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ATI launches Radeon IGP 9100 chipsets

RS300 and RS300M don't support 800MHz FSB

Update ATI today launched its Radeon IGP 9100 and Mobility Radeon IGP 9100 - aka the RS300 and RS300M - Pentium chipsets as anticipated.

Both chipsets have been designed to support a range of Intel processors, including desktop Pentium 4s and mobile Pentium M chips. The chipsets also support Celeron and mobile Pentium 4-M processors.

Curiously, the chipset supports the Pentium 4's 533MHz frontside bus but not the latest 800MHz FSB. Hyperthreading is supported.

The two IGPs support dual-channel 400MHz DDR SDRAM. AGP 8x support is offered to permit the connection an add-in graphics card, which can operate alongside the chipset's integrated graphics core - at least as far as multi-monitor support goes. The chipset's graphics are not disabled when a card is added, allowing the card to be used to drive extra monitors.

The integrated DirectX 8.1 graphics can use up to 128MB of the host PC's main memory as frame buffer RAM. It provides 16x anisotropic filtering, 4x full-screen anti-aliasing, motion-compensated DVD playback, TV out and HydraVision multi-monitor support. Integrated 300MHz triple 10-bit DACs support resolutions up to 2048 x 1536. The core also routes streamed video through its pixel shaders to improve image quality.

ATI claims the graphics core delivers "up to six times the performance of the fastest competitors in tests using the industry-standard 3DMark03 benchmark from Futuremark" - a dig at Nvidia if there ever was one.

The Mobility Radeon IGP 9100 also features ATI's power management system, PowerPlay. Both chipsets incorporate ATI's IXP South Bridge chips, which provide 10/100 Ethernet, remote wake on LAN, Dolby 5.1-compatible multi-channel audio and up to six USB 2.0 ports. The connection between North and South Bridges is a 266MBps point-to-point interface ATI calls A-Link.

Both chips will ship this summer, said ATI, though it didn't reveal pricing. The company did say, however, that Asus, Compal, CP Technology, FIC, Gigabyte, Lite-on, MSI, PC Partner, Quanta, Shuttle and Sapphire have already agreed to use one or both chipsets in future products.

ATI has been offering Pentium chipsets for some time, but the 9100 series takes IGP graphics to a new level, the better to compete with the likes of VIA and SiS, which together account for around a third of the Pentium chipset business - Intel owns almost all of the rest. VIA has been pushing integrated graphics from S3, the graphics company and erstwhile big league player alongside Nvidia and ATI. SiS recently spun off its own graphics division as Xabre and wants to acquire chip company Trident's graphics business to beef up its offer.

ATI's IGP 9100 family is pitched primarily at both companies, leveraging the strength of ATI's graphics brand. ®

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