ATi are introducing 2 chipsets; the RX480 (ATi Radeon Express 200P) and the RS480 (ATi Radeon Express 200). The difference between them is the non-P version has onboard graphics based upon the native PCI Express X300 technology. This can share the system memory, or have up to 128MB of memory included on board as a dedicated frame buffer. Unless plans change drastically, ATi will be the only chipset vendor to produce an integrated graphics solution for the AMD platform. We predict this will have a good future in the HTPC (Home Theatre PC) market and in budget home machines. This could also bode well with high end workstation users, as when another PCI Express graphics card is plugged in, they can utilise 3 displays as once.

The RX480 North Bridge

The RX480 solution works in the same way as most chipsets, with a separated north and south bridge. This means chipset companies can introduce new features by replacing one or the other, without having the redesign the entire silicon. The saying "don't keep all your eggs in one basket" springs to mind.

Very little has changed since the AGP chipsets. The memory controller is obviously still integrated into the Athlon 64 die, with a 1.6GHz/2GHz HyperTransport link to the north bridge. Much like the nForce 4 there are 20 PCI Express lanes available, with 16 being used for the graphics and 4 being reserved for devices such as Gigabit Ethernet controllers.

The SB400 South Bridge

The north bridge is then linked to the south bridge via a PCI Express interface. Considering the devices being connected to the south bridge, this should be plenty of bandwidth for the moment.

With support for up to 8 USB devices, 4 SATA RAID, 2 IDE RAID and onboard AC97 Audio, this should be fine. But, anyone with a keen eye will have noticed a distinct lack of LAN and firewire support.

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