by Anton Shilov
05/11/2004 | 12:59 AM
UPDATE: Adding a link to a preview of the NVIDIA nForce2 400Gb mainboard.
<%BANNER[article]%>NVIDIA has updated its nForce2 chipset with support for trendy connectivity and networking capabilities after numerous delays of the technology, pouring a new life into AMD Athlon XP-based platforms.
The update includes two new media and communication processors that NVIDIA added into the lineup of its I/O controllers – NVIDIA nForce2 Gigabit MCP supporting Gigabit Ethernet, NVIDIA Firewall and 2 Serial ATA-150 ports with RAID capability as well as NVIDIA nForce2 RAID MCP that only sports 2 Serial ATA-150 ports with RAID functions.
Previously NVIDIA offered variety of its media and communication processors to work with its chipsets including the most advanced nForce2 MCP-T with Dolby-Digital Encoder, USB 2.0, 2 ATA-33/66/100/133 and PCI support. The new parts unveiled today do not have built-in Dolby Digital encoder, but can handle other features.
The Santa Clara, California-based graphics company said its new MCPs will work with existing nForce2 400-series core-logic products that can operate with AMD Athlon XP processors with 266MHz, 333MHz and 400MHz EV-6 bus, support dual- or single- channel memory controllers, AGP 8x and come with or without integrated GeForce4 MX graphics core.
With the new introduction NVIDIA has finally added Serial ATA connectivity to its chipsets, something the company quietly promised its partners to do back in June 2003, according to some reports. After numerous postponements, the new MCPs are finally here, but the high-margin market who is interested in the leading-edge technology is beginning to switch to AMD Athlon 64 platforms, leaving AMD Athlon XP-based PCs in the entry-level market segment that either does not require advanced capabilities or is ready to pay for them only a few extra dollars.
NVIDIA did not say whether it had secured any additional design wins with the new MCPs.
There is a preview of NVIDIA's new nForce2 MCPs over NVNews.net web-site.