Intel's 845G could make splash: Integrated core logic chipset has ramifications for graphics vendors, peripheral interconnects - Semiconductors

Electronic News, April 1, 2002 by Tom Murphy

Perhaps the next biggest chip-related news out of Intel Corp. will be the release of its Brookdale 845G chipset, which may have the same market impact as the introduction of a higher-performing processor.

Due for release in the second quarter, the 845G will provide integrated graphics support for Pentium 4 processors and will also integrate a USB 2.0 host controller. In essence, the 845G will wind up making the P4 more attractive to the mainstream PC and corporate markets, according to analysts. It may also cut into markets carved out last year by third-party chipset manufacturers, graphics processor manufacturers and peripheral interface chip vendors.

Intel's first version of the 845 chipset also had tremendous impact on the market as it provided the P4 with its first legal, high-volume link with DDR SDRAM for main memory in PCs. Via Technologies Inc. of Taipei, Taiwan, was credited with having the first chipset in the market with DDR support for the P4, yet the company didn't get a technology agreement from Intel to do so and consequently found itself facing Intel's legal attention.

But since the 845's introduction, DDR memory has earned a tremendous amount of attention and volume. It follows that the 845G will have the same impact for graphics that the 845 had for DDR memory.

"The integrated graphics means cost-savings for businesses and consumers," said Kevin Krewell, an analyst with Micro Design Resources. (MDR is owned by Reed Business Information, the parent company of Electronic News.)

"This will move the Pentium 4 fully into mainstream markets," Krewell said. "It has a simplified driver structure, so consumers won't have to mess around with software, and it is a stable platform the corporate buyers will like."

Krewell said he expects the 845G to have the same impact as Intel's previous integrated chipsets, the 810 and the 815. Both supported Intel's Pentium III microprocessors and both were highly successful. Both had impacts on graphics processor makers which were attacking the middle of the performance market.

While the high-end of the graphics market will still hold substantial market opportunity, Nathan Brookwood of Insight 64 in Saratoga, Calif., said he believes the runaway success that add-on graphics chipmakers had last year with the P4-based systems will diminish. That's not such great news for the likes of Nvidia Corp. and ATI Technologies Inc. Those two companies experienced a sort of market bubble as Intel was ramping up its P4 processor. Until the 845G starts getting into the mainstream, superior graphics performance for P4 machines could only be achieved by installing one of Nvidia's or ATI's add-in boards.

Nvidia doesn't seem to be worried about the 845G's introduction. The company focuses most of its attention on markets the 845G won't cover. In the desktop consumer space, the demand trend is for exceptional graphics quality, something that the 845G won't be able to deliver, said Drew Henry, general manager of Nvidia's platform business. In the core logic business, Nvidia is now focused on Advanced Micro Devices Inc. processors and does not yet offer an integrated chipset that supports the P4, Henry added.

The 845G will also have an integrated USB 2.0 host controller, moving another discrete piece of silicon off the motherboard and into the core logic. The move could hasten the acceptance of the USB 2.0 standard into the marketplace and leave similar technologies such as IEEE-1394 with little room for growth in the PC segment.

Intel's integration of USB 2.0 on the 845G means that PC's will now have an inexpensive, high-data-rate interconnect capability for peripherals such as external optical hard drives. That will likely make USB 2.0 the standard for optical hard drive companies. It will also displace 1394 add-in chips as the high data rate king in that product category, said Brian O'Rourke, a senior analyst with Cahners In-Stat. (InStat is also owned by Reed Business Information.)