Motherboards upgrade to dual-core processors

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Oct 6, 2005

Itox has added first Intel dual-core products into its long-life product line.

Itox has added first Intel dual-core products into its long-life product line.

The company's new G7L630-B ATX and G7L330-B microATX motherboards use the Intel 945G Express chipset supported under Intel's Embedded Architecture program, and accept a wide performance-range of Intel LGA775 packaged processors.

This includes the Intel Pentium D Processor featuring dual-core architecture, Intel Pentium 4 processor supporting Hyper-Threading Technology, Intel Celeron D processor and Intel Celeron processor.

"Our customers are pressed to continually improve performance and contain manufacturing costs", said Robert Liao, Vice President, Itox Applied Computing.

"Intel's introduction of a dual-core processor line-priced near parity with previous single-core processors-has enabled Itox to address this market demand".

"The new ITOX G7L630-B and G7L330-B dual-core motherboards ensure higher performance, while holding costs and power budgets".

Optimised for the Intel Pentium D Processor featuring dual-core architecture, the G7L630-B and G7L630-B motherboards retain full compatibility with the Intel Pentium 4 processor, Intel Celeron D processor and Intel Celeron processor.

Maximum performance is leveraged through the use of DDR2 533/667 dual-channel memory, onboard PCI-Express Gigabit Ethernet controller and support for top-of-the-line PCI-Express x16 expansion cards.

Intel dual-core architecture products contain two processor execution units and two 1Mbyte L2 cache memories, enclosed in a single package.

This allows the processing units to operate in parallel, similar to a dual-processor system, but with a lower power requirement.

Software must be rewritten to achieve maximum performance, but applications written to take advantage of Intel Pentium 4 processor hyper-threading are "dual-core ready".

In addition, each new Itox board is RoHS compliant and uses the Intel 945G Express chipset paired with an Intel ICH7 I/O controller hub.

A single LGA775 socket provides support for specified Intel processors with 1066, 800 or 533MHz system bus speed, hyper-threading, Intel EM64T, execute disable bit and dual-core architecture.

The G7L630-B ATX form-factor (12 x 9.6in) motherboard includes: a gigabit LAN port, a serial COM port, eight USB 2.0 ports, onboard 18bit AC97 audio (Realtek ALC202A), onboard Intel GMA950 graphics, four Serial ATA interfaces, an Ultra ATA 100 interface, a FDD interface, four PCI slots, one PCI Express x16 slot, one PCI Express x1 slot, eight digital I/O lines and up to 4Gbyte of DDR2 533/667 dual-channel SDRAM in 4-DDR2 DIMM sockets.

The G7L630-B microATX form-factor (9.6 x 9.6in) motherboard includes: a gigabit LAN port, a serial COM port, eight USB 2.0 ports, one IEEE1394 port, onboard 18bit AC97 audio (Realtek ALC202A), onboard Intel GMA950 graphics, four Serial ATA interfaces, an Ultra ATA 100 interface, a FDD interface, four PCI slots, one PCI Express x16 slot, one PCI Express x1 slot and up to 4Gbyte of DDR2 533/667 dual-channel SDRAM in 4-DDR2 DIMM sockets.

Sample units of the ITOX G7L330-B and G7L630-B products will be available mid-November, with production quantities available in the first quarter of 2006.