Anticipation builds as we near end of 1QThe Inq is speculating that NVIDIA's nForce Intel chipset will be making a showing at IDF next week. Back in November we had already learned that the chipset was to go into mass production near the end of 1Q 2005 so the timing is just about right. Some of the architectural details sound very interesting - this will be the first time that HyperTransport will be seen in an Intel based system.
The MCP04 south bridge is connected to the north bridge with an 800MHz Hypertransport link and will provide quite a lot of features. You will get four S-ATA II drive support, four IDE drive support, five PCI slots, 1 Gbit Ethernet Nvidia Active armour network with firewall, ten USB 2.0 slots and 7.1 Audio with SPDIF. Nvidia decided to use Azalia compatible audio, but its next Nvidia south bridge is suppose to bring the Sound Storm audio back.
It's interesting that they are keeping the HyperTransport link at 800Mhz - I wonder if this is just between the north and south bridges or throughout the entire board. The 6200 TurboCache will be dependent on the bandwidth available between components but then again, high end chipsets are not usually going to be paired with entry level graphics cards.Article Link: nForce P4 to debut at IDF
Shuttle Releases NVIDIA nForce4 Small Form-Factor System (2005-02-23)