Intel's Canterwood Chipset Examined

By Andy Patrizio

April 28, 2003

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For the longest time, Intel was focused almost exclusively on the CPU and let other elements of the computer slide. The end result was modern CPUs with antiquated internals, creating the equivalent of a one lane highway with no speed limit. Sure, data could go fast, but there was no room to move.

Finally, Intel began to realize its mistake and set about working on the front-side bus, memory controller and channel and disk I/O. The CPU bus began to move up in speed, as did memory. Hard drives maxed out at 10,000 RPM and 7,200 not only became usable but a standard. Just a few years ago, a 7,200 RPM drive would be enough to turn your computer into a hotplate. Now they are cooler and more stable.

Thankfully, Intel held off until it had several innovations and put them all into one package, the 875P chipset, commonly called Canterwood. As Jerry has been raving in his column, it is indeed fast and a major improvement over previous chipsets.

The 875P is the replacement for the 850 chipset, which have been on the market for three years now, ancient in computer terms. The 865 chipset, called Springdale, will be the eventual 845 replacement. Springdale is a lower-end chipset for more affordable systems, while 875 is for performance/high end systems. More details on Springdale will come out in May, when it's officially released.

The 875P sports several notable features:

• An 800 MHz system bus
• Performance Acceleration Technology (PAT)
• Dual channel DDR400 memory, together
• Performance AGP 8X graphics interface
• Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)
• Dual independent Serial ATA ports and Hi-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity

The 800 MHz front-side bus is a major jump from the 533 MHz bus. The board is backwards-compatible with all 478-pin P4 chips.

The Performance Acceleration Technology, or PAT, is used to differentiate the 875P from the 865, another chipset that Intel is releasing, which is designed for low- to mid-range machines. PAT improves performance by optimizing memory access between the processor and system memory.

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