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FIC VC15: 845 DDR Motherboard
Features
Info
  • Intel 845D Chipset
  • 6 PCI slots
  • 1 CNR
  • Northwood Ready
  • Optional LAN
  • Onboard Audio
  • 3 DDR Slots


FIC Web Site

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8/10

The Pentium 4 was introduced along with Intel’s 850 chipset, not long ago it was the only solution available for the Pentium 4; obligating people to use it without giving them choice to go with an alternative solution.

The 850 is Intel’s high end solution for the Pentium 4, mainboards based on the 850 cost more and use the more expensive RDRAM memory. In order to spread the Pentium 4 more into the mainstream market, an alternate chipset had to be introduced.

Intel’s 845 is the solution to the mainstream market; the chip costs lower to produce, the new core logic allows mainboard makers to get back to the lower cost four-layer PCB’s and at the same time takes use of the less expensive SDRAM or DDR SDRAM memory. We are looking at the FIC VC15 845D Pentium 4 mainboard.

Intel 845

Intel introduced their 845 chipset earlier this year in order to accommodate their Pentium 4 with a value segment chip which costs less to produce and eliminating the need of using the expensive RDRAM memory. SDRAM PC133 memory was unfortunately the only choice due their agreement with Rambus stating that Intel was not allowed to produce a non RDRAM chipset supporting a memory subsystem with a bandwidth higher than 1.06/GB/sec until 2002, limiting the 845 only to the less powerful SDRAM PC133 memory for now. Intel’s 845/ SDRAM 1.06GB/s clearly wasn’t enough to accommodate the Pentium 4 3.2GB/sec bandwidth, the 845 SDRAM performances was suffering compared to the 850 chip which takes full use of the 3.2GB/s bandwidth.
 
Intel had everything planned in advance, knowing and releasing that the 845/SDRAM would not be the perfect solution for the Pentium 4 due its memory bandwidth limitation wouldn't be smart, they knew that their competitors were working on DDR solutions that would offer similar chipsets in terms of features but with higher potential from its memory subsystem thanks to DDR memory. Intel was from the beginning designing the 845 to support DDR SDRAM, making the 845/SDRAM a temp solution for the Pentium 4 and giving more time for Intel to continue working on their DDR support for the 845.


The South Bridge of the 845, ICH2 is the same as in the high end 850 chip which supports 4 USB 1.1 ports, ATA/100 support, CNR/AMR slots and a 6 channel AC”97 audio along with a LAN interface.

Intel’s 845 built on hub architecture is used on the 845 well. The North Bridge features support for the Pentium 4 processor running at 400MHz Quad Pumped Bus, supports 3GB of memory for PC133 SDRAM or 2GB of PC1600/PC2100 DDR SDRAM along with AGP4X. Note that as Intel positioned the 845 as a value segment, ECC support is not available on the memory controller.

The 845D (DDR) and 845 (PC133) versions offer the same features; both share the same ICH2 hub. The only difference between the 845D (DDR) and the 845 (SDRAM) is the memory controller which features support for DDR SDRAM.













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