Intel Hints at Chipset Plans

Intel plans to launch its Grantsdale and Alderwood chipsets for Pentium 4 processors on June 21, according to several motherboard makers at the Computex 2004 exhibition in Taipei. But while the chipsets will soon be available to users, they may not become widely adopted by users until early next year. While an Intel spokesperson declines to comment on when exactly the chipsets will hit the market, William Siu, vice president and general manager of Intel's desktop platforms group, confirms they will soon ship, saying, "Get your wallets ready."

Gearing up for the launch, Intel made public the official names for Grantsdale and Alderwood at Computex. There will be two versions of Grantsdale, the 915P and 915G, alongside one version of Alderwood, the 925X, according to the company. For Intel, the 915 and 925 chipsets mark an important technology transition from AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) to PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) Express for graphics cards. The chipsets also offer support for DDR2 memory and include support for RAID, Intel's High-Definition Audio technology, and a feature that can turn a desktop PC into an access point for an 802.11 wireless network. The 915G will add integrated graphics.

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