Intel launches 965 chipset

Intel launched its 965 Express chipset family today at Computex, claiming that along with the new GM GMA X3000 integrated graphics, it can smoothly handle high-definition video and graphics without the need for a graphics card.

The series comprises the Q965, P965 and G965, aimed at business, digital home and home computing systems respectively.

The P965 chipset is available on motherboards from today, while Q965 will be available with the launch of Viiv 1.5 and Q965 ships with Intel VPro technology.

All support Intel’s next generation of Core 2 Duo processors. Intel said that to minimise the increasing imbalance between processor and memory speeds, the P965 uses Fast Memory Access to improve system performance.

FMA is an updated version of the memory Controller Hub. It also supports dual-channel DDR2 at 800MHz, allowing computers to use faster memory.

It also has external Serial ATA (eSata) support, High-definition Audio and Quiet Systems Technology, to reduce noise and heat.

By supporting eSata, a second external hard disk drive can be added and this will transfer data at speeds of up to 3Gbytes/sec, much faster than if connected via USB2 or Firewire.

G965 is very much aimed at people who want home cinema-type PCs, and the chip maker said that its support for the new GMA X3000 graphics media accelerator makes video playback much smoother, even when watching high-definition films.

It adds less than $10 to the price of a system, said a spokesman.

Intel also showed a beta of its Clear Video technology, which the company said gives users much greater control over the look of a film, such as brightness and saturation, without changing settings used on a PC day to day.

It is working with software developers, such as Intervideo, to support the technology in their products.

At Computex , the demo PC used by Intel to show HD content with Dolby Home Theater, which is also supported in the G965 chipset, ran without any graphics card, said the company, relying only on the GMA X3000 integrated graphics on the motherboard.

An Intel spokesman said it was massively threaded so that it could handle many program executions in parallel.

A range of motherboards from the bigger suppliers, such as Foxconn, Abit, MSI and Gigabyte were also on show, and will be available over the coming weeks, once in mass production.

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