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Transitions in Server I/O: PCI-X vs PCI Express PCI-X is the dominant I/O standard in servers today. In other platforms such as client PCs, industrial computers and communications systems PCI Express could find vital entry points, primarily because PCI-X has not broadly penetrated these platforms. Will PCI Express be able to displace PCI-X in servers? What are the prospects for such a transition? |
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Serial I/O Standards & Implementation Resources The trend toward serial architectures is undeniable. Wherever the demand converges for performance, density and expansion capacity, high speed serial interfaces provide a compelling solution. Numerous standards will coexist and/or polarize in the market creating a unique 'market access' issue. To be competitive, will you have to implement them all? As these standards pass through the implementation phase, it may force the industry to re-evaluate its development methodologies, tools and resources.
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Intel has backed down from the complex software structure of IB but has salvaged its physical interface in the form of 3GIO. It is clearly the latecomer in the I/O wars, a competitive reaction to HT, RIO, IMB and PCI-X. But is it too little, too late? We will consider the potential for 3GIO in the server and small form factor platforms. Finally we will look at memory standard transitions, including DDR2 and the newly invigorated QBM.
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As OEMs prepare to launch a new crop of P4 server designs for 2002, we cannot resist the opportunity to get an early glimpse of how the I/O wars are shaking out. Of particular interest is the number of PCI-X enabled servers that will hit the market in the first half of this year. By researching these design wins we also expect to gain some insights into the state of other interconnects and buses as well.
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DDR333 - Migrating to the Mainstream First
Look at VIA's KT333 Platform
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Contrasting the New I/O Technologies Several new and interesting I/O technologies have cropped up in the recent past. These have been developed to address chip interconnect problems and system performance challenges that are foreseeable in next generation computing and communications platforms. This article examines the technologies behind each new I/O standard to try and determine which will be able to satisfy the market’s future demands.
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I/O Standards: The Evolutionary War PCI-X, IMB, HyperTransport and Rapid I/O are in production, and well on their way to broad support in the market. In contrast, 3GIO is still just a twinkle in Intel’s eye. Yet 3GIO should not be ignored due to its support by the PCI-SIG as a future I/O interface standard. In this article we give 3GIO due diligence and try to make sense of its relationship vs. PCI-X, IMB, HyperTransport and Rapid I/O for mainstream platforms and for specialized applications.
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VIA P4M266: Mainstream Commercial P4 Platform Even after the launch of Intel’s 845, the market is still searching for new platforms that precisely meet the range of price and performance demanded by this important segment. Against this backdrop, VIA is delivering a new and vital SMA DDR chip set for the P4, called the P4M266.
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The P4 Goes Mainstream with DDR Perhaps the most confusing aspect of Intel’s strategy has been the absence of a mainstream DDR platform solution for the Pentium 4. During the last 10 months have potential P4 buyers been holding their breath for the availability of a PC133 platform? It does not seem so. Rather, it seems that the market window for PC133 in new high-end systems is nearly closed. VIA’s new P4X266 chipset successfully leverages its popular north bridge design used for Athlon and P3 processors. With a familiar feature set and upgraded memory controller, the P4X266 should deliver the right price performance mix to allow the Pentium 4 to move into higher volume market segments.
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Battle for the Mainstream in 202-2010 - Just below the surface, a broad ranging I/O standards war is brewing. This battle is fueled by the need for an industry standard high speed I/O bus to deliver new levels of performance, to act as an inter-chip mezzanine bus, and to act as a high bandwidth backbone for PCI-X, processors and memory for multiple generations of new computing platforms, including servers, PCs and embedded systems. This article examines proposed standards for a next generation, high-bandwidth, low latency local interconnect.
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Unleashing the Performance Potential of Athlon and DDR - Core logic development has been hot lately as vendors rush to integrate more and more features in hopes of differentiating their products in an increasingly crowded, competitive market. Lured by the attraction of lowering overall system costs while also enjoying reduced latencies brought about by bringing the memory and graphics controllers onto the same die, 3d graphics cores have been a popular target of integration. Not only has 3d graphics been brought onboard, but telephony, sound, network connectivity and many other items are showing up in chipset implementations.
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The War Escalates: Athlon4 takes on Pentium4 With the introduction of the Mobile Athlon4 processor, AMD is declaring its intent to aggressively position Athlon against Intel's currently teetering flagship P4 processor. Examine the latest features integrated into AMD's new Palomino core. Understand how this new mobile offering stacks up against Intel's mobile Pentium III and how Athlon4 will take on P4 in the desktop market.
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New Analysis on P4 Bandwidth Utilization - While Intel has predicted its fastest ramp ever, sales continue to languish under weak economic conditions and lost market share as well as confusing performance characteristics. What technical and competitive factors can change the market's luke-warm response? How will Intel's platform strategy evolve to meet market demands?
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The direction of server I/O technology has been hotly debated over the last couple years. The debate is heating up as the spotlight is now squarely focused on PCI-X vs. InfiniBand. Find out how do these two complimentary technologies stack up when we put them head-to-head.
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