While the desktop-oriented i820 mainboard chipset is still delayed at the moment, Intel's next generation high performance workstation core logic set, the i840 chipset, is not.
Heralding a host of impressive improvements, the i840 is a significant step in providing low cost multiprocessor servers and workstations that deliver performance that's leaps and bounds ahead of today's 440GX based solutions.
Bandwidth needs are the primary focus of the i840, along with much improved I/O capabilities. To accomplish these goals Intel engineers started with the 1,600MB/sec maximum bandwidth potential of PC800 RDRAM and designed a platform to maximize its potential.
Unlike the i820 implementation of RDRAM, the i840 utilizes a "Dual Channel" design that allows for a dedicated dual pipeline to and from the RDRAM RIMM banks which effectively doubles their already impressive throughput.
Achieving this 3,200MB/sec maximum data throughput rate was essential to the i840's design in order to propel the chipset's new bus hogging 64-bit PCI slots, which can each deliver a staggering 533MB/sec of bandwidth to their peripherals.
That's a 4X jump versus today's 32bit PCI slots, and key indicator of the bandwidth demands Intel perceives the market will require in 2000.