INTEL

Intel® Multi-Core Technology

2010-02-11T04:23:00.000-08:00

Permanently altering the course of computing as we know it, Intel® multi-core technology provides new levels of energy efficient performance, enabled by advanced parallel processing and hafnium-based 45nm technology. Incorporating multiple processor execution cores in a single package delivering full parallel execution of multiple software threads, Intel multi-core technology enables higher levels of performance while each core runs at a lower frequency, dividing the power typically required by a higher frequency single core processor with equivalent performance. This provides a breakthrough experience in notebook and desktop PCs, workstations, and servers.

Central to our technology roadmap, Intel® multi-core processors based on 45nm are paving the way to the next revolution in processor technology—32nm multi-core processors. By innovating future architectures that can hold dozens or even hundreds of processors on a single die, we're ensuring that Intel® technologies will continue to keep pace with demands well into the future.

Packaging Technologies

2010-02-11T04:21:00.000-08:00

As processor performance increases with improvements in process technologies, the demand on packaging solutions is also increasing. Device I/O requirements are going up, which in turn places increased demand on package interconnects. Higher-speed devices require complex thermal, power delivery and signal-integrity solutions. Intel is investing considerable resources in packaging related research and development activities.

Multi-chip system in package (SIP)
The convergence of computing and communications is driving demand for mobile devices that are thinner and lighter; as well as pack increasingly feature-rich functionality into less space. Intel researchers are addressing this challenge through advancing a technique called multi-chip "system in package" (SIP) where two or more chips are put through a thinning process and stacked in a single package.
Silicon wafers are thinned by grinding the back of the wafer to remove as much as 90 percent of the silicon. Multiple packages are then stacked to create an integrated solution that delivers more functionality and higher performance in the same or less space.

High-density interconnects
Intel is working with key substrate suppliers and universities to develop innovative solutions for high-density interconnects. State-of-the-art additive/subtractive processes are being deployed in current packaging solutions. For future needs, breakthrough technologies are under investigation. The goal of the research is to develop manufacturable and cost-effective processes that can be broadly deployed.

Thermal sciences
Intel is developing innovative thermal solutions for both package and system cooling needs. Currently, heat pipes and heat spreaders are part of the packaging solutions for our higher performance CPUs. The research in this area, which is being done with material suppliers and leading universities, is focused on developing very high-conductive, thermal-interface materials (TIMs). For system-level solutions, Intel is working with key suppliers to develop vapor chamber-based heat sinks. These solutions are offered as reference design collateral to Intel's customers. For future needs, innovative system cooling solutions are being investigated.
Power delivery.

Containment of di/dt noise is a significant challenge for devices operating over one GHz. Intel is developing innovative package decoupling capacitor solutions to deliver high-performance processor packages. In addition, partnering with leading universities and consortia, Intel is spearheading the development of high-k materials and design tools.

Learn more
You can discover more by visiting the following areas of the Intel Web site:
Intel Technology Journal
• Electronic Package Technology Development
• Advanced Package Technologies for High-Performance Systems
• Power Delivery for High-Performance Microprocessors
• Nano and Micro Technology-Based Next-Generation Package-Level Cooling Solutions
• Finding Solutions to the Challenges in Package Interconnect Reliability
• Materials Technologies for Thermomechanical Management of Organic Packages
• Pentium® 4 Processor High-Volume Land-Grid-Array Technology: Challenges and Future Trends
• Advanced Fault Isolation and Failure Analysis Techniques for Future Package Technologies
Future Package Technologies for Wireless Communication Systems

Material and device structure on silicon

2010-02-11T04:19:00.000-08:00

Phase 1: Material and device structure on silicon
The channel region between the source and drain must be formed on top of a grid structure of silicon called a lattice. The lattice spacing of III-V materials differs from that of silicon. When the atoms in the structure of each material get far apart, they can't connect due to lattice mismatch.

To avoid this, Intel and our partners have jointly developed graded, thin, non-silicon buffer layers that avoid defects while keeping the III-V channel intact. These buffer layers include gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium aluminium arsenide (InAlAs), creating a III-V semiconductor composite metamorphic buffer structure on top of the silicon substrate. The metamorphic buffer filters out dislocations caused by the material mismatches, leaving a high-quality channel region.

To facilitate the integration with silicon CMOS, Intel has reduced the buffer thickness as much as possible, without impacting the overall material quality.

Phase 2: Device integration and processing.

The transistors must be fabricated based on the buffer layers, so the next step is to develop the process for creating devices on the wafer. Our methods evolve with each experiment—for example, the contact resistance might be too great, and one way to reduce it might be to use different contact metals. In order to improve the contact resistance we might change the III-V source/ drain material by increasing indium concentration.

Phase 3: Device measurement and analysis
In the last step, all experimental transistors must be tested. For each, there is characterization, analysis, and theory. These results are charted against a baseline of theory, or expectations, to see where a particular device deviates. We can then determine the advantages of the new technology in relation to the old technology. To do so, we develop unique test structures to measure the effective velocity of electrons traveling through the transistor channel (mobility).
With nanometer-scale measurements, we can determine whether the better electron mobility in these new materials will result in some real transistor gain over current technologies.

Research progress being made
The research community is looking for ways to make III-V materials work because of the potential performance and power benefits, as well as the ability to integrate communications and optoelectronic circuits with CMOS logic on the same silicon chip. In the future, III-V devices and silicon CMOS transistors may coexist on the same silicon chip for increased performance and functionality with enhanced energy efficiency.

Although there are many difficult challenges to overcome, significant progress has been made by the research community. Always looking toward the future, Intel and our partners have recently demonstrated the world's first high-speed P-channel devices and expect to disclose their results at IEDM in December 2008.
"Although there are many difficult challenges to overcome, significant progress has been made by the research community and much excitement has been generated. Going forward, research on III-V-based transistors and their integration on large silicon wafers will be even more exciting and rewarding than ever," states Robert Chau, Intel senior fellow and director of transistor research and nanotechnology.

Developing the Silicon Future

2010-02-11T04:16:00.000-08:00

As Intel's chip transistor counts rise in accordance with Moore's Law, each transistor is designed to be smaller and faster with the goal of increased microprocessor performance. The rising transistor count and their smaller size also means increased power consumption if nothing is done about it.
To meet this power challenge, Intel is exploring new ways to make high-speed and low-power transistors in the latter half of the next decade.

Improving current flow
Today's transistor channel is made of "doped" silicon, meaning it has some impurities. Intel is researching transistors and nanotechnology for future microprocessor applications including non-silicon materials called "III-V compound semiconductors," the III-V standing for their position on the periodic table. III-V materials in the transistor channel may allow the current to flow more easily, providing these benefits:

• High-speed transistors operating at low supply voltage. Using non-silicon materials, these high-speed transistors could operate at 0.5 volts.
• A dramatic reduction of voltage. High-performance microprocessors operate at approximately 1.0 volt today, but they could operate at around 0.5 volts with new channel material.
Plus, this compound semiconductor solution could be applicable to communications and optoelectronic circuits, which could potentially be integrated with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic on the same silicon chip.

Leveraging 40 years of silicon experience
Intel has integrated non-silicon materials into our current silicon process, including:
• Silicon germanium (strained silicon)
• Hafnium (high-k gate dielectrics)
• Novel metals (gate electrodes)

Intel demonstrated the feasibility of III-V integration on silicon by producing a high-performance N-type III-V transistor on silicon shown at the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in December 2007.
Integrating III-V on a silicon substrate.

For III-V compound semiconductors to become applicable for future high-speed and low-power digital applications, they must be integrated onto large silicon wafers, which avoids the difficulty, expense, and disruption of replacing our current mainstream silicon substrates.

In order to meet this goal, the work has been divided into three phases:
1. Material and device structure growth on silicon
2. Device integration and processing
3. Device measurement and analysis
Intel is working closely with universities on III-V research projects funded by Intel, and also forming partnerships with industry leaders, such as QinetiQ and IQE to help accelerate progress.

Silicon R&D Pipeline

2010-02-11T04:14:00.000-08:00

As feature sizes become smaller and circuits operate at higher speeds, the challenges of delivering more powerful and power-efficient processors increase. Active power, off-state leakage, variability in transistor behavior, and other tendencies of increasingly small devices must be addressed in order to continue delivering smaller, more-powerful, energy-efficient processors, and, higher-speed, higher-bandwidth interconnects. Intel has already implemented several measures to address issues such as leakage power and we are actively researching silicon technologies that will take our products to 32nm and beyond.

Intel is looking at a variety of technologies including high-k/metal gate, 3-D transistors, and III-V materials, even carbon nanotubes, and semiconductor nanowires as high-mobility materials for future high-speed and low-power transistor applications and future interconnect applications.
High-k and Metal Gate Research

The fundamental building blocks for all computer chips—transistors—have tracked with Moore's Law for forty years. Intel has led the industry in transistor gate dielectric scaling using silicon dioxide (SiO2) for seven logic-process generations over the last 15 years. But as transistors shrink, leakage current can increase. Managing that leakage is crucial for reliable high-speed operation, and is becoming an increasingly important factor in chip design. Intel has made a significant breakthrough in solving the chip power problem, identifying a new "high-k" (Hi-k) material called hafnium to replace the transistor's silicon dioxide gate dielectric, and new metals to replace the polysilicon gate electrode of NMOS and PMOS transistors. These new materials, along with the right process recipe, reduce gate leakage more than 100-fold, while delivering record transistor performance. To achieve this milestone for the 45nm node, Intel silicon research evaluated 100's of material combinations to find the right starting point for development.

High-k materials

To build next-generation transistors, Intel is working with new materials that show promise for replacing the silicon dioxide gate dielectric—where continued thinning makes it increasingly difficult to control current leakage. This thicker class of materials, known as "high-k," will replace today's silicon dioxide technology and then provide extendibility over several generations.

"High-k" stands for high dielectric constant, a measure of how much charge a material can hold. Different materials similarly have different abilities to hold charge. Imagine a sponge, which can hold a great deal of water; wood, which can hold less; and glass, which can hold none at all. Air is the reference point for this constant and has a "k" of one. "High-k" materials, such as hafnium dioxide (HfO2), zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) inherently have a dielectric constant or "k" above 3.9, the "k" of silicon dioxide.

The dielectric constant also relates directly to transistor performance. The higher "k" increases the transistor capacitance so that the transistor can switch properly between and "on" and "off" (WMV 9.5MB) states, with very low current when off yet very high current when on.

High-k benefits

After years of research, Intel identified the right high-k material and the right type of gate electrode materials to achieve record performance for both NMOS and PMOS technologies. By moving to a new high-k material, Intel was able to keep the drive current at the same level as with older materials—and overcome the leakage.

The entire semiconductor industry is struggling with the heat of chips, which increases exponentially as the number of transistors increase. Leakage control via new high-k materials is one of many steps toward making transistors run cooler. Because high-k gate dielectrics can be several times thicker, they reduce gate leakage by over 100 times. As a result, these devices run cooler. At the same time, Intel has engineered and demonstrated metal gate electrodes—which sit on top of the gate dielectric—that are compatible with high-k dielectrics.

Intel anticipates that this shift to a new material will be one of the most significant in the evolution of the metal-oxide silicon (MOS) transistor, which has had a silicon dioxide dielectric gate since its introduction in the 1960s. Intel's new high-k material will also require a new manufacturing process to lay down a thickness of one molecular level at a time. Now that the initial research is being implemented at the 45nm node research continues at Intel to identify the second generation of high-k to extend scaling further.

What Is Intel® QuickPath Architecture?

2010-02-11T04:11:00.000-08:00

Intel QuickPath Architecture is a platform architecture that provides high-speed connections between microprocessors and external memory, and between microprocessors and the I/O hub. One of its biggest changes will be the implementation of scalable shared memory. Instead of using a single shared pool of memory connected to all the processors through FSBs and memory controller hubs, each processor will have its own dedicated memory that it accesses directly through an Integrated Memory Controller. In cases where a processor needs to access the dedicated memory of another processor, it can do so through a high-speed Intel QuickPath Interconnect that links all the processors.

A big advantage of the Intel QuickPath Interconnect is that it is point-to-point. There is no single bus that all the processors must use and contend with each other to reach memory and I/O. It also improves scalability, eliminating the competition between processors for bus bandwidth. Coupled with Intel’s great cache memory, this technological achievement will enable the performance of servers and workstations to take another leap forward.

Intel QuickPath Architecture is not Intel’s first implementation of scalable shared memory—a computer memory design with a single physical address space, but in which various parts of memory are faster to access than other parts. Intel has used it in other platforms, such as Intel® 8870 chipset-based servers. Nor is it the first time Intel
has used an integrated memory controller. Next generation microarchitecture-based platforms will simply be thefirst to bring both scalable shared memory and integrated memory controllers together. With each processor having its own memory controller and dedicated memory, the local memory will always be the fastest to access.
In other cases, when an instruction or data is located in another microprocessor’s dedicated memory, the memory will take longer to access. But not much—Intel QuickPath Interconnect is extremely fast.

Thanks to the pioneering work done by companies such as Sequent* (IBM*) and others, scalable shared memory has been used in the high-end server space for years and most modern operating systems (OSes) are optimized for it. This means they schedule processes and allocate memory to take advantage of local physical memory and improve execution performance. Most virtualization software is also written to take advantage of scalable shared memory, pinning a virtual machine to a specific execution microprocessor and its dedicated memory. For more on Intel QuickPath Technology, see:/technology/quickpath

Intel® QuickPath Interconnect Advantages

Intel QuickPath Interconnect will deliver leading microprocessor interconnect bandwidth and RAS for Intel’snext generation of server and workstation platforms. Key advantages include:

• Best interconnect performance in the mainstream server/workstation segment.
Intel QuickPath Interconnect uses up to 6.4 Gigatranfers/second links, delivering bandwidth up to25 Gigabytes/second (GB/s) of total bandwidth—up to 300 percent greater than other interconnect solutions used today.3 (Gigatransfer refers to the number of data transfers.)
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• Efficient architecture improves interconnect performance.
Intel QuickPath Interconnect reduces the amount of communication required in the interface of multi-processor systems to deliver faster payloads.
The dense packet and lane structure allow more data transfers in less time, improving overall system performance.

• Tightly integrated RAS features for high reliability.
Implicit Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) with link-level retry ensures data quality and performance by providing CRC without the performance penalty of additional cycles. The link level retry retransmits data to make certain the transmission is completed without loss of data integrity.

For advanced servers which require the highest level of RAS features, some processors include additional features including the following: self-healing links that avoid persistent errors by re-configuring themselves to use the good parts of the link; clock fail-over to automatically re-route clock function to a data lane in the event of clock-pin failure; and hot-plug capability to enable hot-plugging of nodes, such as processor cards.
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• Major vendors have already adopted Intel QuickPath Technology.
Vendors are already developing advanced chipsets for highly scalable servers.
Tool vendors are enabling robust development of silicon and boards that use the technology.
Other innovative products in the works include hardware accelerators for compute-intensive modeling in financial markets, oil exploration, and other fields.

Integrated Memory Controller Advantages

The Integrated Memory Controller is specially designed for servers and high-end clients to take full advantage of the Intel QuickPath Architecture with its scalable shared memory architecture. The independent high-bandwidth,low-latency memory controllers are paired with the high-bandwidth, low-latency Intel QuickPath Interconnects enabling fast, efficient access to remote memory controllers. The Integrated Memory Controller has the significant advantage of being coupled with large high-performance caches. This relieves pressure on the memory subsystem and lowers overall latency. The Integrated Memory Controller also continues Intel’s legacy of best-in-class scalability and RAS features, plus of course takes advantage of next generation Intel® microarchitecture
(Nehalem and Tukwila) and Hi-k 45nm process technology.

Key advantages include:
• Integrating the memory controller into the silicon die improves memory access latency (reduces communication delays in transferring data to and from memory) compared to traditional memory access through dedicated bus interface.
• Available memory bandwidth scales with the number of processors added.
• Full support for leading memory technologies allowing solutions optimized for different market segments.

Intel® QuickPath Technology

2010-02-11T04:10:00.000-08:00

Unleashing performance with interconnect system architecture
Providing point-to-point high-speed links to distributed shared memory, Intel® QuickPath Technology unleashes the parallel processing performance of Intel® microarchitecture, codenamed Tukwila and Intel® Microarchitecture, codenamed Nehalem. These microarchitectures are the first to use the Intel® QuickPath Interconnect system for significant improvements in overall performance.

With Intel QuickPath Technology, each processor core features an integrated memory controller and high-speed interconnect, linking processors and other components to deliver:

• Dynamically scalable interconnect bandwidth designed to set loose the full performance of Nehalem, Tukwila, and future generations of Intel® multi-core processors.
• Outstanding memory performance and flexibility to support leading memory technologies.
• Tightly integrated interconnect reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) with design-scalable configurations for optimal balance of price, performance, and energy efficiency.

Innovation That Breaks the Performance Barrier

2010-02-11T04:09:00.000-08:00

Intel® 45nm high-k metal gate silicon technology is the next-generation Intel® Core™ microarchitecture. With roughly twice the density of Intel® 65nm technology, Intel's 45nm packs about double the number of transistors into the same silicon space. That's more than 400 million transistors for dual-core processors and more than 800 million for quad-core. Intel's 45nm technology enables great performance leaps, up to 50-percent larger L2 cache, and new levels of breakthrough energy efficiency.
Smaller transistors pack the performance punch.

Intel's had the world's first viable 45nm processors in-house since early January 2007—the first of fifteen 45nm processor products in development. With one of the biggest advancements in fundamental transistor design in 40 years, Intel 45nm high-k silicon technology can deliver more than a 20 percent improvement in transistor switching speed, and reduce transistor gate leakage by over 10 fold.
Taking great leaps forward in transistor design.

Using a combination of new materials including hafnium-based high-k gate dielectrics and metal gates, Intel 45nm technology represents a major milestone as the industry as a whole races to reduce electrical current leakage in transistors—a growing problem for chip manufacturers as transistors get even smaller.
This new transistor breakthrough allows Intel to continue delivering record-breaking PC, laptop, and server processor speeds well into the future. It also ensures that Moore's Law—a high-tech industry axiom that transistor counts double about every two years to deliver more performance and functionality at decreasing cost—thrives well into the next decade.

Delivering the world's first 45nm processor to the world
The first processors based on the new Intel 45nm high-k silicon technology deliver many new architectural advancements impacting hardware and software performance. Intel has also moved to 100 percent lead-free materials in our 45nm technology and is making the additional move to halogen-free products in 2008 in order to meet our environmental performance goals. Included in the first 45nm launch are new members of the Intel® Core™2 processor and Intel® Xeon® processor families.

World's First 2-Billion Transistor Microprocessor Breaking the performance barrier

2010-02-11T04:07:00.000-08:00

Next-generation Intel® Itanium® processors (codenamed Tukwila) take the next big leap in processor-based server technology. As the world's first 2-billion transistor microprocessor¹, Tukwila is designed to provide highly scalable and reliable performance for mission-critical enterprise server solutions.
With Tukwila, you can experience these benefits and more:

• Achieve more than double the performance with next-generation quad-core technology.
• Get outstanding levels of system integration with 30MB total on-die cache providing improved performance for data-intensive, mission-critical solutions
• Maximize energy efficiency and performance-per-watt with the advanced power/ thermal design features built into Tukwila
• Get leading-edge reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) and scalable performance with the high-speed interconnect technology enabled by Intel®
QuickPath architecture and memory RAS features
Delivering unmatched scalable performance, Tukwila is optimized for the intensive requirements of database, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and business intelligent (BI) applications. As a standards-based replacement for RISC, Tukwila-based servers are the answer to the increasing scalable needs of the global enterprise providing unmatched flexibility and headroom for the future.
Tukwila is targeted for production in Q1 2010.

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology)

2010-02-11T04:05:00.000-08:00

Today's Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology)¹ delivers thread-level parallelism on each processor resulting in more efficient use of processor resources—higher processing throughput—and improved performance on the multi-threaded software of today and tomorrow.

An Intel® processor and chipset combined with an OS and BIOS supporting Intel® HT Technology allows you to:
• Run demanding desktop applications simultaneously while maintaining system responsiveness
• Keep systems more secure, efficient, and manageable while minimizing impact on productivity
• Provide headroom for future business growth and new solution capabilities
Enabling better graphics.

Intel HT Technology helps multimedia enthusiasts create, edit, and encode graphically intensive files while running background applications such as virus protection software without compromise to performance.
Improving business efficiency.

With Intel HT Technology, multi-threaded software applications can execute threads in parallel within each processor core. When Intel HT Technology and Intel® Turbo Boost Technology are combined in processors based on Intel® Microarchitecture, codenamed Nehalem, intelligent server processors deliver better performance by adapting to the workload and automatically disabling inactive cores and increasing processor frequency on remaining cores to get the tasks done quicker.
With Intel HT Technology, businesses can:

• Improve business productivity by doing more simultaneously without slowing down
• Provide faster response times for Internet and e-commerce applications, enhancing customer experiences
• Increase the number of transactions that can be processed simultaneously
• Utilize existing 32-bit applications technologies while maintaining 64-bit future readiness.

Intelligent performance
See how Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology enables new Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series-based servers to deliver intelligent performance.
Scalable performance
Choose servers that are scalable, flexible, and optimized to fit your unique business requirements.
• Intel® Xeon® processors
Threading resources
• Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology system requirments
• Software developers threading center
• Intel® Threading Tools
¹ Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) requires a computer system with an Intel® Processor supporting Intel HT Technology and an Intel HT Technology enabled chipset, BIOS, and operating system. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use. See www.intel.com/products/ht/hyperthreading_more.htm for more information including details on which processors support Intel HT Technology.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Microarchitecture

2010-02-11T03:59:00.000-08:00

Newly designed from the ground up, the Intel® Atom™ processor is based on entirely new hafnium-based 45nm microarchitecture. Representing Intel's smallest and lowest power processor yet¹, the Intel® Atom™ processor enables a new generation of powerful and energy-efficient Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) and a new category of simple devices for the internet called netbooks and nettops that will be available at affordable prices.

Delivering new design possibilities due to its remarkably small size and performance-per-watt advantages, the Intel Atom processor provides:
• Performance for a great internet experience in a range of sub 1 watt to 4 watt thermal power envelope based on industry leading benchmarks (EEMBC) and web page rendering performance
• Greater energy efficiency for mobile devices enabled by incredibly low average power and idle power, scaling performance from 800MHz to 1.86GHz
• Power-optimized front side bus of up to 533MHz for faster data transfer on demanding mobile applications.
• Scalable performance and increased power efficiency with multi-threading support.
• Improved performance on multimedia and gaming applications with support for Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 (SSE3)
• Improved power management with new Deep Power Down (C6) enabled on the Intel® Atom™ processor Z5xx series for MIDs, and extended C4 states enabled on Intel® Atom™ processor N270 for netbooks, in addition to non-grid clock distribution, clock gating, CMOS bus mode, and other power saving architectural features
• Low TDP enabled by improved power management technologies delivering high performance to run the real Internet and a broad range of software applications.

Must-haves now optimized for ultra-small

As energy-efficient performers, Intel Atom processors are built with powerful technologies made optimized for smaller form factor devices, including Hyper-Threading Technology² enabling two instruction threads to execute in parallel and Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology, matching performance with application demands in order to save on battery life and increase performance—and so much more.

Hyper-Threading Technology

Revolutionary technology starts with a conscience
Using the world's smallest transistors‡, the Intel Atom processor takes the next big leap in ultra-small and powerful computing with performance optimized technologies that are also more environmentally responsible. Using lead-free± and halogen-free° manufacturing, the Intel Atom processor is the first in Intel's lineup to eliminate halogen and lead products altogether.

Product information
Find out more about Intel® Atom™ microarchitecture-based products.

• Intel® Atom™ processor
1. Actual processor size based on current Intel® architecture product offerings.
Δ Wireless connectivity and some features may require you to purchase additional software, services or external hardware. System performance, battery life, wireless performance and functionality will vary depending on your specific operating system, hardware and software configurations. See www.intel.com/products/centrino/ for more information.

2.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology) requires a computer system with an Intel® processor supporting Hyper-Threading Technology and an HT Technology enabled chipset, BIOS and operating system. Hyper-Threading Technology is available on Intel® Atom™ processor Z520, Z530 and Z540 (Z520=1.33GHz, Z530=1.60Ghz and Z540=1.86GHz) and Intel® Atom™ processor N270 (1.60GHz) and 230 (1.60GHz).

3. When compared to the Ultra Low Voltage single-core Intel® processors in 2006.
Processor comparison based on current Intel® architecture products. Transistor comparison based on 45nm processors in production.
Intel® 45nm products are manufactured on a lead-free process. Leadfree per EU RoHS Directive (2002/95/EC, Annex A). Some RoHS exemptions may apply to other components used in the product package.

° Applies to components containing flame retardants and PVC only. Halogens are below 900 PPM bromine, 900 PPM chlorine, and 1500 PPM combined bromine and chlorine.

Intel® Atom™ Processor

2010-02-11T03:54:00.000-08:00

For Mobile Internet Devices

Key Features
All in the palm of your hand
It’s easy to bring the Internet to more places with the Intel® Atom TM processor. Groundbreaking silicon design and new micro-architecture enable blazing-fast performance in small wireless handheld devices, making it easy to take an amazing Internet experience along with you – on a device that can fit in your pocket.

Breathtaking graphics
Forget what you think you know about handheld computers. With the Intel® AtomTM processor, you’ll be able to stream video and enjoy all your favorite online entertainment, so there’s no need to settle for anything less than a full Internet experience, even in an incredibly small package.

Long battery life keeps you entertained and productive
Power-efficient design enables extended battery life so you can keep on surfing, blogging, listening to music, watching video and communicating with the world as you move through your day.

Reliable built-in wireless
Maximize your Internet device’s potential by staying connected whether you’re watching a movie at home, emailing from a café or chatting on a social networking site while on vacation. Devices with optional GPS functionality let you access location-specific information so you can meet up with your friends and track down reviews of nearby restaurants.

Intel® Core™2 Quad Processors

2009-11-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

The ultimate multi-core performance

Introducing the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor for desktop PCs, designed to handle massive compute and visualization workloads enabled by powerful multi-core technology. Providing all the bandwidth you need for next-generation highly-threaded applications, the latest four-core Intel Core 2 Quad processors are built on 45nm Intel® Core™ microarchitecture enabling faster, cooler, and quieter desktop PC and workstation experiences.

Plus, with optional Intel® vPro™ technology, you have the ability to remotely isolate, diagnose, and repair infected desktop and mobile workstations wirelessly and outside of the firewall, even if the PC is off, or the OS is unresponsive.

Features and benefits:

With four processing cores, up to 12MB of shared L2 cache¹ and 1333 MHz Front Side Bus the Intel Core 2 Quad desktops processor delivers amazing performance and power efficiency enabled by the all new hafnium-based circuitry of 45nm Intel Core microarchitecture.

Whether you're encoding, rendering, editing, or streaming HD multimedia in the office or on the go, power your most demanding applications with notebooks and desktops based on the Intel Core 2 Quad processor.

Plus, with these processors you get great Intel® technologies built in:

Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution, enabling delivery of more instructions per clock cycle to improve execution time and energy efficiency

Intel® Intelligent Power Capability, designed to deliver more energy-efficient performance

Intel® Smart Memory Access, improving system performance by optimizing the use of the available data bandwidth

Larger Intel® Advanced Smart Cache, optimized for multi-core processors, providing a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem.

Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost, accelerating a broad range of multimedia, encryption, scientific and financial applications by significantly improving performance when executing Intel® Streaming SIMD Extension (SSE/SSE2/SSE3) instructions.

Intel® HD Boost³, implementing new Intel® Streaming SIMD Extension 4 (Intel SSE4) instructions for even greater multimedia performance and faster high definition video editing and encoding.

Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT), enabling greater security, manageability, and utilization.

Future ready, designed to perform in highly threaded programs with powerful Intel® multi-core technology.

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor

2009-11-03T06:48:00.000-08:00

The heart of faster, more efficient PCs

Investing in new PCs with Intel® Core™2 processor family can mean big savings for your business. Delivering faster performance, greater energy efficiency, and more responsive multitasking, desktop PCs with Intel® Core™2 processor family can help your whole company be more productive.

By combining breakthrough processing speeds with advanced power saving features, desktop PCs with Intel® Core™2 processor family let you get more done in less time than ever before reducing energy costs by an average of 50 percent.¹ Processors built with Intel's unique 45nm technology offer excellent performance as well as unique energy-saving features that help PCs meet ENERGY STAR² requirements. That means reduced power consumption for desktop PCs and lower energy costs for your company.

Features and benefits:
Get the best overall performance with Intel® Core™2 Duo processor you'll get an arsenal of performance-rich technologies, including up to 6MB of shared L2 cache and up to 1333 MHz Front Side Bus.
Featured white paper

Discover next-generation Intel® Core™ microarchitecture built on 45nm high-k metal gate silicon technology.

Compare these desktop products:

* Processors
* Motherboards and barebones
* Chipsets

Enjoy 3X faster multitasking performance with multi-core processing combines two independent processor cores in one physical package.¹ Processors run at the same frequency and share up to 6MB of L2 cache and up to 1333 MHZ Front Side Bus for truly parallel computing with over.

Improve execution time and energy efficiency with more instructions per clock cycle enabled by Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution.

Get smarter, more energy-efficient performance enabled by Intel® Intelligent Power Capability.

Improve system performance enabled by Intel® Smart Memory Access, optimizing the use of the available data bandwidth.

Get higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem enabled by Intel® Advanced Smart Cache, optimized for multi-core and dual-core processors.

Accelerate a broad range of applications, including video, speech and image, photo processing, encryption, financial, engineering and scientific applications, enabled by Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost.

Intel® Core™2 Extreme Processor

2009-11-03T06:45:00.000-08:00

Multiple cores. Astonishing performance

Whether it's gaming, digital photography, or video editing, today's high-impact entertainment demands breakthrough technology. Now with a new version based on Intel's cutting edge 45nm technology utilizing hafnium-infused circuitry to deliver even greater performance and power efficiency.

Intel® Core™2 Extreme quad-core processor
When more is better—with four processing cores the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor delivers unrivaled¹ performance for the latest, greatest generation of multi-threaded games and multimedia apps.

Now with a new version based on Intel's cutting edge 45nm technology utilizing hafnium-infused circuitry to deliver even greater performance and power efficiency. The Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor QX9770 running at 3.2 GHz delivers the best possible experience for today's most demanding users.

* 12 MB of total L2 cache
* 1600 MHz front side bus

Features and benefits:

When "Extreme" is an understatement.
It's not about playing the game. It's about dominating and winning the game. Designed for extreme performance, the Dual-Core and Quad-Core Intel Core 2 Extreme processors feature the latest arsenal of performance-rich technologies:

Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution, enabling delivery of more instructions per clock cycle to improve gaming execution time and energy efficiency.

Intel® Deep Power Down Technology, designed to deliver extreme energy-efficient performance.

Intel® Smart Memory Access, improving system performance by optimizing the use of all available data bandwidth.

Intel® Advanced Smart Cache, providing a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem. Optimized for industry leading multi-threaded games.

Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost, accelerating a broad range of applications, including ultra-realistic game physics and human-like artificial intelligence for an intense gaming experience unlike any other. Now improved even further on 45nm versions with Intel® HD Boost utilizing new SSE4 instructions for even better multimedia performance.

Energy-efficient performance? Rage on.
The Intel Core 2 Extreme processor was designed to enable energy-efficiency so you can maximize your performance. Plus, the added energy efficiency allows systems to run quieter so you only hear what you want to hear - the sounds of sweet victory perhaps?

Intel® Core™ i5 Processor

2009-11-03T06:41:00.000-08:00

A new level of intelligent performance.
Unleash the multimedia multitasker within.

With intelligent performance that accelerates in response to demanding tasks, such as playing games and editing photos, the new Intel® Core™ i5 processor moves faster when you do.

The Intel Core i5 processor automatically allocates processing power where it's needed most.¹ Whether you’re creating HD video, composing digital music, editing photos, or playing the coolest PC games—with the new Intel Core i5 processor you can multitask with ease and be more productive than ever.

Product information:
* 2.66 GHz and up to 3.20 GHz with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.
* 4 processing threads.
* 8 MB of Intel® Smart Cache.
* 2 channels of DDR3 1333 MHz memory.

Features and benefits:
Get a major boost in PC power with the intelligent performance of the Intel® Core™ i5 processor.

Intel® Core™ microarchitecture is Intel’s latest generation of dynamically scalable microarchitecture. The Intel® Core™ i5 processor is based on the same energy-efficient processor core as the Intel® Core™ i7 processor, but is designed for mainstream computing.

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology maximizes speed for demanding applications, dynamically accelerating performance to match your workload—more performance when you need it the most.

Integrated memory controller enables two channels of high-speed DDR3 1333 MHz memory. This memory controller's lower latency and higher memory bandwidth delivers amazing performance for data-intensive applications.

Intel® Smart Cache provides a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem. Optimized for industry-leading multi-threaded games.

Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition

2009-11-03T06:39:00.000-08:00

1.Highest performing processor on the planet:
Undisputed leadership on compute-intensive workloads
If you have serious computing requirements, then you want the Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition. Whether it is physics, artificial intelligence, or fluid dynamics, rest assured, Intel® Core™ i7 processors are the choice.

2.Create your own movie masterpieces
Get powerful video editing performance
Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition speeds up video editing performance. Use CyberLink* PowerDirector and edit over 1.7x more videos when compared to previous generation Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor QX9770.

3.Convert your favorite videos to other formats
Get faster video encoding performance
Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition speeds up video encoding performance. Use AutoMKV* to convert between popular video formats and convert 1.3x more videos in less time.

4.Quickly compress, store, and share your Hi-Def home videos
Hi-Def video encoding performance
Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition makes quick work of the toughest computing tasks like Hi-Def video encoding for sharing on DVD.

5.Video editing with Adobe Premiere* Pro CS3
Apply effects to two 1080p HDV source streams
Working with HDV 1080p content is cpu-intensive and requires lots of compute power. With the new Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition you can read, apply effects and render Hi-def video faster than before.

6.3D rendering with Cinebench* R10
Render a 3D photo-realistic image
To create striking 3D scenes you need to use cpu-demanding features such as reflection, ambient occlusion, area lights and procedural shaders. The new Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition lets you take advantage of the most taxing 3D effects to let your imagination run wild.

7.Play video games while you stay productive
Performance for the most demanding multi-tasking
These days we have so much work to do and very little time to play. Why not do both at the same time? Play a video game while you use another application to render an intense 3D scene or edit and encode a video clip. The Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition let's you enjoy a high frame rate on the game, while it crunches through the work, keeping you happy and productive.

8.Archive high resolution photos
Photo compression performance
Compress and store your photos in .RAR format faster. Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition with the Intel® X58 Express Chipset will help you archive your photos faster than previous generation Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor QX9770 based platforms.

9.Immersive gaming
3D gaming Performance with 3DMark* Vantage
3DMark* Vantage CPU test is used to measure the processor's contribution when playing a 3D game. Get industry-leading CPU performance for physics and AI intensive games with the new Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition. Your games will have more than enough processing firepower to simulate that immersive experience you crave.

10.Gaming performance on today's popular games.
Exceptional on highly threaded games
Experience smoother and more realistic gaming by distributing AI, physics, and rendering across eight software threads. Intel® Core™ i7-975 processor Extreme Edition is an excellent choice for today's games.

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor Extreme Edition

2009-11-03T06:36:00.000-08:00

Wield the ultimate gaming weapon

Conquer the world of extreme gaming with the fastest performing processor on the planet: the Intel® Core™ i7 processor Extreme Edition.¹ With faster, intelligent multi-core technology that accelerates performance to match your workload, it delivers an incredible breakthrough in gaming performance.

But performance doesn't stop at gaming. You'll multitask 25 percent faster and unleash incredible digital media creation with up to 79 percent faster video encoding and up to 46 percent faster image rendering, plus incredible performance for photo retouching and editing.

In fact, you'll experience maximum performance for whatever you do, thanks to the combination of Intel® Turbo Boost technology and Intel® Hyper-Threading technology (Intel® HT technology), which activates full processing power exactly where and when you need it most.

Product information:
* 3.20 GHz and 3.33GHz core speed.
* 8 processing threads with Intel® HT technology.
* 8 MB of Intel® Smart Cache.
* 3 Channels of DDR3 1066 MHz memory.

Features and benefits:

Get extreme with your gaming and advanced multimedia.

Intel Core i7 processors deliver an incredible breakthrough in quad-core performance and feature the latest innovations in processor technologies:

* Intel® Turbo Boost technology maximizes speed for demanding applications, dynamically accelerating performance to match your workload-more performance when you need it the most.²

* Intel® Hyper-Threading technology enables highly threaded applications to get more work done in parallel. With 8 threads available to the operating system, multi-tasking becomes even easier.³

* Intel® Smart Cache provides a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem. Optimized for industry leading multi-threaded games.

* Intel® QuickPath Interconnect is designed for increased bandwidth and low latency. It can achieve data transfer speeds as high as 25.6 GB/sec with the Extreme Edition processor.

* Integrated memory controller enables three channels of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, resulting in up to 25.6 GB/sec memory bandwidth. This memory controller's lower latency and higher memory bandwidth delivers amazing performance for data-intensive applications.

* Intel® HD Boost significantly improves a broad range of multimedia and compute-intensive applications. The 128-bit SSE instructions are issued at a throughput rate of one per clock cycle, allowing a new level of processing efficiency with SSE4 optimized applications.

Intel® Atom™ Processor 230

2009-11-03T06:31:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

2.Intel® 64 Architecture
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

3.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams:

Essentials:
Processor Number: 230
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.6 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 533 MHz
Instruction Set: 64-bit
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 4 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.9V-1.1625V
1ku Bulk Budgetary Price: $29.00

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 85.2°C
Package Size: 22mm x 22mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA437
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor 330

2009-11-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

1M Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

2.Intel® 64 Architecture
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

3.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams:

Essentials:
Processor Number: 330
# of Cores: 2
Processor Base Frequency: 1.6 GHz
L2 Cache: 1 MB
FSB Speed: 533 MHz
Instruction Set: 64-bit
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 8 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.9V-1.1625V
1ku Bulk Budgetary Price: $43.00

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 85.2
Package Size: 22mm x 22mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA437
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor N270

2009-11-03T06:27:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

2.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

3.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams:

Essentials:
Processor Number: N270
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.6 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 533 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Embedded
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2.5 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.9V-1.1625V
1ku Bulk Budgetary Price: $44.00

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 90°C
Package Size: 22mm x 22mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA437
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor N280

2009-11-03T06:23:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.66 GHz, 667 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

2.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

3.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams:

Essentials:
Processor Number: N280
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.66 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 667 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2.5 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.9V-1.1625V

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 90°C
Package Size: 22mm x 22mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA437
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z500

2009-11-03T06:21:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 800 MHz, 400 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

2.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

3.Enhanced Halt State (C1E).

4.Intel® Demand Based Switching.

5.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams:

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z500
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 800 MHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 400 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 0.65 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.80 -1.10V

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 90°C
Package Size: 13mm x 14mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA441
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor

2009-11-03T06:18:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.10 GHz, 400 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

2.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

3.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

4.Intel® Demand Based Switching.

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z510
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.1 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 400 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Embedded
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.75-1.1V

Package Specifications
TCASE: 90°C
Package Size: 13mm x 14mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA441
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z510P

2009-11-03T06:17:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.10 GHz, 400 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

2.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

3.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

4.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z510P
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.1 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 400 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Embedded
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2.2 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.8V-1.1V

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 85°C
Package Size: 22mm x 22mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: FCBGA437
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z510PT

2009-11-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.10 GHz, 400 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1. Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

2. Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

3. Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

4. Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z510PT
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency:1.1 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed:400 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Embedded
Lithography:45 nm
Max TDP: 2.2 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.75V-1.1V

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 107°C
Package Size: 22mm x 22mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: FCBGA437
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z515

2009-11-03T06:10:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.20 GHz, 400 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:
1. Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

2. Intel® Demand Based Switching.

3. Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z515
# Of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.2 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 400 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 1.4 W

Package Specifications:
Package Size: 13mm x 14mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# Of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA441
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z520

2009-11-03T06:08:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.33 GHz, 533 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

5.Intel® Demand Based Switching.

6.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z520
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.33 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 533 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.75-1.1V

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 90°C
Package Size: 13mm x 14mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA441
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z520PT

2009-11-03T06:05:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.33 GHz, 533 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E).

5.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams:

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z520PT
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.33 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 533 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Embedded
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2.2 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.9V-1.1V

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 107°C
Package Size: 22mm x 22mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: FCBGA437
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z530

2009-11-03T06:02:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

5.Intel® Demand Based Switching.

6.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams:

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z530
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.6 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 533 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Embedded
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.75 -1.1V

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 90°C
Package Size: 13mm x 14mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA441
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z530P

2009-11-03T05:59:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.60 GHz, 533 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

5.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Block Diagrams

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z530P
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 1.6 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 533 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Embedded
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2.2 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.8V-1.1V

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 85°C
Package Size: 22mm x 22mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported:FCBGA437
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z540

2009-11-03T05:56:00.000-08:00

512K Cache, 1.86 GHz, 533 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:

1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

5.Intel® Demand Based Switching.

6.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

7.Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT)
Intel® Trusted Execution Technology for safer computing is a versatile set of hardware extensions to Intel® processors and chipsets that enhance the digital office platform with security capabilities such as measured launch and protected execution. Intel Trusted Execution Technology provides hardware-based mechanisms that help protect against software-based attacks and protects the confidentiality and integrity of data stored or created on the client PC. It does this by enabling an environment where applications can run within their own space, protected from all other software on the system. These capabilities provide the protection mechanisms, rooted in hardware, that are necessary to provide trust in the application's execution environment. In turn, this can help to protect vital data and processes from being compromised by malicious software running on the platform.

Block Diagrams:

Essentials:
Processor Number: Z540
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency:1.86 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 533 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2.4 W
VID Voltage Range: 0.75 -1.1V

Package Specifications:
TCASE: 90°C
Package Size: 13mm x 14mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA441
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z550

2009-11-03T05:53:00.001-08:00

512K Cache, 2.00 GHz, 533 MHz FSB

Advanced Technologies:
1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)

3.Intel® Demand Based Switching.

4.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

Essentials:

Processor Number: Z550
# of Cores: 1
Processor Base Frequency: 2 GHz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
FSB Speed: 533 MHz
Instruction Set: 32-bit
Lithography: 45 nm
Max TDP: 2.4 W

Package Specifications:
Package Size: 13mm x 14mm
Die Size: 26 mm2
# of Transistors: 47 million
Sockets Supported: PBGA441
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Core™ i7-860 Processor

2009-11-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

8M Cache, 2.80 GHz

Advanced Technologies:
1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
5.Intel® 64 Architecture
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

6.Intel® Demand Based Switching.
7.Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

8.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

9.ntel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT)
Intel® Trusted Execution Technology for safer computing is a versatile set of hardware extensions to Intel® processors and chipsets that enhance the digital office platform with security capabilities such as measured launch and protected execution. Intel Trusted Execution Technology provides hardware-based mechanisms that help protect against software-based attacks and protects the confidentiality and integrity of data stored or created on the client PC. It does this by enabling an environment where applications can run within their own space, protected from all other software on the system. These capabilities provide the protection mechanisms, rooted in hardware, that are necessary to provide trust in the application's execution environment. In turn, this can help to protect vital data and processes from being compromised by malicious software running on the platform.

10.Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT)
Intel® Trusted Execution Technology for safer computing is a versatile set of hardware extensions to Intel® processors and chipsets that enhance the digital office platform with security capabilities such as measured launch and protected execution. Intel Trusted Execution Technology provides hardware-based mechanisms that help protect against software-based attacks and protects the confidentiality and integrity of data stored or created on the client PC. It does this by enabling an environment where applications can run within their own space, protected from all other software on the system. These capabilities provide the protection mechanisms, rooted in hardware, that are necessary to provide trust in the application's execution environment. In turn, this can help to protect vital data and processes from being compromised by malicious software running on the platform.

Block Diagrams:

Memory Specifications:
Max Memory Size(dependent on memory type): 16 GB
Memory Types: DDR3-1066/1333
# of Memory Channels: 2
Max Memory Bandwidth: 21 GB/s
Physical Address Extensions: 36-bit

Package Specifications:
Max CPU Configuration: 1
Package Size: 37.5mm x 37.5mm
Die Size: 296 mm2
# of Transistors: 774 million
Sockets Supported: LGA1156
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Core™ i7-870 Processor

2009-11-01T22:48:00.000-08:00

8M Cache, 2.93 GHz

Advanced Technologies:
Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
5.Intel® 64 Architecture
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

6.Intel® Demand Based Switching.
7.Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

8.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

9.Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT)
Intel® Trusted Execution Technology for safer computing is a versatile set of hardware extensions to Intel® processors and chipsets that enhance the digital office platform with security capabilities such as measured launch and protected execution. Intel Trusted Execution Technology provides hardware-based mechanisms that help protect against software-based attacks and protects the confidentiality and integrity of data stored or created on the client PC. It does this by enabling an environment where applications can run within their own space, protected from all other software on the system. These capabilities provide the protection mechanisms, rooted in hardware, that are necessary to provide trust in the application's execution environment. In turn, this can help to protect vital data and processes from being compromised by malicious software running on the platform.

10.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d)
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) extends Intel's Virtualization Technology (VT) roadmap by providing hardware assists for virtualization solution. VT-d continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environment. These inherently helps IT managers reduce the overall total cost of ownership by reducing potential down time and increasing productive throughput by better utilization of the data center resources.

Memory Specifications:
Max Memory Size(dependent on memory type): 16 GB
Memory Types: DDR3-1066/1333
# of Memory Channels: 2
Max Memory Bandwidth: 21 GB/s
Physical Address Extensions: 36-bit

Package Specifications:
Max CPU Configuration: 1
Package Size: 37.5mm x 37.5mm
Die Size: 296 mm2
# of Transistors: 774 million
Sockets Supported: LGA1156
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Core™ i7-920 Processor

2009-11-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

8M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel® QPI

Advanced Technologies:
1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
5.Intel® 64 Architecture
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

6.Intel® Demand Based Switching.
7.Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

8.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

9.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d)
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) extends Intel's Virtualization Technology (VT) roadmap by providing hardware assists for virtualization solution. VT-d continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environment. These inherently helps IT managers reduce the overall total cost of ownership by reducing potential down time and increasing productive throughput by better utilization of the data center resources.

Memory Specifications:
Max Memory Size(dependent on memory type): 24 GB
Memory Types: DDR3-800/1066
# of Memory Channels: 3
Max Memory Bandwidth: 25.6 GB/s
Physical Address Extensions: 36-bit

Package Specifications:
Max CPU Configuration: 1
Package Size: 42.5mm x 45mm
Die Size: 263 mm2
# of Transistors: 731 million
Sockets Supported: FCLGA1366
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Core™ i7-940 Processor

2009-11-01T22:35:00.000-08:00

8M Cache, 2.93 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel® QPI

Advanced Technologies:
1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E).
5.Intel® 64 Architecture
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

6.ntel® Demand Based Switching.
7.Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.
8.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

9.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d)
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) extends Intel's Virtualization Technology (VT) roadmap by providing hardware assists for virtualization solution. VT-d continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environment. These inherently helps IT managers reduce the overall total cost of ownership by reducing potential down time and increasing productive throughput by better utilization of the data center resources.

Block Diagrams:

Memory Specifications:
Max Memory Size(dependent on memory type): 24 GB
Memory Types: DDR3-800/1066
# of Memory Channels: 3
Max Memory Bandwidth: 25.6 GB/s
Physical Address Extensions: 36-bit

Package Specifications
Max CPU Configuration: 1
Package Size: 42.5mm x 45mm
Die Size: 263 mm2
# of Transistors: 731 million
Sockets Supported: FCLGA1366
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Core™ i7-950 Processor

2009-11-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

8M Cache, 3.06 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel® QPI

Advanced Technologies:

1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
5.Intel® 64 Architecture
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

6.Intel® Demand Based Switching.
7.Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.

8.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

9.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d)
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) extends Intel's Virtualization Technology (VT) roadmap by providing hardware assists for virtualization solution. VT-d continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environment. These inherently helps IT managers reduce the overall total cost of ownership by reducing potential down time and increasing productive throughput by better utilization of the data center resources.

Block Diagrams

Memory Specifications:
Max Memory Size(dependent on memory type): 24 GB
Memory Types: DDR3-800/1066
# of Memory Channels: 3
Max Memory Bandwidth: 25.6 GB/s
Physical Address Extensions: 36-bit

Package Specifications:
Max CPU Configuration: 1
Package Size: 42.5mm x 45.0mm
Die Size: 263 mm2
# of Transistors: 731 million
Sockets Supported: FCLGA1366
Halogen Free Options Available.

Intel® Core™ i7-960 Processor

2009-11-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

8M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 4.80 GT/s Intel® QPI

Advanced Technologies:

1.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT)
Increasing manageability, security, and flexibility in IT environments, virtualization technologies like hardware-assisted Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) combined with software-based virtualization solutions provide maximum system utilization by consolidating multiple environments into a single server or PC. By abstracting the software away from the underlying hardware, a world of new usage models opens up that reduce costs, increase management efficiency, strengthen security, while making your computing infrastructure more resilient in the event of a disaster.

2.Execute Disable Bit
Execute Disable Bit is a hardware-based security feature that can reduce exposure to viruses and malicious-code attacks and prevent harmful software from executing and propagating on the server or network. Help protect your customers' business assets and reduce the need for costly virus-related repairs by building systems with built-in Intel Execute Disable Bit.

3.Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep® Technology is an advanced means of enabling very high performance while also meeting the power-conservation needs of mobile systems. Conventional Intel SpeedStep Technology switches both voltage and frequency in tandem between high and low levels in response to processor load.

4.Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
5.Intel® 64 Architecture
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software.¹ Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

6.Intel® Demand Based Switching.
7.Intel® Turbo Boost Technology.
8.Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology)
Intel® 64 architecture delivers 64-bit computing on server, workstation, desktop and mobile platforms when combined with supporting software. Intel 64 architecture improves performance by allowing systems to address more than 4 GB of both virtual and physical memory.

9.Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d)
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) extends Intel's Virtualization Technology (VT) roadmap by providing hardware assists for virtualization solution. VT-d continues from the existing support for IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium® processor (VT-i) virtualization adding new support for I/O-device virtualization. Intel VT-d can help end users improve security and reliability of the systems and also improve performance of I/O devices in virtualized environment. These inherently helps IT managers reduce the overall total cost of ownership by reducing potential down time and increasing productive throughput by better utilization of the data center resources.

Block Diagrams

Memory Specifications:
Max Memory Size(dependent on memory type): 24GB
Memory Types: DDR3-800/1066
# of Memory Channels: 3
Max Memory Bandwidth: 25.6 GB/s
Physical Address Extensions: 36-bit

Package Specifications:
Max CPU Configuration: 1
Package Size: 42.5mm x 45.0mm
Die Size: 263 mm2
# of Transistors: 731 million
Sockets Supported: FCLGA1366
Halogen Free Options Available.

Microprocessor Performance and Trends

2009-09-18T06:34:00.000-07:00

The number of transistors available has a huge effect on the performance of a processor. As seen earlier, a typical instruction in a processor like an 8088 took 15 clock cycles to execute. Because of the design of the multiplier, it took approximately 80 cycles just to do one 16-bit multiplication on the 8088. With more transistors, much more powerful multipliers capable of single-cycle speeds become possible.

More transistors also allow for a technology called pipelining. In a pipelined architecture, instruction execution overlaps. So even though it might take five clock cycles to execute each instruction, there can be five instructions in various stages of execution simultaneously. That way it looks like one instruction completes every clock cycle.

Many modern processors have multiple instruction decoders, each with its own pipeline. This allows for multiple instruction streams, which means that more than one instruction can complete during each clock cycle. This technique can be quite complex to implement, so it takes lots of transistors.

Trends
The trend in processor design has primarily been toward full 32-bit ALUs with fast floating point processors built in and pipelined execution with multiple instruction streams. The newest thing in processor design is 64-bit ALUs, and people are expected to have these processors in their home PCs in the next decade. There has also been a tendency toward special instructions (like the MMX instructions) that make certain operations particularly efficient, and the addition of hardware virtual memory support and L1 caching on the processor chip. All of these trends push up the transistor count, leading to the multi-million transistor powerhouses available today. These processors can execute about one billion instructions per second!

Microprocessor Instructions

2009-09-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

Even the incredibly simple microprocessor shown in the previous example will have a fairly large set of instructions that it can perform. The collection of instructions is implemented as bit patterns, each one of which has a different meaning when loaded into the instruction register. Humans are not particularly good at remembering bit patterns, so a set of short words are defined to represent the different bit patterns. This collection of words is called the assembly language of the processor. An assembler can translate the words into their bit patterns very easily, and then the output of the assembler is placed in memory for the microprocessor to execute.

Here's the set of assembly language instructions that the designer might create for the simple microprocessor in our example:

• LOADA mem - Load register A from memory address
• LOADB mem - Load register B from memory address
• CONB con - Load a constant value into register B
• SAVEB mem - Save register B to memory address
• SAVEC mem - Save register C to memory address
• ADD - Add A and B and store the result in C
• SUB - Subtract A and B and store the result in C
• MUL - Multiply A and B and store the result in C
• DIV - Divide A and B and store the result in C
• COM - Compare A and B and store the result in test
• JUMP addr - Jump to an address
• JEQ addr - Jump, if equal, to address
• JNEQ addr - Jump, if not equal, to address
• JG addr - Jump, if greater than, to address
• JGE addr - Jump, if greater than or equal, to address
• JL addr - Jump, if less than, to address
• JLE addr - Jump, if less than or equal, to address
• STOP - Stop execution
If you have read How C Programming Works, then you know that this simple piece of C code will calculate the factorial of 5 (where the factorial of 5 = 5! = 5 * 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 120):

a=1;
f=1;
While (a <= 5)
{
f = f * a;
a = a + 1;
}
At the end of the program's execution, the variable f contains the factorial of 5.
Assembly Language
A C compiler translates this C code into assembly language. Assuming that RAM starts at address 128 in this processor, and ROM (which contains the assembly language program) starts at address 0, then for our simple microprocessor the assembly language might look like this:

// Assume a is at address 128
// Assume F is at address 129
0 CONB 1 // a=1;
1 SAVEB 128
2 CONB 1 // f=1;
3 SAVEB 129
4 LOADA 128 // if a > 5 the jump to 17
5 CONB 5
6 COM
7 JG 17
8 LOADA 129 // f=f*a;
9 LOADB 128
10 MUL
11 SAVEC 129
12 LOADA 128 // a=a+1;
13 CONB 1
14 ADD
15 SAVEC 128
16 JUMP 4 // loop back to if
17 STOP

ROM
So now the question is, "How do all of these instructions look in ROM?" Each of these assembly language instructions must be represented by a binary number. For the sake of simplicity, let's assume each assembly language instruction is given a unique number, like this:
• LOADA - 1
• LOADB - 2
• CONB - 3
• SAVEB - 4
• SAVEC mem - 5
• ADD - 6
• SUB - 7
• MUL - 8
• DIV - 9
• COM - 10
• JUMP addr - 11
• JEQ addr - 12
• JNEQ addr - 13
• JG addr - 14
• JGE addr - 15
• JL addr - 16
• JLE addr - 17
• STOP - 18

The numbers are known as opcodes. In ROM, our little program would look like this:
// Assume a is at address 128
// Assume F is at address 129

Addr opcode/value
0 3 // CONB 1
1 1
2 4 // SAVEB 128
3 128
4 3 // CONB 1
5 1
6 4 // SAVEB 129
7 129
8 1 // LOADA 128
9 128
10 3 // CONB 5
11 5
12 10 // COM
13 14 // JG 17
14 31
15 1 // LOADA 129
16 129
17 2 // LOADB 128
18 128
19 8 // MUL
20 5 // SAVEC 129
21 129
22 1 // LOADA 128
23 128
24 3 // CONB 1
25 1
26 6 // ADD
27 5 // SAVEC 128
28 128
29 11 // JUMP 4
30 8
31 18 // STOP

You can see that seven lines of C code became 18 lines of assembly language, and that became 32 bytes in ROM.

Decoding
The instruction decoder needs to turn each of the opcodes into a set of signals that drive the different components inside the microprocessor. Let's take the ADD instruction as an example and look at what it needs to do:
1. During the first clock cycle, we need to actually load the instruction. Therefore the instruction decoder needs to:
1. activate the tri-state buffer for the program counter
2. activate the RD line
3. activate the data-in tri-state buffer
4. latch the instruction into the instruction register
2. During the second clock cycle, the ADD instruction is decoded. It needs to do very little:

0. set the operation of the ALU to addition
1. latch the output of the ALU into the C register
3. During the third clock cycle, the program counter is incremented (in theory this could be overlapped into the second clock cycle).
Every instruction can be broken down as a set of sequenced operations like these that manipulate the components of the microprocessor in the proper order. Some instructions, like this ADD instruction, might take two or three clock cycles. Others might take five or six clock cycles.

Microprocessor Memory

2009-09-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

ROM chip

The previous section talked about the address and data buses, as well as the RD and WR lines. These buses and lines connect either to RAM or ROM -- generally both. In our sample microprocessor, we have an address bus 8 bits wide and a data bus 8 bits wide. That means that the microprocessor can address (28) 256 bytes of memory, and it can read or write 8 bits of the memory at a time. Let's assume that this simple microprocessor has 128 bytes of ROM starting at address 0 and 128 bytes of RAM starting at address 128.

ROM stands for read-only memory. A ROM chip is programmed with a permanent collection of pre-set bytes. The address bus tells the ROM chip which byte to get and place on the data bus. When the RD line changes state, the ROM chip presents the selected byte onto the data bus.

RAM stands for random-access memory. RAM contains bytes of information, and the microprocessor can read or write to those bytes depending on whether the RD or WR line is signaled. One problem with today's RAM chips is that they forget everything once the power goes off. That is why the computer needs ROM.

RAM chip

By the way, nearly all computers contain some amount of ROM (it is possible to create a simple computer that contains no RAM -- many microcontrollers do this by placing a handful of RAM bytes on the processor chip itself -- but generally impossible to create one that contains no ROM). On a PC, the ROM is called the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). When the microprocessor starts, it begins executing instructions it finds in the BIOS. The BIOS instructions do things like test the hardware in the machine, and then it goes to the hard disk to fetch the boot sector (see How Hard Disks Work for details).

This boot sector is another small program, and the BIOS stores it in RAM after reading it off the disk. The microprocessor then begins executing the boot sector's instructions from RAM. The boot sector program will tell the microprocessor to fetch something else from the hard disk into RAM, which the microprocessor then executes, and so on. This is how the microprocessor loads and executes the entire operating system.

Microprocessor Logic

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Intel Pentium 4 processor

To understand how a microprocessor works, it is helpful to look inside and learn about the logic used to create one. In the process you can also learn about assembly language -- the native language of a microprocessor -- and many of the things that engineers can do to boost the speed of a processor.

A microprocessor executes a collection of machine instructions that tell the processor what to do. Based on the instructions, a microprocessor does three basic things:
• Using its ALU (Arithmetic/Logic Unit), a microprocessor can perform mathematical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Modern microprocessors contain complete floating point processors that can perform extremely sophisticated operations on large floating point numbers.
• A microprocessor can move data from one memory location to another.
• A microprocessor can make decisions and jump to a new set of instructions based on those decisions.

There may be very sophisticated things that a microprocessor does, but those are its three basic activities. The following diagram shows an extremely simple microprocessor capable of doing those three things:

This is about as simple as a microprocessor gets. This microprocessor has:
• An address bus (that may be 8, 16 or 32 bits wide) that sends an address to memory
• A data bus (that may be 8, 16 or 32 bits wide) that can send data to memory or receive data from memory
• An RD (read) and WR (write) line to tell the memory whether it wants to set or get the addressed location
• A clock line that lets a clock pulse sequence the processor
• A reset line that resets the program counter to zero (or whatever) and restarts execution.

Let's assume that both the address and data buses are 8 bits wide in this example.
Here are the components of this simple microprocessor:

• Registers A, B and C are simply latches made out of flip-flops. (See the section on "edge-triggered latches" in How Boolean Logic Works for details.)
• The address latch is just like registers A, B and C.
• The program counter is a latch with the extra ability to increment by 1 when told to do so, and also to reset to zero when told to do so.
• The ALU could be as simple as an 8-bit adder (see the section on adders in How Boolean Logic Works for details), or it might be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide 8-bit values. Let's assume the latter here.

• The test register is a special latch that can hold values from comparisons performed in the ALU. An ALU can normally compare two numbers and determine if they are equal, if one is greater than the other, etc. The test register can also normally hold a carry bit from the last stage of the adder. It stores these values in flip-flops and then the instruction decoder can use the values to make decisions.

• There are six boxes marked "3-State" in the diagram. These are tri-state buffers. A tri-state buffer can pass a 1, a 0 or it can essentially disconnect its output (imagine a switch that totally disconnects the output line from the wire that the output is heading toward). A tri-state buffer allows multiple outputs to connect to a wire, but only one of them to actually drive a 1 or a 0 onto the line.

• The instruction register and instruction decoder are responsible for controlling all of the other,
• Although they are not shown in this diagram, there would be control lines from the instruction decoder that would:
• Tell the A register to latch the value currently on the data bus
• Tell the B register to latch the value currently on the data bus
• Tell the C register to latch the value currently output by the ALU
• Tell the program counter register to latch the value currently on the data bus
• Tell the address register to latch the value currently on the data bus
• Tell the instruction register to latch the value currently on the data bus
• Tell the program counter to increment
• Tell the program counter to reset to zero
• Activate any of the six tri-state buffers (six separate lines)
• Tell the ALU what operation to perform
• Tell the test register to latch the ALU's test bits
• Activate the RD line
• Activate the WR line
Coming into the instruction decoder are the bits from the test register and the clock line, as well as the bits from the instruction register.

Microprocessor Progression: Intel

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The Intel 8080 was the first microprocessor in a home computer

The first microprocessor to make it into a home computer was the Intel 8080, a complete 8-bit computer on one chip, introduced in 1974. The first microprocessor to make a real splash in the market was the Intel 8088, introduced in 1979 and incorporated into the IBM PC (which first appeared around 1982). If you are familiar with the PC market and its history, you know that the PC market moved from the 8088 to the 80286 to the 80386 to the 80486 to the Pentium to the Pentium II to the Pentium III to the Pentium 4. All of these microprocessors are made by Intel and all of them are improvements on the basic design of the 8088. The Pentium 4 can execute any piece of code that ran on the original 8088, but it does it about 5,000 times faster!

The following table helps you to understand the differences between the different processors that Intel has introduced over the years.
Name Date Transistors Microns Clock speed Data width MIPS
8080 1974 6,000 6 2 MHz 8 bits 0.64
8088 1979 29,000 3 5 MHz 16 bits
8-bit bus 0.33
80286 1982 134,000 1.5 6 MHz 16 bits 1
80386 1985 275,000 1.5 16 MHz 32 bits 5
80486 1989 1,200,000 1 25 MHz 32 bits 20
Pentium 1993 3,100,000 0.8 60 MHz 32 bits
64-bit bus 100
Pentium II 1997 7,500,000 0.35 233 MHz 32 bits
64-bit bus ~300
Pentium III 1999 9,500,000 0.25 450 MHz 32 bits
64-bit bus ~510
Pentium 4 2000 42,000,000 0.18 1.5 GHz 32 bits
64-bit bus ~1,700
Pentium 4 "Prescott" 2004 125,000,000 0.09 3.6 GHz 32 bits
64-bit bus ~7,000

Compiled from The Intel Microprocessor Quick Reference Guide and TSCP Benchmark Scores.

Information about this table:

What's a Chip?
A chip is also called an integrated circuit. Generally it is a small, thin piece of silicon onto which the transistors making up the microprocessor have been etched. A chip might be as large as an inch on a side and can contain tens of millions of transistors. Simpler processors might consist of a few thousand transistors etched onto a chip just a few millimeters square.

• The date is the year that the processor was first introduced. Many processors are re-introduced at higher clock speeds for many years after the original release date.
• Transistors are the number of transistors on the chip. You can see that the number of transistors on a single chip has risen steadily over the years.
• Microns are the width, in microns, of the smallest wire on the chip. For comparison, a human hair is 100 microns thick. As the feature size on the chip goes down, the number of transistors rises.
• Clock speed is the maximum rate that the chip can be clocked at. Clock speed will make more sense in the next section.
• Data Width is the width of the ALU. An 8-bit ALU can add/subtract/multiply/etc. two 8-bit numbers, while a 32-bit ALU can manipulate 32-bit numbers. An 8-bit ALU would have to execute four instructions to add two 32-bit numbers, while a 32-bit ALU can do it in one instruction. In many cases, the external data bus is the same width as the ALU, but not always. The 8088 had a 16-bit ALU and an 8-bit bus, while the modern Pentiums fetch data 64 bits at a time for their 32-bit ALUs.
• MIPS stand for "millions of instructions per second" and is a rough measure of the performance of a CPU. Modern CPUs can do so many different things that MIPS ratings lose a lot of their meaning, but you can get a general sense of the relative power of the CPUs from this column.

From this table you can see that, in general, there is a relationship between clock speed and MIPS. The maximum clock speed is a function of the manufacturing process and delays within the chip. There is also a relationship between the number of transistors and MIPS. For example, the 8088 clocked at 5 MHz but only executed at 0.33 MIPS (about one instruction per 15 clock cycles). Modern processors can often execute at a rate of two instructions per clock cycle. That improvement is directly related to the number of transistors on the chip and will make more sense in the next section.

How Microprocessors Work

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Intel 4004 chip

The computer you are using to read this page uses a microprocessor to do its work. The microprocessor is the heart of any normal computer, whether it is a desktop machine, a server or a laptop. The microprocessor you are using might be a Pentium, a K6, a PowerPC, a Sparc or any of the many other brands and types of microprocessors, but they all do approximately the same thing in approximately the same way.

A microprocessor -- also known as a CPU or central processing unit -- is a complete computation engine that is fabricated on a single chip. The first microprocessor was the Intel 4004, introduced in 1971. The 4004 was not very powerful -- all it could do was add and subtract, and it could only do that 4 bits at a time. But it was amazing that everything was on one chip. Prior to the 4004, engineers built computers either from collections of chips or from discrete components (transistors wired one at a time). The 4004 powered one of the first portable electronic calculators.
If you have ever wondered what the microprocessor in your computer is doing, or if you have ever wondered about the differences between types of microprocessors.

The following pin functions are for the minimum mode operation of 8086

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__
M/I/O-Memory/I/O: This is a status line logically equivalent to S2 in the maximum mode. When it is low, it indicates the cup is having an I/O operation, and when it is high, it indicates that the cup is having memory operation. This line becomes active in the previous T4 and remains active till final T4 of the current cycle. It is tristated during local bus ‘hold acknowledge’.
____
INTA-Interrupt Acknowledge: This signal is used as read strobes for interrupt acknowledge cycle. In other words it goes low; it means that the processor has accepted the interrupt. It is active low during T2, T3 and Tw of each interrupt acknowledge cycle.

ALE-Address Latch Enable: This output signal indicates the availability of the valid address on the address and data lines, and is connected to latch enable input of latches. This signal is active high and never tristated.

DT/R-Data Transmit/Receive: This output is used to decide the direction of data flow through the transreceivers. When the processor sends out data, this signal is high and the processor is receiving data, this signal is low. This is tristated during ‘hold acknowledge’.

____
DEN-Data Enable: This signal indicates the availability of valid data over the address/data lines. It is used to enable the transreceivers (bidirectional buffers) to separate the data from multiplexed address/data signal. It is active from the middle of T2 until the middle of T4. Data enable is tristated during ‘hold acknowledge’ cycle.

HOLD, HLDA-Hold/Hold Acknowledge: When the HOLD lines go high, it indicates to the processor that another master is requesting the bus access. The processor, after receiving the HOLD request, issues the hold acknowledge signal on HLDA pin in the middle of next clock cycle after completing the current bus (instruction) cycle. At the same time, the processor floats the local bus and control lines. When the processor detects the HOLD line low, it lowers the HLDA signal. HOLD is an asynchronous input, and it should be externally synchronized.

If the DMA request is made while the cup is performing a memory or I/O cycle, it will release the local bus during T4 provided.
1. The request occurs on or before T2 state of the current cycle.
2. The current cycle is not operating over the lower byte of word.
3. The current cycle is not the first acknowledge of an interrupt acknowledge sequence.
4. A lock instruction is not being executed.

S0, s1, s2-Status Lines: These are the status lines which reflect the type of operation being carried out by the processor. They become active during T4 of the previous cycle and remain active during T1, T2 of the current bus cycle.
_____
LOCK: This output pin indicates that other system bus masters will be prevented from gaining the system bus, while the LOCK signal is low. The LOCK signal is activated by the ‘LOCK’ prefix instruction and remains active until the competition of the next instruction.

QS1, QSo-Queue Status: These lines give information about the status of the code prefetch queue. These are active during the CLK cycle after which the queue operation is performed.

SIGNAL DESCRIPTION OF 8086

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The microprocessor 8086 is a 16-bit CPU available in three clock rates, i.e. 5, 8, and 10 MHz, packed in a 40 pin plastic package. The 8086 operates in single processor or multiprocessor configuration to achieve high performance. Some of the pins serve a particular function in maximum mode (single process mode) and others functions in maximum mode (multiprocessor mode) configuration.

The 8086 can be categorized in to three groups:

The first are the signals having common functions in minimum as well as maximum mode.
The second are the signals which have special functions for maximum mode.
And the third are the signals having special functions for maximum mode.

The following signal descriptions are common for both the minimum and maximum modes.

AD15-AD0: These are the time multiplexed memory input and output addresses and data lines. Addresses remains on the line during T1 state, while the data is available on the data bus during T2, T3, Tw, and T4. Here T1, T2, T3, T4, and Tw are the clock states of a machine cycle. Tw is a wait state. These lines are active high and float to a tristate during interrupt acknowledgement and local bus hold acknowledge cycles.

A19/S6, A18/S5, A17/S4, A16/S3: These are the time multiplexed addresses and status lines. During T1, these are the most significant address lines for memory operations. During I/O operations, these lines are low. During memory or I/O operations, status information is available on those lines for T2, T3, Tw and T4. The status of the interrupt enable flag bit (displayed on S5) is updated at the beginning of each clock cycle. The S4 and S3 together indicate which segment register is presently being used for memory access. These lines float to tri-state off (tristated) during the local bus hold acknowledge. The status line S6 is always low (logical). The address bits are separated from the status bits using latches controlled by the ALE signals.

Bus High Enable/Status
S4 S3 Indications
0 0 Alternate Data
0 1 Stack
1 0 Code or none
1 1 Data

______
BHE/S7-Bus High Enable/Status: The bus high enable is used
To indicate the transfer of data over higher order (D15-D8) data bus as shown below in fig. It goes low for the data transfer over D15-D8 and is used to derive chip selects of odd addresses memory bank or peripherals. BHE is low during T1 for read, write and interrupt acknowledge cycles, whenever a byte is to be transfer on the higher byte of the data bus. The status information is available during T2, T3, and T4. The signal is active low and is tristated during ‘hold’. It is low during T1 for the first pulse of the interrupt acknowledges cycle. S7 is not currently used.

____
BHE A0 Indications
0 0 Whole word
0 1 Upper byte from or to odd address.
1 0 Lower byte from or to even address.
1 1 None

__
RD-Read: Read signal when low, indicates the peripherals that the processor is performing a memory or I/O read operation. RD is active low and shows the state for T2, T3, Tw of any read cycle. The signal remains tristated during the ‘hold acknowledge’.

READY: This is the acknowledgement from slow devices or memory that they have completed the data transfer. The signal made a available by the devices is synchronized by the 8284A clock generator to provide ready input to the 8086. The signal is active high.

INTR-interrupt request: This is a level triggered input. This is sampled during the last clock cycle of each instruction to determine the availability of the request. If any interrupt is pending, the processor enters the interrupt acknowledge cycle. This can be internally masked by resetting the interrupt enable flag. This signal is active high and internally synchronized.

_____
TEST: This input is examined by a ‘WAIT’ instruction. If the TEST input goes low, execution will continue, else, the processor remains in idle state. The input is synchronized internally during each clock cycle on leading edge of clock.

NMI-Non-maskable interrupt: This is an edge-triggered input which causes a type2 interrupt. The NMI is not maskable internally by software. A transition from low to high initiates the interrupt response at the end of the current instruction. This input is internally synchronized.

RESET: This input causes the processor to terminate the current activity and start executing from FFFF0H. The signal is active high a and must be active for at least four clock cycles. It restarts execution when the RESET returns low. RESET is also internally synchronized.

CLK-Clock Input: The clock input provides the basic timing for processor operation and bus control activity. It’s an asymmetric square wave with 33% duty cycle. The range of frequency for different 8086 versions is from 5MHz to 10MHz.

Vcc: +5V power supply for the operation of the internal circuit.
GND: Ground for the internal circuit.

___
MN/MX: The logic level at this pin decides whether the processor is to operate in either minimum (single processor) or maximum (multiprocessor) mode.

FIAG REGISTER

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The 8086 flag register contents indicate the result of computations in the ALU. It also contains some flag bits to control the CPU operations. Details of the flag register are:

8086 has a 16 bit flag register which is divided in to two parts, viz
1. Condition Code or Status Flag Register
2. Machine control Flag

The condition code flag register is the lower byte of the 16-bit flag register along with the overflow flag. This part of the flag register of 8086 reflects the result of the operations performed by ALU.
The control flag register is the higher byte of the flag register of 8086. It contains three flags, viz. Direction flag (D), interrupt flag (I), and trap flag (T).

The complete bit configuration of 8086 flag register is shown in fig.
15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
X X X X 0 D I T S Z X Ac X P X Cy

0--- Overflow flag D--- Direction flag
I--- Interrupt flag T--- Trap flag
S--- Sign flag Z--- Zero flag
Ac--- Auxiliary carry flag P--- Parity flag
Cy--- Carry flag X--- Not used

The description of each flag bit is as follows:
S-Sign Flag: This flag is set when the result of any computation is negative. For signed computations the sign flag equals the MSB of the result.
Z-Zero Flag: this flag is set if the result of the computation or comparison performed by the previous instructions/instructions is zero.
P-Parity Flag: This flag is set to1if the lower byte of the result contains even number of 1s.
C-Carry Flag: This flag is set when there is a carry out of MSB in case of additional or a borrow in case of subtraction.
T-Trap Flag: If this flag is set, the processor enters the single step execution mode. In other words trap interrupt is generated after each instruction. The processor executes the current instruction and the control is transferred to the Trap interrupt service routine.
D-Direction Flag: This is used by string manipulation instructions. If the flag bit is ‘0’, the string is processed beginning from the lowest address to the highest address. i.e. autoincrementing mode. Otherwise, the string is processed from the highest address towards the lowest address. i.e. autodecrementing mode.
AC-Auxiliary carry Flag: This is set if there is a carry from the lowest nibble, i.e. bit three, during addition or borrow from lowest nibble, i.e. bit three, during subtraction.
O-Overflow Flag: This flag is set if an overflow occurs, i.e. if the result of a signed operation is large enough to be accommodated in a designation register.

POINTERS AND THE INDEX REGISTER

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The pointer contain with the particular segments. The pointers IP, BP and SP usually contain offset with in the code (JP), and stack (BP & SP) segments. The index register are used as generally purpose registers as well as for offset storage in case of indexed based indexed and relative based indexed addressing modes. The register SI is generality used to store the offset of source data in data segment while the register DI is used to store the offset of destination in data or extra segment. The index registers are particularly useful for string manipulations.

SP
BP
SI
DI
IP

Pointer and Index Register

SEGMENT REGISTERS

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The 8086 addresses a segmented memory. The complete 1 megabyte memory, which the 8086 addresses, is divided into 16 logical segments. Each segment thus contains 64 K bytes of memory.

There are four segment registers, namely:

1. Code Segment Register(CS)
2. Stack Segment Register(SS)
3. Data Segment Register(DS)
4. Extra Segment register(ES)
CS
SS
DS
ES

Segment Register
The code segment register is used for addressing a memory location in the code segment of the memory, where the executable program is stored.
The stack segment register is used for addressing stack segment of memory i.e. memory which is used to store stack data. The cup uses the stack for temporarily storing important data
The data segment register points to the data segment of the memory, where the data is resided.
The extra segment register also refers to a segment which essentially is another data segment of the memory.

REGISTER ORGANIZATION OF 8086

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8086 has a powerful set f registers know as general purpose and special registers. All of them are 16-bit registers. The general purpose registers, can be used as either 8-bit registers or 16-bit registers. They may be either used for holding data, variables and intermediate results temporarily or for other purpose like a counter or for storing offset address for some particular addressing modes etc. The special purpose registers are used as segment registers, pointers, index registers or as offset storage registers for particular addressing modes. We categorize these register set in to four groups.

1. General Data Registers

2. Segment Registers

3. Pointers and Index Registers

4. Flag Registers.

GENERAL DATA REGISTERS:

AH	AL
BH	BL
CH	CL
DH	DL

The registers AX, BX, CX, and DX are general purpose 16-bit registers.

AX is used as 16-bit accumulator, with the lower 8-bit of AX designated as AL and higher 8-bit as AH. AL can be used as an 8-bit accumulator for 8-bit operation.

Usually the letters L and H specify the lower and higher bytes of a particular registers.

Ex: AH means the higher 8-bit of the AX register.

AL means the lower 8-bit of the AX register.

The letter X is used to specify the complete 16-bit registers.

The register CX is used as default counter in case of string and loop instructions.

The register BX is used as an offset storage for forming physical addresses in case of certain addressing modes.

DX register is general purpose register which may be used as implicit operand or destination in case of few instructions.

Universal Serial Bus (USB)

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Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a set of connectivity specifications developed by Intel in collaboration with industry leaders. USB allows high-speed, easy connection of peripherals to a PC. When plugged in, everything configures automatically. USB is the most successful interconnect in the history of personal computing and has migrated into consumer electronics (CE) and mobile products.

The USB Standard
Providing an industry standard, USB was originally released in 1995 at 12 Mbps. Today, USB operates at 480 Mbps and is found in over six billion PC, consumer electronics (CE), and mobile devices with a run rate of 2 billion USB products being shipped into the growing market every year. In addition to high performance and ubiquity, USB enjoys strong consumer brand recognition and a reputation for ease-of-use.

USB today
Today, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, provides greater enhancement in performance-up to 40 times faster than USB 1.0, with a design data rate of up to 480 megabits per second (Mbps). In addition, USB On-The-Go (OTG), a supplement to the USB 2.0 specification, was created in 2002. USB OTG defines a dual-role device, which can act as either a host or peripheral, and can connect to a PC or other portable devices through the same connector.

Portable computing devices such as handhelds, cell phones and digital cameras that connect to the PC as a USB peripheral benefit from having additional capability to connect to other USB devices directly. For instance, users can perform functions such as sending photos from a digital camera to a printer, PDA, cell phone, or sending music files from an MP3 player to another portable player, PDA or cell phone

The move to Wireless USB
Wireless USB is the new wireless extension to USB that combines the speed and security of wired technology with the ease-of-use of wireless technology. Wireless connectivity has enabled a mobile lifestyle filled with conveniences for mobile computing users. Supporting robust high-speed wireless connectivity, wireless USB utilizes the common WiMedia* Ultra-wideband (UWB) radio platform developed by the WiMedia Alliance.

USB in the future
The next advancement in ubiquitous technology is SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.0) that will deliver over targeted 10x the speed of today's Hi-Speed USB connections. The technology targets fast PC sync-and-go transfer of applications, to meet the demands of CE and mobile segments focused on high density digital content and media.

USB 3.0 will create a backward-compatible standard with the same ease-of-use and plug and play capabilities of previous USB technologies. Targeting over 10x performance increase at 5Gbps data rates, the technology will draw from the same architecture of wired USB. In addition, the USB 3.0 specification will be optimized for low power and improved protocol efficiency.

Industry collaboration
Intel formed the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) in 1995 with other industry players to support and accelerate market and consumer adoption of USB-compliant peripherals. Today, the USB-IF has over 700 member companies worldwide, and the Board of Directors is comprised of representatives from Hewlett-Packard, Intel Corporation, LSI Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, and ST-NXP Wireless.

The USB-IF is a non-profit corporation formed to provide a support organization and forum for the advancement and adoption of Universal Serial Bus technologies. The Forum facilitates the development of high-quality compatible USB peripherals (devices), and promotes the benefits of USB products that have passed compliance testing.

ATA

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The parallel ATA specification has defined the standard storage interface for PCs since the protocol was introduced in the 1980s. Parallel ATA led for three main reasons, low cost, broad operating system support, and steady evolution. Parallel ATA evolved to support higher speed and performance while maintaining backward compatibility with older ATA devices. However, for a variety of reasons, including performance headroom, cabling issues, and voltage tolerance requirements, a new storage interface was required. Therefore, the Serial ATA interface was defined. Officially formed in July 2004 by incorporating the previous Serial ATA Working Group, the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) provides the industry with guidance and support for 15 year old technology with a high speed serial bus supporting up to 10 years of future expansion.

Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)
Intel has driven standardization of the Serial ATA host controller interface through AHCI for several years. AHCI describes the register-level interface for a Host Controller for Serial ATA. The specification includes a description of the hardware/software interface between system software and the host controller hardware, and is intended for hardware component designers, system builders and device driver (software) developers.For more information on AHCI, visit the Intel AHCI webpage.

About Serial ATA
Intel is helping lead an industry working group that has developed a new interface specification designed as a replacement for the parallel ATA interface. Known as Serial ATA, the new serial interface is designed to overcome the limitations of parallel ATA in addition to providing further enhancements to the storage subsystem in today's platforms.

Because it combines software transparency, low cost, scalability, and design flexibility, Serial ATA has attracted widespread industry support through the Serial ATA-IO and previously in the Serial ATA and Serial ATA II Workgroups. Dell, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, Intel, Seagate, and Vitesse are jointly leading this initiative, with broad industry support from over 160 companies that make up the working group. Visit the SATA-IO website for the latest Serial ATA specifications, documentation, news and events.

PCI Express Architecture Resources

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Join the Intel® Developer Network for PCI Express Architecture to help you innovate faster and easier with access to whitepapers, specification drafts and more.
Intel® Developer Network for PCI Express Architecture.
Explore these developer specification resources and white papers on PCI Express Architecture.
Intel® Developer Network resources.

The future of PCI Express

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Hardware and processing support will be required in order to meet the increasing demand for richer application content. PCI Express allows for increased performance and scalability for years to come. It's an ideal unifying solution in the development of a broad range of platforms including desktop and mobile, server and workstation, communications, and embedded devices.

As a flexible, low-cost solution, PCI Express is broadly adopted and software compatible with all existing PCI-based software to enable smooth integration in future systems. Next-generation PCI Express 3.0 will offer full backwards compatibility with previous generations along with a host of new and improved features including these and more:
Twice the transfer rate of PCI Express 2.0 with up to 32 gigabit per second transfer rates (x16 PCIe channel).
Lower latencies.
Increased bandwidth for encoding efficiencies.
Decreased power requirements.

Compatibility, scalability, and forward-thinking design:
Intel along with industry leaders work together to ensure the PCI standard is based on a robust specification to ensure compatibility for a multitude of products including CPUs, chipsets, chip-level interconnects, adapter cards, and device drivers. Providing extensive resources to developers, Intel and the PCI-SIG delivers specifications that are ultimately moving the industry towards more forward-thinking, scalable designs.

Intel® Developer Network for PCI Express Architecture

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Introduced by Intel in 2004, PCI Express is a standards-based bidirectional, point-to-point serial interconnect, capable of high-bandwidth data transfers. Designed to replace the more limited PCI expansion bus, PCI Express supports enhanced features such as power management, hot swappable devices, and has the ability to handle both host-directed and peer-to-peer data transfers. PCI Express can also emulate network environments by sending data between two points without routing it back and forth through the host chip.

A new era in I/O performance
Enabling greater bandwidth and performance, PCI Express helps simplify board design and is scalable for future increases in processor speeds and advances in high-performance computing (HPC) and high-end graphics.
Upgraded in 2007, PCI Express 2.0 doubled the data transfer rate over its predecessor for a transfer rate of up to 16 gigabytes per second (x16 PCIe channel). Providing backwards compatibility with version 1.0, PCI Express 2.0 provides:
PCI software compatibility.
Scalable performance.
High-bandwidth, low pin-count implementations.
Cost effective silicon component designs.
Low overhead, low latency data transfers.
Maximized interconnect efficiency.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology Benefits

2009-06-11T05:36:00.000-07:00

In today's digital age, safekeeping of digital content such as photographs, video, audio and personal records, is extremely important. Should a PC's hard drive fail, these digital memories can be lost forever. Additionally, high-speed storage capabilities improve the performance of demanding applications and games. Whether users want to load huge files into Adobe Photoshop* faster, create large CD/DVD images with Nero* in record time, or want to be the first on the map in a Doom* 'frag' tournament, Intel Matrix Storage Technology is a key part of the solution for these and many other disk-intensive applications.

Video content, digital photos, music libraries, realistic 3-D gaming environments and even TV programs recorded live from satellite can all be stored on today's desktop and mobile PCs. With gigabytes of data being transferred to and from the hard drive, storage performance counts. Intel Matrix Storage Technology helps deliver results in this media-rich computing environment.

Intel Chipsets with Intel Matrix Storage Technology

2009-06-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

By providing integrated hardware and software solutions, Intel makes RAID and advanced storage features an affordable reality for desktop and mobile platforms. Based upon technology from Intel's enterprise products and Intel desktop and mobile hardware, Intel continues to provide a leading RAID solution that is both affordable and usable in the digital home and office.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology continues its support of hardware storage features. 3Gb/s support doubles the hard drive to chipset transfer rate, providing additional responsiveness and headroom, eSATA support extends this high performance interface outside of the desktop and mobile systems and provides expanded connectivity. By including support for Serial ATA Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI), Native Command Queuing (NCQ) provides additional performance & faster boot times, hot plug capability to allow drives to be added or removed with the PC running, and staggered spin up to reduce power loads on machines with multiple drives.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology can be found on select platforms based on the Intel® 4 Series chipsets, Intel® 3 Series chipsets, 965, 975X, 955X, 945G ,945P, 945PM and 945GM Express chipsets. Contact the platform manufacturers directly to verify which of their products offer Intel Matrix Storage Technology.

Performance with Protection: Matrix RAID

2009-06-11T05:31:00.000-07:00

For those users who wish to combine the benefits of two RAID levels, matrix RAID is the solution. When using two hard drives, matrix RAID allows RAID 0 and RAID 1 functions to be combined, where critical files can be stored on RAID 1, and RAID 0 can be used for non-critical items such as software. In 2005, the matrix RAID capability was expanded to include RAID 5 and RAID 10. For instance, RAID 5 and RAID 0 can be combined to provide higher performance, capacity, and fault tolerance. A user can edit digital video on a high-performance 4-drive RAID 0 array, then transfer it to RAID 5 for protected storage when completed.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology extends its performance and protection capabilities outside of the PC through native support of eSATA.

Intel® Matrix Storage Technology

2009-06-11T05:29:00.000-07:00

Is Your PC Optimized for Storage Performance and Reliability?

Storage in the Digital World
We live in a digital world. We digitally create, record, edit, share, and save practically everything from the movies we watch, to the pictures we take, to the documents we store. Today's digital home demands we protect this data against loss. Intel® Matrix Storage Technology provides improved performance and reliability for systems equipped with Serial ATA* hard disk drives, today's proven storage solution. Intel® Matrix Storage Technology provides support for features that enable lower power consumption. For mobile systems this provides a longer battery life

The Intel® Matrix Storage Solution
Intel Matrix Storage Technology provides new levels of protection, performance, and expandability in 2008 for desktop and mobile platforms. Whether using one or multiple hard drives, users can take advantage of enhanced performance and lower power consumption. When using more than one drive the user can have additional protection against data loss in the event of hard drive failure.

Valuable digital memories are protected against a hard drive failure when the system is configured for any one of three fault-tolerant RAID levels: RAID 1, 5 or 10. By seamlessly storing copies of data on one or more additional hard drives, any hard drive can fail without data loss or system downtime. When the failed drive is removed and a replacement hard drive is installed, data fault tolerance is easily restored. In this way, Intel Matrix Storage Technology provides the level of data protection necessary for today's digital computing platforms. In the digital office the increased redundancy reduces costly downtime and maintains employee productivity involving the PC.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology can also improve the performance of disk intensive retrieval applications such as editing home video. By combining from two to six drives in a RAID 0 configurations, data can be accessed on each drive simultaneously, speeding up response time on data-intensive applications. Also, due to drive load balancing, even systems with RAID 1 can take advantage of faster boot times and data reads. In the office there are more background tasks such as virus scans, data backup, e-mail, and data processing consuming storage resources. Implementing a basic RAID 1 configuration helps alleviate the bottleneck encountered by running these added tasks.

Intel Matrix Storage Technology provides benefits to users of a single drive as well. Storage performance is improved through Native Command Queuing (NCQ), harnessing the quad DMA controllers in the hardware, and optimized hardware & software tuning. For mobile systems, longer battery life is enabled through Link Power Management (LPM) which can reduce the power consumption of the chipset and SATA* hard drive. To warn of possible hard drive failures, SMART alerting is provided, notifying users when the drive detects potential oncoming failure. For those who wish to later upgrade to RAID capabilities, a system with Intel Matrix Storage Technology pre-installed allows a simplified upgrade to any supported RAID level from a single drive without having to reinstall the operating system or incur any downtime.

Intel® Rapid Recover Technology (Intel® RRT): With the ability to instantly boot off a clone, Intel Rapid Recover Technology (part of Intel Matrix Storage Technology) provides a fast, easy-to-use method for the end user to recover their data and return their system to an operational status.

Services enhanced with Intel® Remote Wake technology

2009-06-11T05:24:00.000-07:00

Cyber link Live
Cyber Link Live: enables remote access to all your digital media (including TV) from anywhere.
Orb
Orb:allows you to remotely access media by streaming content over the internet, eliminating the need to synch your media.

Intel® Desktop Boards enabled for Intel® Remote Wake technology
Media series
Intel® Desktop Board Intel® Express Chipset Socket Form Factor
DG45FC Intel® G45 Chipset LGA775 Mini-ITX
DG45ID Intel® G45 Chipset LGA775 Mini-ITX
Classic series
DG43NB Intel® G43 Chipset LGA775 ATX
DP43TF Intel® G43 Chipset LGA775 ATX

For more, read the Intel® RWT Q&A
The home PC is required to be in sleep mode. The home PC's Internet configuration requires a router connected to the PC via an Ethernet cable. Requires third party applications and services enabled for Intel® Remote Wake technology. Intel does not represent or warrant the third party applications and services featured in this material.

Intel® High Definition Audio (Intel® HD Audio)

2009-06-11T05:10:00.000-07:00

Intel has worked with the industry to develop a new specification for integrated audio that is capable of delivering the features and high-end performance of an add-in audio card. Intel® High Definition Audio (Intel® HD Audio) is capable of playing back more channels at higher quality than previous integrated audio formats. In addition, Intel High Definition Audio has the technology needed to support the latest and greatest audio content. By enabling enhanced usage models, Intel High Definition Audio, available with the Intel® Express Chipsets, will also change how computer users interact with sound.

When AC‘97 was initially developed, users were typically listening to only music and movies with stereo sound. With the success of DVD movies encoded with Dolby* Digital and DTS* multi-channel audio formats, users have become accustomed to listening in full surround sound with anywhere from six to eight speakers. While AC‘97 technology has struggled to keep pace with all these advancements, Intel High Definition Audio is designed specifically for the high-quality multi-channel audio experiences. Newer audio and video encoding/decoding algorithms also enable a higher-quality listening experience.

More and more consumers are moving their computers into the living room or family room so they can enjoy digital music or movies throughout the house on state-of-the-art multi-channel audio systems or big screen TVs. With better speakers connected to their computers, the limitations of current computer sound subsystems, whether integrated or add-in, can degrade the overall digital experience.

Many consumers are also asking for the ability to play two different audio streams through their PC at the same time-perhaps classical music in the study and a movie in the living room. These demands cannot be met with previous audio solutions.

Intel HD Audio delivers significant improvements over previous generation integrated audio and sound cards. Intel HD Audio hardware is capable of delivering the support and sound quality for up to eight channels at 192 kHz/32-bit quality, while the AC‘97 specification can only support six channels at 48 kHz/20-bit. In addition, Intel HD Audio is architected to prevent the occasional glitches or pops that other audio solutions can have by providing dedicated system bandwidth for critical audio functions.

Dolby Laboratories selected Intel HD Audio to bring Dolby-quality surround sound technologies to the PC, as part of their recently announced PC Logo Program. The combination of these technologies marks an important milestone in delivering quality digital audio to consumers. Intel HD Audio is able to support all the Dolby technologies, including the latest Dolby Pro Logic IIx, which makes it possible to enjoy older stereo content in 7.1 channel surround sound.

The Dolby PC Entertainment Experience is available exclusively on Intel-based PCs, including the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor, Intel® Core™2 Duo processor, Pentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology† or Intel® Pentium® D processor combined with the Intel® Express Chipset Family with Intel® High Definition Audio. The Express Chipset family includes:

Intel® G965, P965, Q965, Q963, 946GZ, and 946PL Express Chipsets .
Intel® 975X, 955X, 945G and 945P Express Chipsets.
Intel® 925XE and 925X Express Chipsets.
Intel® 915G, 915P, 915GV, 915GL, 915PL Express Chipsets.
Intel® 910GL Express Chipsets.

Consumers also want the ability to play back two different audio tracks, such as a CD and a DVD simultaneously, which can't be done using current audio solutions. Intel HD Audio features multi-streaming capabilities that give users the ability to send two or more different audio streams to different locations at the same time, from the same PC.

Send a game's sound through 5.1 speakers while the Internet chatting audio is sent through your headset.

Send a DVD movie with 5.1 audio to a surround sound system in the living room, while you listen to digital music and surf the Web on the PC.

Microsoft* has chosen Intel HD Audio as the main architecture for their new Unified Audio Architecture* (UAA), which provides one driver that will support all Intel HD Audio controllers and codes. While the Microsoft driver is expected to support basic Intel HD Audio functions, codec vendors are expected to differentiate their solutions by offering enhanced Intel HD audio solutions. The result is high-quality PC based audio that delivers a seamless convergence of digital entertainment between the PC and consumer electronic devices.

Intel HD Audio also enables enhanced voice capture through the use of array microphones, giving users more accurate speech input. While other audio implementations have limited support for simple array microphones, Intel HD Audio supports larger array microphones. By increasing the size of the array microphone, users get incredibly clean input through better noise cancellation and beam forming. This produces higher-quality input to voice recognition, Voice over IP (VoIP), and other voice-driven activities.

Intel HD Audio also provides improvements that support better jack retasking. The computer can sense when a device is plugged into an audio jack, determine what kind of device it is, and change the port function if the device has been plugged into the wrong port. For example, if a microphone is plugged into a speaker jack, the computer will recognize the error and can change the jack to function as a microphone jack. This is an important step in getting audio to a point where it ‘just works‘-users won‘t need to worry about getting the right device plugged into the right audio jack.

Designed for "glitch-free" audio playback, multi-streaming, jack retasking, and UAA support, Intel HD Audio offers an audio solution for years to come. As one of the many new technologies introduced with the Intel® 955X, 925, 915, and 910 Express chipset family, and now the Intel® 945 Express chipset family, Intel HD Audio enhances the end-user experience and enables the convergence of digital entertainment for both PCs and Consumer Electronics (CE) products.

Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology) requires a computer system with an Intel® Processor supporting Intel HT Technology and an Intel HT Technology enabled chipset, BIOS, and operating system. Performance will vary depending on the specific hardware and software you use. See www.intel.com/products/ht/hyperthreading_more.htm for more information including details on which processors support Intel HT Technology.

Some HD Audio functionality is dependent on actual implementation, controller, and codec.
Intel® processors and/or Intel® chipsets may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request.

Chipset Technologies

2009-06-11T05:04:00.000-07:00

Advanced chipset technologies from Intel help enable revolutionary graphics in gaming and multimedia, high-definition video and audio experiences, and so much more. Crucial to system performance, chipsets from Intel enable advanced processing capabilities and a richer overall PC experience.

Intel® Graphics Technology
Integrated solutions for visually stunning HD video, 3D graphics, and digital home display technologies.
Intel® High Definition Audio
Get high-end audio performance without the need for an add-in audio card.
Intel® Remote Wake technology
Enabling home PCs, enabled services, and mobile devices to communicate with one another remotely over the Internet
Intel® Matrix Storage technology
Improve performance and reliability for systems equipped with Serial ATA* hard disk drives.
Intel® Fast Memory Access (demo)
Significantly improve system performance by optimizing memory bandwidth.
PCI Express*
Get standards-based bidirectional, point-to-point serial interconnect, capable of high-bandwidth data transfers with PCI Express.
Serial ATA
Get high-speed data transfer between your PC and hard disk and optical drives.
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
Get fast connections and automatic configuration to peripherals.

Intel® G35 Express Chipset

2009-06-11T05:02:00.000-07:00

Overview
The Intel® G35 Express Chipset continues the Intel® chipset legacy and extends it to new levels with purpose-built capabilities designed specifically to address the key needs of the enthusiast home user.

The Intel G35 Express Chipset continues the Intel chipset legacy and extends it to new levels with purpose-built capabilities designed specifically to address the key needs of the home user. With advancements in graphics, video, and system responsiveness, the Intel G35 Express Chipset allows your PC to be the center of home computing, communication, and entertainment.

Desktop PC platforms based on the Intel G35 Express Chipset, combined with either the Intel Core 2 Duo or Intel Core 2 Quad processor, and with support for next-generation 45nm Intel® Core™2 processor family, deliver innovative capabilities and usages for digital home consumers and new levels of 3D and media performance while enabling lower power and quieter systems.

Product information:
Features and benefits:
Supports Intel® Core™2 processor with Viiv™ technologyΔ1
Intel Core 2 Processor with Viiv Technology is a set of PC technologies designed for the enjoyment of digital entertainment in the home. The Intel G35 Express Chipset has support for Intel Core 2 Processor with Viiv Technology with the ICH8, ICH8R, and the ICH8DH.
1333/1066/800 MHz system bus
Supports the Intel® Core™2 Duo and Intel® Core™2 Quad processors with Intel® Virtualization Technology.
PCI Express* Interface
The PCI Express 1.1 provides 8 GB/s bandwidth for platform graphics
Intel® Fast Memory Access
Updated Graphics Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) backbone architecture that improves system performance by optimizing the use of available memory bandwidth and reducing the latency of the memory accesses.
Dual-Channel DDR2 Memory Support
Delivers up to 12.8 GB/s of bandwidth and 8 GB memory addressability for faster system responsiveness and support of 64-bit computing.
Intel® Flex Memory Technology
Facilitates easier upgrades by allowing different memory sizes to be populated and remain in dual-channel mode.

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3500
3D enhancements enable greater game compatibility with support for hardware vertex processing, and improved realism with support for Microsoft DirectX* 10, Shader Model 4.0, and OpenGL* 2.0. Intel® Graphics also support the highest levels of the Microsoft Windows Vista* Aero experience.

Intel® Clear Video Technology
Video processing hardware and software delivers enhanced high-definition video playback, sharper images with advanced de-interlacing, and bright media playback with color control.
High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) with HDCP
Built-in HDMI delivers uncompressed HD video and uncompressed multi-channel audio in a single cable, supporting all HD formats including 720p, 1080i and 1080p.

Intel® Matrix Storage Technology
With a second hard drive added, provides quicker access to digital photo, video and data files with RAID 0, 5, and 10, and greater data protection against a hard disk drive failure with RAID 1, 5, and 10. Support for external SATA* (eSATA) enables the full SATA interface speed outside the chassis, up to 3 GB/s.

Serial ATA (SATA ) 3 Gb/s
High-speed storage interface supports faster transfer rate for improved data access.

Mobile Intel® GS45 Express Chipset

2009-06-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

Overview
The mobile Intel® GS45 Express Chipset provides outstanding flexibility for developers of embedded applications by offering excellent graphics, memory and I/O bandwidth, as well as remote asset management capabilities, storage speed and reliability. Mobile Intel® GS45 Express Chipset is a small form factor chipset; however its features and functionality are comparable to mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset.

Features include an improved integrated graphics engine, up to 1066 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB), DDR2 or DDR3 system memory controller, and support for Intel® Active Management Technology¹ (Intel® AMT), Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT), and Intel® Matrix Storage Technology.² The I/O Controller Hub (ICH) delivers outstanding system performance through high-bandwidth interfaces including PCI Express*, Serial ATA, and USB 2.0.

The chipset addresses requirements of a broad range of embedded applications such as interactive clients, gaming platforms and industrial automation equipment. It consists of the Intel® GS45 Graphics Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) and the Intel® I/O Controller Hub 9 M Enhanced SKU (also in small form factor package). The I/O Controller Hub (ICH) delivers outstanding system performance through high-bandwidth interfaces including PCI Express, Serial ATA, and USB 2.0.

The mobile Intel GS45 Express Chipset is designed for and validated with the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor SL9400Δ, SP9300, SU9300, and Intel® Celeron® 722 processor based on 45nm process technology. This platform is part of Intel's comprehensive validation process, which enables rapid deployment and helps developers maximize competitive advantage and minimize development risks.

Product highlights:
Optimized for the 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo processor SL9400 at 1.86 GHz with 17 watts thermal design power (TDP).
Optimized for the 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo processor SP9300 at 2.26 GHz with 25 watts TDP.
Optimized for the 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo processor SU9300 at 1.2 GHz with 10 watts TDP.
Optimized for the 45nm Intel Celeron® processor 722 at 1.2 GHz with 5.5W watts TDP.

Dual-channel memory controller supports non-ECC, 667/800 MHz DDR2 or 800/1066 MHz DDR3 SO-DIMM SDRAM, and provides high-speed memory transactions for greater system performance.

Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, Intel® Clear Video Technology, and graphics core speeds up to 533 MHz improve graphics and 3D rendering performance, and enable high-definition video playback.
Support for numerous display/video output options include VGA, LVDS, DVI, High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) and Display Port with integrated HDCP. Dual independent display support allows for flexible display configurations.
Supported by the Intel® Embedded Graphics Drivers and videos BIOS developed specifically for embedded products and applications.

Intel® Active Management Technology requires a system with a mobile Intel® GS45 Express Chipset, Intel® PRO/1000 PM network connection and appropriate third-party software. The system must be plugged into a power source and connected to a LAN.

Intel® Matrix Storage Technology requires a motherboard with the Intel® 82801IEM (ICH9M-Enhanced) or Intel® 82801IBM (Intel ICH9M) I/O Controller Hub System. RAID controller in the BIOS enabled and the Intel Matrix Storage Technology software driver installed. Please consult your system vendor for more information.

Intel® processor numbers are not a measure of performance. Processor numbers differentiate features within each processor family, not across different processor families. See http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/index.htm for details.

Intel® G45 Express Chipset

2009-06-11T04:54:00.000-07:00

Overview
The Intel® G45 Express Chipset, when combined with the Intel® Core™2 processor family, delivers new technologies and innovative capabilities for digital home consumers. With major advancements in video, graphics, responsiveness and scalability, the Intel® G45 Express Chipset allows your PC to be the center of home computing, communications, and entertainment.

The Intel® G45 Express Chipset, with the next-generation Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD (Intel® GMA X4500HD), includes built-in support for full 1080p high-definition video playback, including Blu-ray* disc movies. This powerful video engine provides users with a rich, new media experience to deliver smooth HD playback without the need for add-in video cards or decoders. Intel® GMA X4500HD comes with Intel® Clear Video Technology, a combination of video processing hardware and software technologies designed to enhance the visual experience.

In addition to video, the Intel® G45 Express Chipset delivers optimized 3D graphics performance and support for Microsoft DirectX* 10, Shader Model* 4.0 and OpenGL* 2.0. These graphics enhancements deliver the performance and compatibility you need for entertaining, everyday game play for the most popular game titles. The Intel® G45 Express Chipset includes support for the latest PC operating systems, including Microsoft Windows Vista*.

Features and benefits
1333/1066/800 MHz system bus
· Supports the Intel® Core™2 Duo and Intel® Core™2 Quad processors with Intel® Virtualization Technology,◊1 and Intel® Celeron® processor.

PCI Express* 2.0 interface
· The PCI Express 2.0 provides 16 GB/s bandwidth for platform graphics.

Intel® Fast Memory Access
· Updated Graphics Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) backbone architecture that improves system performance by optimizing the use of available memory bandwidth and reducing the latency of the memory accesses.

Dual-Channel DDR2 memory support
· Delivers up to 12.8 GB/s (DDR2 800 dual 6.4 GB/s) of bandwidth and 16 GB maximum supported memory size for faster system responsiveness and support of 64-bit computing.

Dual-Channel DDR3 memory support
· Delivers up to 17 GB/s (DDR3 1066 dual 8.5 GB/s) of bandwidth and 8 GB maximum supported memory size for faster system responsiveness and support of 64-bit computing.

Intel® Flex Memory Technology
· Facilitates easier upgrades by allowing different memory sizes to be populated and remain in dual-channel mode.

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD
· 3D enhancements deliver the graphics performance you need for entertaining, everyday games and improved realism with support for Microsoft DirectX* 10, Shader Model* 4.0, and OpenGL* 2.0. Intel GMA X4500HD also supports the highest levels of the Windows Vista* experience.

Intel® Clear Video Technology
· Video processing hardware and software delivers enhanced high-definition video playback, sharper images with advanced de-interlacing, and ProcAmp color controls.

Support for High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), Display Port and DVI
· HDMI delivers uncompressed HD video and uncompressed multi-channel audio in a single cable, supporting all HD formats including 720p, 1080i and 1080p. This chipset also supports the Display Port* interface with up to 2560 x 1600 resolutions.

Intel® High Definition Audio
· Integrated audio support enables premium digital surround sound and delivers advanced features such as multiple audio streams and jack re-tasking.

Intel® Matrix Storage Technology
· With additional hard drives added, provides quicker access to digital photo, video and data files with RAID 0, 5, and 10, and greater data protection against a hard disk drive failure with RAID 1, 5, and 10. Support for external SATA (eSATA) enables the full SATA interface speed outside the chassis, up to 3 Gb/s.

Intel® Rapid Recover Technology
· Intel's latest data protection technology provides a recovery point that can be used to quickly recover a system should a hard drive fail or if there is data corruption. The clone can also be mounted as a read-only volume to allow a user to recover individual files.

Intel® Remote Wake Technology
· Intel Remote Wake Technology allows users to remotely 'wake up' and access the home PC over the Internet while in energy efficient sleep mode. This unique feature enhances many existing usages such as remote media access, remote downloads, Instant Messaging, and receiving VOIP calls.

Intel® Turbo Memory
· Intel's innovative NAND cache designed to improve the responsiveness of applications, application load times, and system boot performance. Intel® Turbo Memory, paired with the Intel® G45 Express Chipset, also allows the user to easily control the applications or data in the cache using the new Intel® Turbo Memory Dashboard interface, boosting performance further.

Serial ATA (SATA) 3 Gb/s
SATA interface designed for use with external SATA devices. It provides a link for 3 Gb/s data speeds to eliminate bottlenecks found with current external storage solutions.
SATA port disable
· Enables individual SATA ports to be enabled or disabled as needed. This feature provides added protection of data by preventing malicious removal or insertion of data through SATA ports. Especially targeted for eSATA ports.

USB port disable
· Enables individual USB ports to be enabled or disabled as needed. This feature provides added protection of data by preventing malicious removal or insertion of data through USB ports.

Intel® Quiet System Technology
· Intelligent system fan speed control algorithms use operating temperature ranges more efficiently to reduce system noise by minimizing fan speed changes

Maximum visual experience

2009-06-11T04:51:00.000-07:00

Intel Graphics help you make the most of your visual experience.
Sharper images
Intel® Clear Video Technology uses advanced de-interlacing technology and ProcAmp* color controls to deliver sharper, more vibrant video images¹.
Sharper Image Quality
By using more advanced de-interlacing techniques, Intel Clear Video Technology delivers clearer, more detailed images by eliminating many of the jagged edges and video artifacts seen when viewing interlaced content.

Color control
The powerful color control functionality of Intel Clear Video Technology ensures videos are not too dark, overly bright, or washed out. By using the ProcAmp* color control settings, Intel Clear Video Technology allows user adjustment of hue, saturation, brightness and contrast.

Advanced display capability
Intel Clear Video Technology allows the PC to connect to a wide range of digital displays by supporting the latest digital display interfaces, including the High-Definition Multimedia Interface* (HDMI) and Displayport*. HDMI carries uncompressed HD video and uncompressed multi-channel audio in a single cable, supporting all HD formats including 720p, 1080i and 1080p.
For PCs using digital TV tuners, Intel Clear Video Technology adds support for Media Expansion or ADD2 cards which enable digital display connections such as DVI and TV-out in a single-card solution.

Intel® Clear Video Technology

2009-06-11T04:42:00.000-07:00

Intel® Clear Video Technology is a combination of video processing hardware and software technologies for a wide range of digital displays.

Enhanced high-definition video playback.
Sharper images.
Precise color control.
Advanced display capability.

Description
This technology is available on all Intel® G45, G43, G41 G33/G31, GM965, GM45, and G35 Express Chipset-based platforms and is designed specifically to meet the changing needs of the digital home user.
Today's digital home consumers are demanding high-quality video playback and sharp image quality from their PC. Intel Clear Video Technology is designed to address these needs with advanced processing capabilities to enable a richer entertainment experience. In addition to stutter-free playback and vibrant color controls, this technology helps delivers crystal clear images without the imperfections and artifacts usually associated with PC-based video content.
In order to get the full experience of Intel Clear Video Technology, you will need a motherboard supporting the Intel® 4 Series Express Chipset and a software player with Intel Clear Video Technology support.
Intel® G45 Express Chipset motherboards
Intel® G43 Express Chipset motherboards
Enhanced high definition playback
Intel Clear Video Technology allows users to experience high-definition video playback on the PC including support for Blue-ray* without the need for expensive add-in video cards or decoders.
Related information:
Intel® G45 Express Chipset.
Intel® GS45 Express Chipset.
Intel® G35 Express Chipset.

Features and benefits:
MPEG-2 decode
Delivers smooth, stutter free playback of MPEG2 content including Blu-ray.
VC1/WMV9 decode
Delivers smooth, stutter free playback of VC1/WMV9 content including Blu-ray.
AVC/h.264 decode
Delivers smooth, stutter free playback of AVC/h.264 content including Blu-ray.
De-interlacing
Enables sharp image quality for standard and high-definition interlaced content.
Sharpness/Noise reduction
Enables sharper, more detailed images.
Cadence detection/ Correction
Allows video content originally encoded at a certain FPS to be viewed without loss of data at another FPS.
Color control
Provides more colorful images with user adjustment of hue, saturation, brightness, and contrast without affecting the desktop.
Digital Display Support (through SDVO)
Digital Video Interface (DVI), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI).
Display support
Display port, HDMI, DVI, HDTV (1080i/p, 720p), Composite, Component, S-Video (via Intel Serial Digital Video Out), TV-out, VGA.
Video scaling: Up to 6x6 scaling.
Dynamic display modes: Flat-panel, wide-screen, digital TV.
Aspect ratio: 16:9, 4:3, letterbox.
Maximum resolution support
Up to 2560x1600 with Display port, 1920 x 1200 with HDMI/DVI, 2048 x 1536 at 75 Hz VGA.
Operating systems support
Microsoft Windows Vista*, Microsoft Windows XP*, Windows XP 64-bit, Media Center Edition*, Windows 2000, Linux*-compatible.

Energize your gaming sessions

2009-06-11T04:41:00.000-07:00

Make the leap into compelling game realism and life-like effects, enabling a cost-effective PC solution with built-in Intel® Graphics Technology.
Intel Graphics Technology supports the latest Microsoft DirectX* and 3D features such as Microsoft Shader Model 3.0* to enable stunning visual effects in games, such as object deformation, motion blurs, and complex animations with realistic shading, lighting, and textures.
These 3D features are supported by the latest Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (Intel® GMA) software drivers.

Intel® Graphics Technology making the most of your visual experience

2009-06-11T04:35:00.000-07:00

Get stunning visual results from your mobile or desktop PC with Intel® Graphics Technology, including the full Microsoft Windows Vista experience, beautiful video playback, and excellent mainstream gaming performance.
Intel Graphics Technology is built right onto your PC's motherboard, so you get excellent speed and functionality at low cost, compared to typical add-in graphics cards.
You want rich, vibrant color. You want smooth, crisp images. You want to play high-definition content at full resolution. You want cool realism when you play games on Microsoft Windows Vista.
Thanks to Intel Graphics Technology, that's not a problem. Whether you're shopping for a new notebook, a desktop PC, or a motherboard for a build-it-yourself system, make sure your PC integrates Intel Graphics Technology.

Invigorate your video:

High-definition video has revolutionized entertainment, and you shouldn't have to settle for playback that looks less than stunning. Intel® Clear Video Technology, a suite of video enhancements built into Intel Graphics available on select chipsets², means you don't have to.Intel Clear Video Technology brings you enhanced video playback, sharper images, precise color control, and advanced support for the latest HD displays. This outstanding video experience is available without an add-in video card

The image on the left is improperly de-interlaced, causing colors to shift. The image on the right, with Intel Clear Video Technology, is sharp and clear.

Intel® I/O Processors

2008-09-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

Many storage, networking, and embedded applications require fast I/O throughput for optimal performance. Intel® I/O processors allow servers, workstations and storage subsystems to transfer data faster, reduce communication bottlenecks, and improve overall system performance by offloading I/O processing functions from the host CPU.

The table below provides a quick overview of the Intel I/O processor family. The Intel® IOP34x family of processors, with Intel XScale® micro architecture, builds on more than a decade of leadership in I/O processor technology.

Features and Benefits

Intelligent I/O Processor

Ø Offloads I/O processing functions, such as I/O interrupt processing and parity calculations, from the CPU. This allows the CPU to streamline application processing and to use other system resources, such as the system bus and memory, more effectively.

On-chip Cache

Ø Improves data throughput by reducing external bus traffic.

Parallel Transaction Capabilities

Ø Eliminates the need to use expensive proprietary controllers to handle parallel transactions and compression algorithms.

Single-chip design

Ø Provides smaller packaging, simplified design, and board space cost savings. Full system-on-a-chip validation.

Comprehensive set of development tools

Ø Faster time-to-market. A complete range of compilers, debuggers, commercial and open source operating systems are available from multiple vendors.

Intel® IXP420 Network Processor

2008-09-26T23:04:00.000-07:00

The Intel® IXP420 network processor is a single-chip integrated processor that meets the needs of high-performance and cost-sensitive applications ranging from home gateways, small office/ home office (SOHO) routers and wireless access points to industrial control and networked imaging applications.

The Intel IXP420 network processor feature set integrates an Intel XScale® core, high-performance PCI interface, USB controller and two 10/100 Ethernet MACs. This network processor enables cost-effective implementations that extend the processing power, low power consumption and flexibility of the Intel® IXP425 network processor into targeted market segments. The Intel XScale core performance levels are 266 MHz, 400 MHz and 533 MHz commercial temperature and 266 MHz extended temperature.

Common IXP4XX Product Line Architecture for Application Flexibility
All IXP4XX processors has a unique distributed processing architecture that speeds development for a range of applications. Each processor combines a high-performance Intel XScale® core with additional Network Processor Engines (NPEs) to achieve wire-speed packet processing performance. See the complete product brief to learn more.

Product Brief

The Intel® IXP420 network processor is a single-chip integrated processor that meets the needs of cost-sensitive and high performance applications.

Product Highlights

Member of the Intel® IXP4XX product line for residential and small-to-medium enterprise (SME) applications
Intel XScale core at 266, 400 and 533 MHz commercial temperature and 266 MHz extended temperature
Two integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet MACs with MII interface for design flexibility and cost effective wire-speed performance
33/66 MHz PCI v2.2 host and option interface for glue less connection of up to four devices
SDRAM controller supports from 8 to 256 Mbytes of SDRAM memory
Low system power consumption (1.0 - 1.5 Watt typical)
USB version 1.1 device controller
Two high-speed UARTS: can support 921 Kbaud each
Sixteen GPIO pins
16-bit configurable expansion bus
Commercial temperature (0° to 70° C).

Block Diagram

Intel® IXP421 Network Processor

2008-09-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

The Intel® IXP421 network processor is a versatile single-chip processor that meets the needs of high-performance and cost-sensitive data and Voice over IP (VoIP) applications ranging from residential gateways, Integrated Access Devices (IADs) and small office IP/PBX systems to industrial control and networked imaging applications.

The Intel IXP421 network processor feature set integrates a 266 MHz Intel XScale core, high-performance PCI interface, USB controller, UTOPIA 2 interface, two high-speed serial (HSS) ports and one 10/100 Ethernet MAC. These features provide developers with the processing power, low power consumption, cost-effectiveness and flexibility to address the needs of data plus VoIP applications.

Common IXP4XX Product Line Architecture for Application Flexibility
All IXP4XX processors have a unique distributed processing architecture that speeds development for a range of applications. Each processor combines a high-performance Intel XScale® core with additional Network Processor Engines (NPEs) to achieve wire-speed packet processing performance. See the complete product brief to learn more.

Product Brief

Product Highlights

Member of the IXP4XX network processor product line for residential and small-to- medium enterprise (SME) applications
Intel XScale® core at 266 MHz provides headroom for customer-defined applications
DSP software library on Intel XScale core supports 2-4 voice channels and reduces system cost
Two high-speed serial (HSS) ports for VoIP SLIC/CODEC or T1/E1
One integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet MAC with MII interface for design flexibility and cost-effective wire-speed performance
UTOPIA 2 interface supports up to four xDSL PHYs (ADSL, G.SHDSL or VDSL)
33/66 MHz PCI v2.2 host and option interface for glue less connection of up to four devices
SDRAM controller supports from 8 to 256 Mbytes of SDRAM memory
Low system power consumption (1.0 - 1.5 Watt typical)
USB version 1.1 device controller
Two high-speed UARTS: can support up to 921 Kbaud each
Sixteen GPIO pins
16-bit configurable expansion bus
Commercial temperature (0° to 70° C).

Block Diagram

Intel(R) IXP422 Network Processor

2008-09-26T22:56:00.001-07:00

The Intel® IXP422 network processor is a versatile, single-chip processor that integrates robust security features with the necessary interfaces, wire-speed performance and processing headroom to meet demanding applications including wireless access points, residential gateways, VPN firewall appliances, SME routers and switches, industrial control and networked imaging applications.

The Intel IXP422 network processor is a member of the IXP4XX product line, providing cost-effective implementations that extend the rich performance and features of the Intel IXP425 network processor into targeted market segments. It offers IPsec-enabled Network Processor Engine (NPE) to accelerate cryptography and authentication algorithms.

Common IXP4XX Product Line Architecture for Application Flexibility
All IXP4XX processors has a unique distributed processing architecture that speeds development for a range of applications. Each processor combines a high-performance Intel XScale® core with additional Network Processor Engines (NPEs) to achieve wire-speed packet processing performance. See the complete product brief to learn more.

Product Brief

The Intel® IXP422 is a single-chip integrated processor that integrates robust security features with wire-speed performance and processing headroom to meet demanding applications including wireless access points, residential gateways, VPN firewall appliances, SME routers and switches, industrial control and networked imaging applications.

Product Highlights

Member of the Intel® IXP4XX product line for residential and small-to-medium enterprise (SME) applications
Intel XScale® core at 266 MHz provides headroom for customer-defined applications
Integrated hardware acceleration of popular cryptography algorithms (SHA-1, MD5, DES, 3DES, AES) for secure applications
Two integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet MACs with Media Independent Interface (MII) for design flexibility and cost-effective wire-speed performance
33/66 MHz PCI v2.2 host and option interface for glue less connection of up to four devices
SDRAM controller supports from 8 to 256 Mbytes of SDRAM memory
Low system power consumption (1.0 - 1.5 Watt typical)
USB version 1.1 device controller
Two high-speed UARTS: can support up to 921 Kbaud each
Sixteen GPIO pins
16-bit configurable expansion bus
Commercial temperature (0° to 70° C).

Block Diagram

Intel® IXP423 Network Processor

2008-09-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

Ideal for Residential and SME VoIP Applications

The Intel® IXP423 network processor is a versatile single-chip processor that meets the needs of high-performance and cost-sensitive data and Voice over IP (VoIP) applications ranging from residential gateways, Integrated Access Devices (IADs) and small office IP/PBX systems to industrial control and networked imaging applications. The Intel IXP423 network processor is a member of the IXP4XX product line, providing cost-effective implementations that extends the rich performance and features of the Intel® IXP425 network processor into targeted market segments.

The Intel IXP423 network processor feature set integrates a 266 MHz Intel XScale core, high-performance PCI interface, USB controller, UTOPIA 2 interface, two high-speed serial (HSS) ports and two Ethernet MACs. These features provide developers with the processing power, low power consumption, cost-effectiveness and flexibility to address the needs of data plus VoIP applications.

Common IXP4XX Product Line Architecture for Application Flexibility
All IXP4XX processors has a unique distributed processing architecture that speeds development for a range of applications. Each processor combines a high-performance Intel XScale® core with additional Network Processor Engines (NPEs) to achieve wire-speed packet processing performance. See the complete product brief to learn more.

Product Brief

Product Highlights

Member of the Intel® IXP4XX product line of network processors for residential and small-to-medium enterprise (SME) applications

Intel XScale® core at 266 MHz provides headroom for customer-defined applications DSP software library on Intel XScale core supports 2-4 voice channels and reduces system cost

Two high-speed serial (HSS) ports for VoIP SLIC/CODEC or T1/E1

Two integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet MACs with Media Independent Interfaces (MII) for design flexibility and cost effective wire-speed performance

UTOPIA 2 interfaces supports up to four xDSL PHYs (ADSL, G.SHDSL or VDSL)

33/66 MHz PCI v2.2 host and option interface for glue less connection of up to four devices

SDRAM controller supports from 8 to 256 Mbytes of SDRAM memory

Low system power consumption (1.0-1.5 Watt typical)

USB version 1.1 device controller

Two high-speed UARTS support up to 921 Kbaud each

Sixteen GPIO pins

16-bit configurable expansion bus

Commercial temperature (0° to 70° C).

Block Diagram

Intel® IXP425 Network Processor

2008-09-26T22:47:00.001-07:00

Intel® IXP425 network processor is a highly integrated, versatile single-chip processor that can be used in a variety of products that need network connectivity and high performance to run their unique software applications. The Intel IXP425 network processor combines integration with support for multiple WAN and LAN technologies in a common architecture designed to meet requirements for high-end gateways, Voice over IP (VoIP) applications, wireless access points, SME routers, switches, security devices, Mini-DSLAMs (Digital Subscriber line Access Multiplexers), xDSL line cards, industrial control and networked imaging applications.

Common IXP4XX Product Line Architecture for Application Flexibility
All IXP4XX processors has a unique distributed processing architecture that speeds development for a range of applications. Each processor combines a high-performance Intel XScale® core with additional Network Processor Engines (NPEs) to achieve wire-speed packet processing performance. See the complete product brief to learn more.

Product Brief

The Intel® IXP425 network processor is a highly integrated, versatile single-chip processor that can be used in a variety of products that need network connectivity and high performance to run their unique software applications.

Product Highlights

Member of the IXP4XX network processor product line for enterprise, small-to-medium enterprise (SME), residential and other networking applications
Intel XScale® core at up to 533 MHz provides headroom for customer-defined applications
Integrated hardware acceleration of popular cryptography algorithms (SHA-1, MD5, DES, 3DES, AES) for secure applications
DSP software library on the Intel XScale core supports 2-4 voice channels and reduces system cost
Two high-speed serial (HSS) ports for VoIP SLIC/CODEC or T1/E1
Two integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet MACs with Media Independent Interface (MII) for design flexibility and cost-effective wire-speed performance
UTOPIA 2 interface with multiple ADSL/G.SHDSL or VDSL support
33/66 MHz PCI v2.2 host and option interface for glue less connection of up to four devices
SDRAM controller supports from 8 to 256 Mbytes of SDRAM memory
Low system power consumption (1.0 -1.5 Watt typical)
USB version 1.1 device controller
Two high-speed UARTS support up to 921 Kbaud each
Sixteen GPIO pins
16-bit configurable expansion bus
Commercial (0° to 70° C) and extended temperature (-40° to +85° C) versions.

Block Diagram

Intel® IXP43X Product Line of Network Processors

2008-09-26T22:43:00.000-07:00

Service providers are always looking for more efficient ways to deliver feature-rich quadruple-play multimedia services for the digital home. The high-performance Intel® IXP43X product line of network processors can help original design and equipment manufactures (ODM/OEMs) create enhanced embedded applications to meet this demand, such as the multi-service residential gateway, VoIP router, SOHO/SMB router, VPN firewall, security appliances, digital media adapter, and IP set top box. The Intel IXP43X product line is an addition to the highly flexible, field-proven architecture of the Intel® IXP4XX product line of network processors, providing enhanced features to help make performance and flexibility even more affordable. It offers a smaller footprint, low power dissipation, DDR2-400 memory controller, and two Hi-Speed USB 2.0 hosts. In addition, it supports easy software and platform migration from current Intel® IXP42X, IXP45X and IXP46X-based designs, supported by specialized Intel® IXP400 Access Layer Software and the Intel® Infrastructure DSP Solution.

Product highlights

integrated Intel XScale® processor; with up to 667MHz core frequency provides ample performance headroom for next-generation network applications

· Two network processing engines (NPEs) with double the amount of integrated instruction and data memory as compared to the Intel® IXP42X product lines of network processors enable service providers to deploy more services using existing infrastructure, thereby shortening TTM and maximizing RoI.

· 16/32-bit DDR1-266MHz or DDR2-400MHz memory controller with ECC capability improves reliability and enhances performance through faster memory technology

· Lower BOM cost by using mainstream, high-volume memory devices and smaller memory footprint through 16-bit memory bus

· Two integrated Hi-Speed USB 2.0 controllers and phys adds multimedia services, such as video conferencing, NAS and print serving to multi-service residential gateways and reduces BOM cost associated with external PCI-based USB 2.0 controller

· Integrated hardware acceleration of popular cryptography algorithms (SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, MD5, DES, 3DES, AES) improves performance of security applications

· Software flexibility and modularity simplify customization for different service providers across different regions, and for future services

· Field-proven DSP software allows codec implementation to be unique to specific service providers and lowers BOM costs by running VoIP on the Intel XScale processor instead of an external DSP chip.

Block Diagram

Intel® IXP455 Network Processor

2008-09-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

The highly integrated, single-chip design of the Intel® IXP455 network processor provides a unique combination of performance, reliability, and flexibility, and extends Intel XScale® technology into a broad range of applications that require built-in communications functionality such as networking gateways, security appliances, interactive clients, test and instrumentation, RFID readers, and networked print imaging application.

Product brief

Features and Benefits

Intel XScale® core available at 266, 400, and 533 MHz

Ø Delivers high MIPS/power consumption ratio and provides ample processing headroom for value-added software features

32-bit 33/66 MHz PCI v2.2-compatible, host and option interface

Ø Provides flexibility to directly connect devices including 802.11x chips, PCMCIA controllers, and cable MAC/PHYs

USB v1.1 device controller

USB v2.0 host controller supports low-speed and full-speed modes only

Ø Industry-standard interface for connection to a wide array of devices

32-bit, DDR1-266 SDRAM interface for 32 MByte to 1 GByte of memory

Ø High-bandwidth memory interface

32-bit expansion bus interface with parity

Master/Target capable

25-bit address

Ø Glue less connection to other devices

Ø External mastering capability allows external devices to communicate with each other and with internal peripherals resulting in shared memory subsystem design and lower system cost

Up to three integrated 10/100 Ethernet MACs with MII interface

Ø Industry-standard networking interface

Ø Multiple ports allow lower system cost, multiple LAN port support, and concatenation of networking modules

UTOPIA-2 interface with multiple ADSL/G.SHDSL or VDSL PHY support

Ø Industry-standard WAN interface

Two High-Speed Serial (HSS) ports for connecting to T1/E1 or SLIC/CODEC

Ø Connects to T1/E1 or SLIC/CODEC for voice support

Silicon functional assistance for Random Number Generation

Ø Accelerates public key exchange, authentication and key generation

Integrated hardware support for popular cryptography algorithms

Ø Acceleration for popular applications such as IPSec and SSL VPNs (AES/ AES-CCM/ 3DES/ DES /SHA-1 /SHA-256 /SHA-384 /SHA-512 /MD-5 /RSA /DSA /Diffie-Hellman algorithms)

Two high-speed UARTs support up to 921 Kbaud each

Ø Provides an interface for debug and passing control information

Integrated I2C and SSP interfaces

Ø Provides serial interface for common embedded and communications application; reduces system BOM

Spread-spectrum clocking

Ø Improves system reliability by reducing EMI

Comprehensive pre-validated, pre-integrated "out-of-the-box" development infrastructures ready for application development using Linux* and VxWorks*

Ø Ease of design and fast time-to-market

544-ball PBGA package

35 mm x 35 mm, 1.27 mm ball pitch

Lead-free packages available

Commercial temperature (0° to 70° C)

Extended temperature (–40° to 85° C)

Ø High-performance package provides improved reliability

Ø Lead-free packages help meet environmental regulations

Ø Extended temperature support for industrial control and automation applications.

Block Diagram

Intel® IXP460 Network Processor

2008-09-26T22:34:00.001-07:00

The Intel® IXP460 network processor is a member of the Intel® IXP46X product line for SME communications and embedded networking applications. The Intel IXP460 is an addition to the Intel® IXP4XX product line of network processors, and extends Intel XScale technology into a broad range of applications that require communications functionality. The consistency of the Intel IXP4XX product line software and hardware architecture protects customers' development investments and speeds development of a standards-based product portfolio.

The highly integrated, single-chip design of the IXP460 network processor provides a unique combination of performance, reliability and flexibility. The IXP460 network processor combines Intel XScale technology with a variety of built-in communications features to support requirements for routers, networking gateways, industrial control and automation applications, interactive clients, test and instrumentation, RFID readers, and networked print imaging applications.

Product Highlights

Member of Intel® IXP46X product line of network processors for small-to-medium enterprise (SME) communications and embedded networking applications

Intel XScale® core speeds of up to 667 MHz provides scalable processing headroom for target applications

Integrated support for time synchronization and ECC memory improves performance and reliability

Consistent Intel® IXP4XX product line software and hardware architecture protects customers’ development investments and speeds deployment of a standards-based product portfolio

Robust development environment minimizes time-to-market

Features and Benefits

Intel XScale® core

Available at 266 MHz, 400 MHz, 533 MHz and 667 MHz

Ø Delivers high MIPS/power consumption ratio and provides ample processing headroom for value-added software features

32-bit 33/66 MHz PCI v2.2, host and option interface

Ø Provides flexibility to directly connect devices including 802.11x chips, PCMCIA controllers and cable MACs/PHYs

USB

USB v. 1.1 device controller

USB v. 2.0 low-speed and full-speed compatible host controller

Ø Industry-standard interface for connection to a wide array of devices

32-bit, DDR1-266 Controller

Optional ECC

32MByte to 1GByte of memory

Ø High-bandwidth memory interface

Ø Optional ECC improves system reliability

32-bit Expansion bus interface with parity

Master/Target capable

25-bit address

Ø Glue less connection to most other devices

Ø External mastering capability allows external devices to communicate with each other and with internal peripherals resulting in shared memory subsystem design and lower system cost

Up to two integrated 10/100 Ethernet MACs with MII/SMII interface

Ø Integrated industry standard LAN/WAN interface lowers system bill of materials (BOM) cost

Hardware support for IEEE1588 protocol

Ø Hardware assistance for Time Synchronization in a distributed control system containing multiple clocks.

Two high-speed UARTs support up to 921Kbaud each

Ø Provides an interfaces for debug and passing control information

Integrated I2C and SSP interfaces

Ø Provides serial interfaces for common embedded and communications application: reduces system BOM cost

Spread spectrum clocking

Ø Improves system reliability by reducing EMI

Comprehensive pre-validated pre-integrated "out-of-the-box" development infrastructures ready for application development using Linux* or VxWorks

Ø Ease of design and fast time-to-market

544-Ball PBGA Package

35mm x 35mm, 1.27mm ball pitch

Lead-free packages available

Commercial temperature (0° to 70° C)

Extended temperature (-40° to 85° C)

Ø High-performance package provides improved reliability

Ø Lead-free packages help to meet environmental regulations

Ø Extended temperature support for industrial control and automation applications.

Block Diagram

Intel IXP4XX Product Line of Network Processors

2008-09-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Scalable performance at low cost

With a single architecture and integrated design, the Intel® IXP4XX product line of network processors delivers scalable performance, reduced power, and lower cost in packages optimized for residential and small/medium enterprise network applications, as well as communications-based embedded applications.

Based on high performance, low power Intel Xscale® technology, IXP4XX network processors deliver a range of data, voice, security and I/O features using a common hardware and software architecture.

Intel® IXP465 Network Processor

The Intel® IXP465 network processor is a member of the Intel® IXP46X product line for SME communications and embedded networking applications. The Intel IXP465 network processor is an addition to the Intel® IXP4XX product line of network processors, and extends Intel XScale® technology into a broad range of applications that require communications functionality. The consistency of the Intel IXP4XX product line software and hardware architecture protects customers' development investments and speeds development of a standards-based product portfolio.

The highly integrated, single-chip design of the IXP465 network processor provides a unique combination of performance, reliability and flexibility. The IXP465 network processor combines Intel XScale technology with a variety of built-in communications features to support requirements for modular routers, security appliances, line cards for telecommunications infrastructure, industrial control and automation applications, interactive clients, test and instrumentation, RFID readers, and networked print imaging applications. The high-performance Intel XScale core provides processing headroom to flexibly support a broad range of OEM applications while minimizing power consumption. Integration of multiple 10/100 Ethernet interfaces and built-in hardware acceleration for time synchronization reduces overall system cost and simplifies development.

Product Highlights

Member of Intel® IXP46X product line of network processors for small-to-medium enterprise (SME) communications and embedded networking applications

Intel XScale® core speeds of up to 667 MHz provides scalable processing headroom for target applications

Built-in LAN and WAN, I2C and Synchronous Serial Port (SSP) interfaces reduce overall system cost and simplify development

Integrated support for cryptography, time synchronization and ECC memory improves performance and reliability

Consistent Intel® IXP4XX product line software and hardware architecture protects customers’ development investments and speeds deployment of a standards-based product portfolio

Robust development environment minimizes time-to-market

Features and Benefits

Intel XScale® core

Available at 266 MHz, 400 MHz, 533 MHz and 667 M

Ø Delivers high MIPS/power consumption ratio and provides ample processing headroom for value-added software features.

32-bit 33/66 MHz PCI v2.2, host and option interface

Ø Provides flexibility to directly connect devices including 802.11x chips, PCMCIA controllers and cable MACs/PHYs USB.

USB

USB 1.1 device controller

USB 2.0 host controller supports low-speed and full-speed modes only

Ø Industry-standard interface for connection to a wide array of

32-bit, DDR1-266 SDRAM interface

Optional ECC

32MByte to 1GByte of memory

Ø High-bandwidth memory interface

Ø Optional ECC improves system reliability.

32-bit Expansion bus interface with parity

Master/Target capable

25-bit address

Ø Glue less connection to most other devices.

Ø External mastering capability allows external devices to communicate with each other and with internal peripherals resulting in shared memory subsystem design and lower system cost>.

Integrated Ethernet MACs

Up to three integrated 10/100 Ethernet MACs with SMII interface

Up to three integrated 10/100 Ethernet MACs with MII interface

Ø Industry-standard networking interface lowers system bill of materials (BOM) cost.

Ø Multiple ports allow:

Ø Lower system cost

Ø Multiple LAN port support

Ø Concatenation of networking modules.

UTOPIA-2 Interface with multiple ADSL/G.SHDSL or VDSL PHY support

Ø Industry standard WAN interface

Two high-speed serial (HSS) ports for connecting to T1/E1 or SLIC/CODECs

Ø Connects to T1/E1 or SLIC/CODECs for voice support.

Silicon functional assistance for Random Number Generation

Ø Accelerates public key exchange and authentication and key generation.

Integrated hardware support for popular cryptography algorithms

Ø Acceleration for popular applications such as IPSec and SSL VPNs (AES/AES-CCM/3DES/DES/SHA-1/SHA-256/ SHA-384/SHA-512/MD-5/RSA/DSA/Diffie-Hellman algorithms).

Hardware support for IEEE1588 protocol

Ø Hardware assistance for Time Synchronization in a distributed control system containing multiple clocks.

Two high-speed UARTs support up to 921Kbaud each

Ø Provides an interface for debug and passing control information.

Integrated I²C and SSP interfaces

Ø Provides serial interfaces for common embedded and communications application: reduces system BOM cost.

Spread spectrum clocking

Ø Improves system reliability by reducing EMI.

Comprehensive pre-validated pre-integrated "out-of-the-box" development infrastructures ready for application development using Linux*, VxWorks*

Ø Ease of design and fast time-to-market.

544-Ball PBGA Package

35mm x 35mm, 1.27mm ball pitch

Lead-free packages available

Commercial temperature (0° to 70° C)

Extended temperature (-40° to 85° C)

Ø High-performance package provides improved reliability.

Ø Lead-free packages help to meet environmental regulations.

Ø Extended temperature support for industrial control and automation applications.

Block Diagram

Intel® IXP2325 Network Processor

2008-09-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

Enables Access and Edge Applications to 1 Gbps

The Intel® IXP2325 network processor extends Intel's fully programmable architecture to new, lower cost/performance points for access and edge applications, including broadband access devices, wireless infrastructure systems, routers and multi-service switches.

To meet today's and tomorrow's demanding data plane performance requirements, the IXP2325 network processor provides a powerful, integrated control plane processor in the same chip. The high-speed core (900 MHz) incorporates advanced I/O and memory features, enabling customers to eliminate an external control plane processor in many applications. Additional hardware-assisted features in the IXP2325 network processor increase performance and simplify development.

Features and Benefits

Two integrated programmable micro engines (MEv2) with 8K instruction program stores running at 600 MHz

Ø Flexible multi-threaded RISC processors can be programmed to deliver intelligent transmit and receive processing, with robust software development environment for rapid product development

Integrated Intel XScale® core:

32 Kbytes - Instruction cache

32 Kbytes - Data cache

At 900 MHz

Ø Embedded 32-bit RISC core for high performance processing of complex algorithms, route table maintenance and system-level management functions. Lowers system cost by eliminating external host processor

Integrated 512 Kbytes L2 push cache performance

Ø Improves CPU performance and MEv2 to Intel XScale core and PCI to Intel XScale core communication

Two unidirectional 32-bit media interfaces (Rx and Tx) programmable as SPI-3 or UTOPIA

Ø Supports industry standard cell and packet interfaces to media and fabric devices; simplifies design and interface to custom ASIC devices

Each path configurable for 4x8-bit, 2x16-bit, 1x32-bit or combinations of 8- & 16-bit data paths

Ø Supports up to 127 ports using a 16-bit UTOPIA-2 MPHY mode

Two integrated Gigabytes Ethernet MACs

Ø Lowers system cost, power and board real estate

Two integrated 10/100 Ethernet MACs

Ø Can be used as debugging ports or control signal ports. Lowers system cost, power and board real estate

Integrated high speed serial controller:

256 HDLC channel controller
(64 channels when configured with dynamic timeslot remap)
ATM-TC

Up to 16xT1/E1/J1 TDM links

Ø Performs inverse multiplexing over ATM (IMA), which provides lower system cost, power and board real estate

Integrated cryptography accelerator

Ø Provides up to 200 Mbps bulk encryption (DES/SHA-1) capability. Supports AES, DES and 3DES encryption algorithms as well as SHA-1 and MD5 hashing algorithms

Two industry standard DDR DRAM interfaces:

One 64-bit + ECC DDR300 low latency channel (up to 2GB) optimized for micro engine use

One 32-bit + ECC DDR300 low latency channel (up to 1GB) optimized for the Intel XScale core

Ø Memory subsystem supports the network processor store-and-forward processing model. Separate memory channels for Intel XScale core and micro engines improves data plane and control plane performance

I/O coherency for Intel XScale core DRAM

Ø Improves performance through accelerated control plane/data plane communications

One industry standard QDR SRAM interface

Ø Provides industry standard interface for memory subsystem for look-up tables and access lists, or co-processors (such as CAM/TCAM

Asynchronous control interface supports 8- or 16-bit slow port devices via 16-bit expansion bus

Ø Provides control interface for connecting to microprocessor port of PHY devices and flash memory. Provides a direct connection to DSP via HPI.

Hardware support for memory access queuing

Ø Simplifies application development and reduces system cost

JTAG support

Ø Improves hardware debug ability

Intel® IXA Software Development Kit (SDK)
Intel® Hardware Development Platform

Ø Industry standard AdvancedTCA* form factor hardware reference design and state of the art development tools improves time to market via robust hardware and software development tools.

1752 ball FCBGA 42.5 mm x 42.5 mm package

Ø Minimizes board layers, providing easier board layer routing and lower cost.

Block Diagram