealed to be "AMD 790X chipset" ^[9]
• Single AMD processor configuration
• Two physical PCI-E x16 slots
• HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0
• ATI CrossFire
• AutoXpress
• Energy efficient Northbridge design
• Performance discrete multi-graphics segment

780G/780V

• Codenamed RS780, value version codenamed RS780C
• Single AMD processor configuration
• Integrated graphics
• For 780G chipset, the implementation of side-port memory as local frame buffer was retained, as implemented in the M690T chipset , supporting DDR2 and GDDR3 modules.
• One physical PCI-E x16 slot
• HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0
• "Remote IT" (temporary name)
• Pin-to-Pin compatible to RS690
• Reference board design codenamed "Seahorse"
• Mobile version (M780G, codenamed RS780M) demonstrated in May 2007 , and will be available during second or third quarter (Q2-Q3) 2008 , with the implementation of PowerXpress technology, providing one PCI-E slot for AXIOM/MXM modules and HyperFlash ^[16][17] support for the Puma platform
• Energy efficient Northbridge design
• Mainstream DirectX 10 IGP segment (780G), value DirectX 10 IGP segment (780V)

770

• Codenamed RX780 , final product name revealed by ECS
• Single AMD processor configuration
• One physical PCI-E x16 slot
• HyperTransport 3.0 and PCI Express 2.0
• AutoXpress
• Pin-to-Pin compatible to RX690
• Mobile version (M780T), supports discrete graphics, and support for "add-on" graphics solution, via external PCI-E cabling
• Energy efficient Northbridge design
• Mainstream discrete single-graphics segment

740G/740V

• Codenamed RS740, value version codenamed RS740C
• Single AMD processor configuration
• Integrated graphics
• For 740G chipset, the implementation of side-port memory as local frame buffer was retained, as implemented in the M690T chipset, supporting DDR2 and GDDR3 modules.
• One physical PCI-E x16 slot and one PCI-E x4 slot
• HyperTransport 1.0 and PCI Express 1.0a
• Pin-to-Pin compatible to RS690C, to be release in late 2007
• Mobile version (M740G, codenamed RS740M) available
• Energy efficient Northbridge design
• Value DirectX 9.0 IGP segment

740

• Codenamed RX740
• Single AMD processor configuration
• One physical PCI-E x16 slot
• HyperTransport 1.0 and PCI Express 1.0a
• Energy efficient Northbridge design
• Value discrete single-graphics segment

ATI Radeon R300

Radeon R300 the third generation of Radeon graphics Chips

The Radeon R300 (introduced August 2002) is the third generation of Radeon graphics chips from ATI Technologies. The line features 3D acceleration based upon Direct3D 9.0 and OpenGL 2.x, a major improvement in features and performance compared to the preceding Radeon R200 design. R300 was the world's first fully Direct3D 9-capable consumer graphics chip. The processors also include 2D GUI acceleration, video acceleration, and multiple display outputs. "R300" refers to the development codename of the initially released GPU of the generation. R300 and its derivatives would form the basis for ATI's consumer and professional product lines for over 3 years.

The integrated graphics processor based upon R300 is called Xpress 200.

Performance

Radeon 9700's advanced architecture was very efficient and, of course, more powerful compared to its older peers of 2002. Under normal conditions it beat the GeForce4 Ti 4600, the previous top-end card, by 15-20%. However, when anti-aliasing (AA) and/or anisotropic filtering (AF) were enabled it would beat the Ti 4600 by anywhere from 40-100%. At the time, this was quite astonishing, and resulted in the widespread acceptance of AA and AF as critical, truly usable features.

Besides advanced architecture, reviewers also took note of ATI's change in strategy. The 9700 would be the second of ATI's chips (after the 8500) to be shipped to third-party manufacturers instead of ATI producing all of its graphics cards (ATI would still produce cards off of its highest-end chips). This freed up engineering resources that were channelled towards driver improvements, and the 9700 performed phenomenally well at launch because of this.

The performance and quality increases offered by the R300 GPU is considered to be one of the greatest in the history of 3D graphics, alongside the achievements GeForce 256 and Voodoo Graphics. Furthermore, NVIDIA’s response in the form of the GeForce FX 5800 was both late to market and somewhat unimpressive, especially when pixel shading was used. R300 would become one of the GPUs with the longest useful lifetime in history, allowing playable performance in new games at least 3 years after its launch.

New interface

A few months later, the 9500 and 9500 PRO were launched. The 9500 PRO had half the memory bus width of the 9700 PRO, and the 9500 "non pro" was also missing (disabled) half the pixel processing units and the hierarchical Z-buffer optimization unit (part of HyperZ III). With its full 8 pipelines and efficient architecture, the 9500 PRO outperformed all of NVIDIA’s products (save the Ti 4600). Meanwhile, the 9500 also became popular because it could in some cases be modified into the much more powerful 9700 non-PRO (np). ATI only intended for the 9500 series to be a temporary solution to fill the gap for the 2002 Christmas season, prior to the release of the 9600. Since all of the "R300" chips were based on the same physical die, ATI's margins on 9500 products were low. Radeon 9500 was one of the shortest-lived product of ATI, later replaced by the Radeon 9600 series. The logo and box package of the 9500 was "resurrected" in 2004 to market the unrelated and slower Radeon 9550 (which is a derivative of the 9600).

Also in 2004, ATI released the Radeon X300 and X600 boards. These were based on the "RV370" and "RV380" GPU respectively. They were nearly identical to the chips used in Radeon 9550 and 9600, only differing in that they were native PCI Express offerings. These were very popular for Dell and other OEM companies to sell in various configurations; connectors: DVI vs. DMS-59, card height: full-height vs. half-height.

info : wikipedia