Supero SUPER 370SSA, User Manual

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Chapter 1: Introduction
1-13
Introduction
1-2 Chipset Overview
Intel’s 815 chipset is made up of three main components: the Graphics and
Memory Controller Hub (GMCH), the I/O Controller Hub (ICH) and the Firm-
ware Hub (FWH). The GMCH integrates a 133/100/66 MHz system bus
controller, a 2D/3D graphics accelerator (AGP2x/4x) discrete graphics card,
a 133/100 MHz SDRAM controller and a high-speed hub architecture inter-
face that communicates with the ICH. The ICH integrates a UDMA/100 or
UDMA/66 controller, USB controllers and other I/O functions (see below).
The FWH stores both system and video BIOS and includes a Random Num-
ber Generator (RNG).
Graphics and Memory Controller Hub (GMCH)
The GMCH includes the host (CPU) interface, DRAM interface, ICH interface
and 4xAGP interface for the 815 chipset. It contains advanced power
management logic and supports dual channels for DRAM. The AGP 2.0
interface supports 4x data transfers and operates at a peak bandwidth of
266 MB/sec. The MCH host interface bus runs at 133/100/66 MHz.
I/O Controller Hub (ICH/ICH2)
The ICH is the I/O Controller Hub subsystem on the 370SSM, which inte-
grates many of the Input/Output functions of the 815 chipset, including a
two-channel UDMA/66 Bus Master IDE controller. It also provides the inter-
face to the PCI Bus and communicates with the MCH over a dedicated hub
interface. The 370SSA has the more powerful ICH2, which includes UDMA/
100 IDE controllers and two USB controllers that offer 24 Mbps of band-
width across four ports. ICH2 also features an enhanced AC'97 interface
that supports full surround sound for the Dolby Digital Audio used on DVDs.
Firmware Hub (FWH)
The FWH is a component that brings added security and manageability to
the PC platform infrastructure. This device includes an integrated Random
Number Generator (RNG) for stronger encryption, digital signing and secu-
rity protocols. The FWH stores the system BIOS and video BIOS to eliminate
a redundant nonvolatile memory component.