FIC VC15: 845 DDR Motherboard
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Features
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Info
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- Intel 845D Chipset
- 6 PCI slots
- 1 CNR
- Northwood Ready
- Optional LAN
- Onboard Audio
- 3 DDR Slots
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The Pentium
4 was introduced along with Intel’s 850 chipset, not long ago it was the only
solution available for the Pentium 4; obligating people to use it without
giving them choice to go with an alternative solution.
The 850 is
Intel’s high end solution for the Pentium 4, mainboards based on the 850 cost
more and use the more expensive RDRAM memory. In order to spread the Pentium
4 more into the mainstream market, an alternate chipset had to be introduced.
Intel’s 845
is the solution to the mainstream market; the chip costs lower to produce,
the new core logic allows mainboard makers to get back to the lower cost four-layer
PCB’s and at the same time takes use of the less expensive SDRAM or DDR SDRAM
memory. We are looking at the FIC VC15 845D Pentium 4 mainboard.
Intel 845
Intel introduced their
845 chipset earlier this year in order to accommodate their Pentium 4 with
a value segment chip which costs less to produce and eliminating the need
of using the expensive RDRAM memory. SDRAM PC133 memory was unfortunately
the only choice due their agreement with Rambus stating that Intel was not
allowed to produce a non RDRAM chipset supporting a memory subsystem with
a bandwidth higher than 1.06/GB/sec until 2002, limiting the 845 only to the
less powerful SDRAM PC133 memory for now. Intel’s 845/ SDRAM 1.06GB/s clearly
wasn’t enough to accommodate the Pentium 4 3.2GB/sec bandwidth, the 845 SDRAM
performances was suffering compared to the 850 chip which takes full use of
the 3.2GB/s bandwidth.
Intel had everything planned in advance, knowing and releasing that the 845/SDRAM
would not be the perfect solution for the Pentium 4 due its memory bandwidth
limitation wouldn't be smart, they knew that their competitors were working
on DDR solutions that would offer similar chipsets in terms of features but
with higher potential from its memory subsystem thanks to DDR memory. Intel
was from the beginning designing the 845 to support DDR SDRAM, making the
845/SDRAM a temp solution for the Pentium 4 and giving more time for Intel
to continue working on their DDR support for the 845.
The South Bridge of the 845, ICH2 is the same as in the high end 850 chip
which supports 4 USB 1.1 ports, ATA/100 support, CNR/AMR slots and a 6 channel
AC”97 audio along with a LAN interface.
Intel’s 845 built on hub architecture is used on the 845 well. The North Bridge
features support for the Pentium 4 processor running at 400MHz Quad Pumped
Bus, supports 3GB of memory for PC133 SDRAM or 2GB of PC1600/PC2100 DDR SDRAM
along with AGP4X. Note that as Intel positioned the 845 as a value segment,
ECC support is not available on the memory controller.
The 845D (DDR) and 845 (PC133) versions offer the same features; both share
the same ICH2 hub. The only difference between the 845D (DDR) and the 845
(SDRAM) is the memory controller which features support for DDR SDRAM. 
