User`s manual

Introduction

Page 1-2

System Overview

This board is designed with Intel

845 chipset. The Intel

845 chipset includes

MCH(FW82845), ICH2(FW82801BA) and FWH three chips. The Intel

845

chipset is the generation desktop chipset designed for Intels FC-PGA2 socket

478 package architecture and support the 4X capability of the AGP 2.0 Interface

Specification. A new chipset component interconnect, the hub interface, is

designed into the Intel

845 chipset to provide more efficient communication

between chipset components.

Support of AGP 4X, 266MHz DDR SDRAM and the hub interface provides a

balanced system architecture for the Pentium

4 in the Socket 478 architecture

processor minimizing bottlenecks and increasing system performance. By

increasing memory bandwidth to 2.128GB/s through the use of AGP 4X, the

Intel

845 chipset will deliver the data throughput necessary to take advantage of

the high performance provided by the powerful Pentium

4 in the Socket 478

architecture processor.

The Intel

845 chipset architecture removes the requirement for the ISA expan-

sion bus that was traditionally integrated into the I/O subsystem of Intel chipsets.

This removes many of the conflicts experienced when installing hardware and

drivers into legacy ISA systems. The elimination of ISA will provide true plug-and

play for the Intel

845 platform.

Intel

845 chipset contains three core components: the Memory Controller Hub

(MCH), the I/O Controller Hub (ICH) and the Firmware Hub (FWH). The MCH

integrates the data transfer rate of 400/533MHz, Pentium

4 processor bus

controller, AGP 2.0 controller, 266MHz DDR SDRAM controller and a high-

speed hub interface for communication with the ICH2. The ICH2 integrates an

UltraATA/66/100 controller, USB host controller, LPC interface controller, FWH

interface controller, PCI interface controller, and a hub interface for communica-

tion with the MCH. The Intel

845 chipset will provide the data buffering and

interface arbitration required to ensure that system interfaces operate efficiently

and provide the system bandwidth necessary to obtain peak performance the

Pentium

4 in the Socket 478 architecture.