The Basics of GeForce 6100 Chipset Series

It has become a laudable tradition among all chipset developers to introduce their new products in series rather than singly. NVIDIA’s new integrated chipsets also come in a variety of flavors that differ in the characteristics and price.

Since it was hard to fit a graphics core into a single semiconductor die along with all the system logic, NVIDIA returned to the classic, two-chip design in the new series. So, GeForce 6100 series chipsets consist of a North Bridge (or IGP ?Integrated Graphics Processor) and a South Bridge (or MCP ?Media and Communication Processor). An IGP and an MCP are linked with an 8-bit 800MHz HyperTransport bus.

The announced family includes two North Bridges, GeForce 6150 and GeForce 6100, and two South Bridges (nForce 430 and nForce 410). The manufacturer currently mentions three combinations of them as available solutions:

• GeForce 6150 with nForce 430 is the most feature-rich platform with hardware High Definition Video support
• GeForce 6100 with nForce 430 is a basic solution for mainstream multimedia systems
• GeForce 6100 with nForce 410 is a low-cost solution with limited connectivity

The formal differences between these combinations are not in fact critical for many applications, as you will see below. Before describing the new North and South Bridges from NVIDIA in more detail, we want to single out a few facts that need our attention.

First, NVIDIA’s new integrated chipsets are the first to be manufactured on 90nm tech process, at TSMC facilities. The advanced tech process ensures low cost of the chips as well as low heat dissipation. Second, the GeForce 6150 and GeForce 6100 IGPs are the first chipsets with an integrated graphics core to support DirectX 9 and Shader Model 3.0. The nearest rivaling product, ATI’s Radeon Xpress 200, supports DirectX 9 and Shader Model 2.0 only. And third, the new integrated chipset from NVIDIA is the company’s first product to support High-Definition Audio (Azalia). This fact is important for the intended application of the chipset in home multimedia PCs.